واژه‌نامه

Web3

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Web3 is a vision of an internet where users control identity, data, and assets through cryptographic keys instead of logging in to centralized platforms. The term was popularized by Gavin Wood (Ethereum co-founder, founder of Polkadot) in a 2014 essay and gained mainstream attention during the 2021 bull market.

A common three-era framing:

  • Web1 (1990s–early 2000s) — read. Static pages, mostly one-way publishing.
  • Web2 (mid-2000s–2010s) — read/write. Users create content, but it lives on company servers (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter/X).
  • Web3 — read/write/own. Users hold keys to their identity, money, and content.

Building blocks

  • Wallets as identity — your address is your login. Standards like Sign-in with Ethereum (EIP-4361) let you authenticate to any dApp without a password.
  • dApps — front-ends that call smart contracts instead of a company's server-side database.
  • Smart contracts — self-executing code on chains like Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Arbitrum.
  • Tokens — fungible (ERC-20) and non-fungible (ERC-721, ERC-1155) on EVM chains; SPL tokens on Solana.
  • DAOs — on-chain governance with token-weighted voting. Examples: MakerDAO/Sky, Uniswap, ENS DAO, Arbitrum DAO.
  • Decentralized storage — IPFS (content-addressed), Arweave (pay-once, permanent), Filecoin, Walrus.

What's actually real

Some Web3 primitives have matured into real infrastructure:

  • Uniswap and other DEXes — billions in daily spot volume
  • ENS — .eth names as the most-used on-chain identity primitive
  • Stablecoins (USDC, USDT, DAI/USDS) — settlement volumes on some days rival major card networks
  • Lending protocols — Aave, Sky, Morpho, Compound
  • L2 rollups — Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Starknet; fees dropped sharply after Ethereum's Dencun upgrade (EIP-4844, March 2024)
  • Farcaster — decentralized social network with meaningful daily active users

Honest criticism

Web3 has vocal critics worth knowing about:

  • Moxie Marlinspike (Signal founder) argued in January 2022 that most dApps still depend on centralized RPC providers (Infura, Alchemy) and centralized APIs (OpenSea). You touch Web3 mostly through Web2 front-ends pointing at a blockchain.
  • Jack Dorsey pointed out in late 2021 that Web3 is not really owned by its users — VCs and their LPs hold the tokens. Funds like a16z have large token allocations in many major protocols.
  • Molly White maintains Web3 is Going Just Great, a running tally of rug pulls, hacks, and scams.

And plenty of 2021-era narratives (metaverse land, decentralized Netflix, NFT profile pictures as social status) largely fizzled out.

Web3 and mining

Mining is the infrastructure layer under all of this. Every Web3 interaction — swapping a token, minting an NFT, voting in a DAO — ultimately gets ordered and secured by miners (Proof-of-Work chains like Bitcoin) or validators (Proof-of-Stake chains like Ethereum). Without that base layer, there is no Web3.

See also

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