Web 3.0

 Web 3.0  (AKA #web3 ) is a phrase used to pitch visionary sequels to the popularity of "Web 2.0" to advocate for particular plumbing solutions looking for problems, starting with the "Semantic Web" in the late 2000s, decentralization in the 2010s, and now mostly blockchains & cryptocurrencies; the IndieWeb instead focuses directly on user-centric goals, with technologies only as a means.

Web 3.0 as Semantic Web
The first occurrences of "Web 3.0", occurred during the rise of "Web 2.0" in the mid-2000s, as early as May of 2006, e.g NYT : A 'more revolutionary' Web "Just when the ideas behind 'Web 2.0' are starting to enter into the mainstream, the mass of brains behind the World Wide Web is introducing pieces of what may end up being called Web 3.0."  as SVG + Web 2.0 + "Semantic Web": "'… asking what Web 3.0 is,' Berners-Lee said. '… maybe when you've got an overlay of scalable vector graphics […] on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data …'" Later in 2007 it was documented as equivalent to "Semantic Web" on various roadmaps, graphs, and articles e.g.:


 * https://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/02/steps_towards_a.html
 * also at http://www.novaspivack.com/technology/how-the-webos-evolves


 * https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/science-research/news-from-science/web-30-semantic-web-metadata/
 * http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/web-30-semantic-web-web-20.html
 * "Web 3.0, in my opinion is best defined as the third-decade of the Web (2010 - 2020), during which time several key technologies will become widely used. Chief among them will be RDF and the technologies of the emerging Semantic Web"

Web 3.0 as Mobile
The "Mobile Web" was briefly pitched as Web 3.0:
 * 2012-08-11 TechCrunch: Web 3.0: The Mobile Era "Now we’re entering Web 3.0, which is mobile, and we are in the thick of it."

Although other sources asserted "mobile" as part of the "Web 2.0" era, e.g.:
 * https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b "The rise of Web 2.0 was largely driven by three core layers of innovation: mobile, social and cloud."

Web 3.0 as Artificial Intelligence
Web 3.0 as A.I. has two variants:

Web 3.0 as ML AI
A.I. meaning Machine Learning (ML): the buzzword hype of Machine Learning in the mid to late 2010s made it sound attractive to lump it into Web 3.0 definitions:
 * https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b "Web 3.0 is built largely on three new layers of technological innovation: edge computing, decentralised data networks and artificial intelligence"…"Artificial intelligence & Machine learning algorithms have become powerful enough to create useful, indeed sometimes life-saving, predictions and actions." Emphasis added.

Web 3.0 as Symbolic AI
A.I. meaning machine "understanding" of conceptually representative symbols and their semantics, and thus an evolution of the "Web 3.0 as Semantic Web" definition, but perhaps with a broader phrase, or a phrase with broader appeal than Semantic Web.
 * https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/web-3-0-definition-open-internet-decentralized "Artificial Intelligence: Web 3.0’s semantic web will be enabled by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of decrypting natural language and understanding user intention."

Web 3.0 as Decentralization

 * https://gavwood.com/web3lt.html
 * "Web 3.0, or as might be termed the "post-Snowden" web, is a reimagination of the sorts of things that we already use the Web for, but with a fundamentally different model for the interactions between parties. Information that we assume to be public, we publish. Information that we assume to be agreed, we place on a consensus-ledger. Information that we assume to be private, we keep secret and never reveal. Communication always takes place over encrypted channels and only with pseudonymous identities as endpoints; never with anything traceable (such as IP addresses). In short, we engineer the system to mathematically enforce our prior assumptions, since no government or organisation can reasonably be trusted."
 * https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b
 * "Web 3.0 enables a future where distributed users and machines are able to interact with data, value and other counterparties via a substrate of peer-to-peer networks without the need for third parties."
 * https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/web-3-0-definition-open-internet-decentralized
 * "Web 3.0’s semantic web will be enabled by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of decrypting natural language and understanding user intention"

