Nine sentences from zero to Web3

What is Web3? Here Are Some Ways To Explain It To A Friend

By James Beck

Rhythm Research Institute

Web3 这个新鲜的专业名词诞生于 2014 年，在一开始，他被用来描述实现去中心化共识的新型协议，而到如今，它已经成为了对公链生态、应用程序甚至设计理念的统称。犹如「我是谁？」这样的哲学问题一样，「什么是 Web3」这个问题很多人都给出了自己的答案，而且似乎每个人的回答都不尽相同。不过，对于一些人来说，这个新鲜的专业名词会让他们觉得很陌生，因此我们撰写了本文，把人们需要了解的关于 Web3 的九大知识点进行了阐释，希望能帮助人们理解何为 Web3.

TL;DR

Web3 is a trendy nickname for the decentralized web.  

2, Web1 read information, Web2 read + write information, Web3 read, write, own information.  

Web3 is the currency layer of the Internet.  

Web3 is the identity layer of the Internet.  

Web3 is a response to social networks that don't protect our data and make money by selling it.

6. Web3 is a way for artists and creators to own not only what they create on the platform, but the platform itself.  

Web3 is the new incentive mode of the Internet.  

Web3 makes it easy to set up cooperative ownership and governance structures.  

Web3 is still not completely decentralized.

Web3 是去中心化网络的新潮昵称

自 2015 年以来，ConsenSys 的创始人兼首席执行官 Joseph Lubin 一直在做讲座、写文章，支持团队建设 Web3 和去中心化网络。Web3 哲学一直是指导 ConsenSys 所有早期投资和项目的「试金石」。

MetaMask is now the primary way to get people to join the Ethereum blockchain and is working with more networks. It's a way to safely generate public keys on your phone or computer, but it embodies a new principle of user interaction with the web -- only you can access your accounts and data, and choose what to share and what to hide. Also someoneMetaMask叫做 Crypto 版 consent manager（客户授权管理器）。

When we talk about decentralized networks, we also talk about decentralized stacks of money and identity. Other aspects of decentralized networks such as decentralized storage are just becoming the infrastructure of the stack to do persistent storage (e.gIPFS和 Arweave）、去中心化存储（Golem、W3BCloud 和其他），和去中心化数据索引（Graph Protocol）。

现在，Web3 是 a16z 和其他大型风险投资公司最常关注的赛道，也在推特上充满了冗长的探讨，很多不理解 Web3 的人还在讽刺和嘲笑它。而可以预见的是，在未来，当 Web3 在公共互联网的讨论中占据的声量会变得更大，届时，那些嘲笑 Web3 的人们就又会回过头来学习什么是 Web3。

Web1 只读信息，Web2 读取+书写信息，Web3 读、写、拥有信息

When I asked a Web3 developer friend what he would say about Web3, he said, "Web1 is read-only, Web2 is read-write, and Web3 isread-write-own」。最初的 Web 是建立在开源协议上，如 TCP、IP、SMTP，当然还有 HTTP。一个协议是多个计算机同意相互交流的标准方式。这些基础协议管理着互联网上的信息和信息流，如果你想使用它们的规则建立一个应用程序或服务，你不必为访问付费。

Web2 是使用互联网免费的开源协议建设出来的迭代产物。相比于静态的、只读的 Web1，Web2 带来的重大转变是个人用户开始可以向互联网发布内容。最开始是在 Digg 的留言板上点赞，随后发展出了微博，再到如今 Facebook 上的个人用户超过了 20 亿。而与此同时，另一个微妙的转变也在悄然发生。人们开始觉得与其维护自己的服务器来让自己的网站正常运转，不如把这件麻烦事交给 Web2 公司。而作为交易的另一端，Web2 公司也创造了一个用户数据与行为的孤岛，这份社交图谱对于广告商来说很有价值。在 Web2 的时代，个体用户就是产品。

Web3 ownership means that the platform builders, operators, and users actually own a piece of what they use. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the earliest examples: ETH and BTC are actually in return for honestly keeping the ledger up to date and other contributors who are keeping the network secure. Tok-based networks built on Ethereum and blockchain even introduce new ownership models that are not necessarily the same as collaboration or shareholder equity models. For example, ownership could take the form of tokens, which you get when you provide a service, such as providing liquidity for transactions or voting on governance for the future of the network. The bigger vision is that participants in any network will be able to "own" part of the products and services they use every day.