Web 3.0 as Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
 


 * https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-web-3-0
 * https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/01/06/what-is-web-3-0/?sh=fe8083a58dfb

Noting transition from "semantic web" and "decentralization":
 * https://twitter.com/fanf42/status/1443470387560525827
 * "Sign of our times: web3 used to be used to describe a decentralized, semantic web, where power was retaken by the final user: power on privacy, power on ownership Now it is a flag put on top of ponzi pyramids whose main observable effect are to ruin people, taldnrs and our planet" @fanf42 September 30, 2021
 * Transition and how blockchains are worse for lock-in: https://medium.com/@rossstalker_5939/web3-is-not-decentralisation-its-a-ploy-to-put-crypto-bros-in-charge-c791752e2bb6

Comparison to IndieWeb

 * https://twitter.com/stephenjbell/status/1446590983710388226 "When most people think of decentralizing the Internet, what they really want is to kill Facebook. Honestly, that’s a future I can get behind. #web3 is just the #indieweb." @stephenjbell October 8, 2021


 * https://twitter.com/jaffathecake/status/1460261336169041920 "Right, but Web 2.0 (although the term was a bit of a joke to developers) was describing technologies solving actual problems. Web3 is vague hype. Folks like https://indieweb.org/ share some of the web3 goals, but without the speculative crypto bro stuff." @jaffathecake November 15, 2021


 * https://twitter.com/Cambridgeport90/status/1466866596207497220 "I totally agree with this... I haven't done my post on this yet... but I plan to. (disclaimer: I am a citizen of the IndieWeb, also called Web 3.)" @Cambridgeport90 December 3, 2021


 * https://twitter.com/Cambridgeport90/status/1466869437571686405 "Web 3.0 belongs to the community of the #Indieweb, not to the blockchain addicts who think that their way is the highway. If anybody wants to kill me for saying that, go right ahead, I’ll just rise, along with my fellows, once more. LOL" @Cambridgeport90 December 3, 2021


 * https://mxb.dev/blog/make-free-stuff/ “Despite what web3 claims, it’s possible to “own” your content without a proof of it on the blockchain (see: IndieWeb). It’s also possible to create things just for the sake of putting them out into the world.” Max Böck January 25, 2022

Criticism
Feed:
 * https://twitter.com/search?q=web3%20(unethical%20OR%20fraud%20OR%20fraudulent%20OR%20grift%20OR%20ponzi%20OR%20pyramid)&src=typed_query&f=live

grift greed ponzi pyramid schemes

 * https://twitter.com/blaine/status/1442549601756614659
 * "Yup, this about sums it up. A lot of centralization (re: tech billionaires) exists because "it's easier, and people want it." That doesn't mean that it's necessary or desirable. However, in its current instantiation, most of decentralization a la "web3" is just grift & greed." @blaine September 27, 2021


 * https://twitter.com/mortenmertner/status/1443597799552126981
 * "The term web2 wasn't coined by charlatans cooking up planet-destroying algorithms while pushing crypto pyramid schemes and selling worthless signed pointers to things. Web3 proponents are ridiculed because there is plenty of reason to do so, not because people have changed." @mortenmertner September 30, 2021


 * a few get rich, not solving real problems: https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459920371046490115
 * "imo, treat web3, metaverse, blockchain, etc as radioactive. don't validate this crap.  they're trying to get rich, not solve real problems  just makes me sad that there's so little interest in a real decentralized web, because (by design) corps couldn't profit off of it" @eevee November 14, 2021

recreates power disparities with different owners

 * https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459919436702367744
 * "yeah i think this nails it "the REAL problem with feudalism is that *i* should be a lord"  https://twitter.com/roysmeding/status/1459919218292539392" @eevee November 14, 2021


 * https://twitter.com/roysmeding/status/1459919218292539392
 * "their rugged individualism just makes them unable to see any of our current problems as systemic, and so their solution is to just recreate basically the same structures with different people in charge" @roysmeding November 14, 2021

Repeating past mistakes

 * https://twitter.com/buzz/status/1442547588184510468
 * "My thought on the web3 discussion: there is absolutely something interesting with a lot of positive potential there, but if you buy into a bunch of Techno Utopian ideology that blinds you to the fact that power dynamics exist everywhere, you’re simply repeating past mistakes." @buzz September 27, 2021

Discord cancellations due to NFT pre-announcement

 * https://twitter.com/HEYimHeroic/status/1458478611816661003?s=20
 * "Discord's Nitro feedback forum has been absolutely FLOODED with people saying they're cancelling their subscription due to the CEO pointing out NFT integration is coming, and honestly, you love to see it" @HEYimHeroic November 10, 2021

Fragile

 * Criticism thread: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1448009365173125123
 * "There are three non-fraud foundational problems with "web3": 1. No way to reference anything in the real world (oracle problem) 2. Immutable code makes any smart contract its own bug bounty. 3. Everything breaks (more) unless expensive distributed systems are run in perpetuity." @Pinboard October 12, 2021

Not actually decentralization

 * 2021-10-19 Against Web3 and Faux-Decentralization / Despite the hype, Web3 offers fake decentralization and builds upon technology you could build without cryptocurrency.
 * 2021-11-11 Web3 is not decentralization
 * 2022-03-29 "Web3 promises to put the internet into the hands of the people. Don't believe the hype"

Complex slow expensive and unwanted by users

 * Criticism of web3 as "blockchain": 2021-10-04 Web3 Architecture and How It Compares to Traditional Web Apps "… the reality is, there are considerable challenges with blockchains — especially when it comes to developing applications on top of them. The architecture is too complex, there are glaring technical limitations (as pointed out by Dabit), platforms like Ethereum are slow and expensive (not to mention the environmental impacts), and there’s no evidence yet that mainstream users even want blockchain applications."
 * inefficient: https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459918242466578436
 * "they are obsessed with running everything, literally everything, on blockchains, and i do not know why. i don't want the entire web to be inefficiently bittorrented around all the time.  that sounds like a very silly idea?" @eevee November 14, 2021

Lack of consensus on meaning

 * https://twitter.com/samuelgoto/status/1455986355268325376
 * "I'll form an opinion on Web3 as long as three different people agree on what it is." @samuelgoto November 3, 2021

Meaning polluted with buy cryptocurrency

 * Criticism: term is polluted with "buy cryptocurrency" — https://twitter.com/timbray/status/1466842201766313988
 * "Dear world: It is perfectly possible to imagine a radically-decentralized Web and simultaneously disbelieve that basing it on blockchain is necessary or even desirable. But de facto, the term “Web3” now means “buy my cryptocurrency” and is thus polluted, probably beyond repair." @timbray December 3, 2021

Vaporware

 * https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459910748147093507
 * "it is completely wild to me how many people on here are making 100% confident statements about what is made possible by web3, a thing that does not seem to actually exist and right at the same time as facebook releases an AMV about "the metaverse" and pretends it's a product" @eevee November 14, 2021

Violates one web for all
Web3 or any versioning of the web violates the goal and vision of one web for all, as embraced by W3C.
 * https://w3c.social/@w3c/109836177272710553
 * "Do you know why you won't find any mention anywhere on the W3C website of #web3? It does not exist. BOOM! There is one web." @w3c February 9, 2023
 * https://w3c.social/@w3c/109836177272710553
 * ^ also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/w3c/status/1623735796179079169 with very different replies from the Mastodon version
 * "Do you know why you won't find any mention anywhere on the W3C website of #web3? It does not exist. BOOM! There is one web." @w3c February 9, 2023

Humor

 * https://twitter.com/eleven_ty/status/1442566705360691201
 * "it isn’t Web3 unless it comes from the aria live region of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—otherwise it’s just sparkling blockchain" @eleven_ty September 27, 2021