Web3 是互联网的货币层

互联网最伟大的创新之一是让信息能够在全球范围内得到分发，并且价格低廉、可复制、种类丰富。但是这些标签却与「价值」相对立，根据定义，任何有价值的东西，无论金钱还是资产都应该是稀缺的、难以获得的。Bitcoin 是第一个将稀缺性引入互联网的协议，某种程度上解决了困扰早期数字货币尝试的「双花」问题。双花指的是你可以使用重复的数字货币，同时在两个或更多地方消费。在传统金融领域，银行、信用卡公司和支付处理机构会自行验证交易，以尽量减少双花。对于去中心化的 Crypto，矿工或验证节点做的工作是确保账户不会双花。这具有极其深远的意义，因为验证不再依赖于一个受信任的中心方。只要有互联网连接，任何人都可以参与到点对点网络中并检查账本。社会共识可以保护人们免受试图回滚或审查交易的作恶者的影响。

稀缺性的另一种体现就是是否是同质化，即单个单位是否可以任意互换，而任意互换则意味着你可以用另一个单位替换这一个单位，因为它们具有相同的价值。比如，1 ETH 的价值就是 1 ETH，而非同质化则意味着独特性。NFT 的出现让一些原本不可拥有的东西变得可以被拥有，比如数字艺术、照片、音乐、文本、游戏资产、证书、治理权、通行证等等。而很多人质疑的是「如果我可以直接右键保存在电脑上，它又谈何稀缺呢？」究其原因，其实是因为区块链记录了所有权从一个账户转移到另一个账户的过程。而这也让数字艺术家或虚拟产品有了「原创」这个概念，就像区块链所解决的基础问题一样，防止另一个人声称是其所有者或「双花」。许多人对 NFT 作为证明数字资产来源的方式感到兴奋的原因之一是，由于它们是 Ethereum 上的 token（现在其他区块链上也有很多 NFT），它们与 Web3 生态系统的其他部分可以互操作。它们可以被分割成更小的部分，因此很多人都可以拥有它们；它们可以作为其他去中心化金融服务的抵押品；它们拥有永久版税；它们甚至可以作为互联网身份的基础。

Web3 是互联网的身份层

早期互联网协议中最大的遗漏之一是没有公共和开源的身份层。随着 Web2 的发展，Facebook 和 Twitter 等平台作为闭源应用垄断了这一层。而 Web3 的立场是，你应该在网上拥有自己的身份，并且只有在你想公开信息的时候才能公开部分信息。在实践中，Ethereum 的身份系统是非常基本的。你可以把它视为一个容器，允许其他项目和它相关联。举例来说，权威想了解你的出生日期、地点时，不需要了解其他你不想提供的信息。你的身份也会包括你的交易记录，金融机构可以了解这些而不需要你提供生日和出生地。此外，你在一个社交网络上发展的数字身份可以移植到其他网络。

在今天的实用场景中，Web3 世界最接近通用身份层的东西是 Ethereum 域名服务（ENS）。通过 ENS，你可以购买一个独特的域名，而这个域名是使用 ERC-721 Token 标准的 NFT，然后你可以把它链接到你的 Ethereum 地址上。ENS 让 Ethereum 地址变得可读，之后它又被用作是一种空投 NFT、炫耀 token 持仓或 NFT 藏品的更便捷的方式，并且能展示出你在治理投票时选择了什么。向他人彰显出你很「了解」Web3 其实是一件很有吸引力的事情，这也许就是为什么帕里斯·希尔顿、沙奎·奥尼尔等人都把自己的推特用户名改成了 ENS 域名。不过，就像早期的互联网协议一样，ENS 没有早期投资者，协议本身是去中心化的，并给予开放标准。

3Box LabsOther services like IDX and self. ID allow you to link your wallet and manage your digital identity. You can connect your Ethereum address, existing social media profiles, and other information you want to make public. Like ENS, but more significantly, when people sign up for a new service or platform, they can automatically choose what information and data to share from their personal identity. For now, what drives people to use blockchain digital identities still comes from the Web3 world, such as linking your Ethereum address to your social profile, but the long-term goal of the Web3 world is to make real world identities such as authority identities proven on the chain.

Web3 是对社交网络不去保护我们的数据安全，反而从中谋取利益这一行为的应对策略

Facebook owns most of the data on your social graph, so even if you shut down the page, that data still lives on Meta's servers. Gavin Wood is the inventor of the term Web3In 2014"Web3.0, or the 'post-snowden' web, is a rethinking of current web activity and introduces a disruptive model for all web participants, "said Ian. If we decide something needs to be made public, we make it public. And if we feel there is something that needs to be agreed upon to be agreed upon, we put it on the list to be agreed upon." The 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that a company collected the personal information of 87 million people and used it to create psychological profiles of voters to sway elections. While it made headlines at the time, data breaches like this happen all the timecommon，波及了数百万名互联网用户。这一切的原因只是因为我们委托公司存储我们的数据，而当之后我们转用其他平台服务时，这些权限早就已经无法撤销了。

还记得我们把 MetaMask 描述成一个 Crypto 版 consent manager（客户授权管理器）吗？Web3 应用的设计原则是，信息是由个人「推送」给可信信源，而不是由应用从掌握你数据的信源获取。比如说，在 Web2 世界中，当你「用谷歌登录」时，应用可能会在你不同意的情况下获取你的个人身份数据。你提供给网络上不同应用数据的透明性，便是社交媒体网络获得主导地位的原因之一——你的个人信息往往有着很高的价值，而在大多数情况下，我们在同意平台服务条款的那一刻就已经将其拱手相让了。

Web3 可以说是对当今互联网平台不断获取用户信息的一项应对措施，有了 Web3 以后，用户就可以自主选择分享或隐藏哪些信息了。

Web3 可以让艺术家和创作者不仅拥有他们在平台上的作品，还能拥有其平台本身

In 2021, it seems everyone is rolling out NFT.DappRadar data shows，NFT 在 2021 年的总交易量达到了 230 多亿美元。对于许多数字艺术家来说，NFT 的出现让其能第一次在真正意义上全职投身于艺术工作。由于 NFT 是一种通用的 Token 格式，你可以通过部署自己的代码或使用 NFT 市场来铸造 NFT。与 Web2 社交网络不同的是，你的 Token 可以在服务平台上购买，并在二级市场上出售，或用于其他游戏和应用。换句话说，NFT 延续了 Ethereum 的特质，是一类可携带、可互操作的价值。

Some of the early NFT markets quickly realized that they were positioned to be more than just a market, but to build Bridges between creators, users, and platforms. In 2021, SuperRare released the RARE Governance Token and created the SuperRare DAO to reward artists and collectors who joined early and, in doing so, encourage community participation in its art curation. SuperRareexplains：「我们希望 Spaces 是社区艺术策展的未来，在 SuperRare 共享品牌和技术的加持下，成为一个策展人、艺术家团体、画廊和社区成员得以聘用艺术家并进行合作拍卖的一个活跃生态系统。」

Other applications on Ethereum are now using tokens to reward people for their contributions to network building and decision management. Even asRedditSuch Web2 social networks are also exploring the use of tokens called "community Points" that allow active contributors to subreddit to "own" part of the social network; DeFi protocols like Uniswap build a consolidation mechanism that incentivize liquidity providers to fund transactions in almost all assets on Ethereum.

Perhaps the biggest threat to the Web2 social networking effect is the benefit of individuals collectively pledging across multiple service platforms across the web. Scott BelskyOnce asked,，「如果这些企业中的每个利益相关者都能受到激励去帮助建立、改进、推广和赞助这些品牌，那么这是否会成为它们与大型企业竞争中的一项优势？」

Web3 是互联网新的赞助模式

The term "creator economy" is used to describe the Internet space and is intended to help creators monetize in new ways. OnlyFans, Twitch, and other platforms promise that users can make money directly from their fans without restrictions, rather than relying on advertising and traffic-centric monetization models. However, unlike Web3 networks, some creators will beRandomly removed from the network，并且不能拥有他们所分享的内容。

The incentive for writers and journalists to earn money directly from their readers has been further strengthened by the emergence of platforms such as Substack, Ghost and Lede over the past year. However, none of these platforms allows writers to use ownership to establish a direct relationship with their fans.MirrorIs a Web3 blog network that allows users to sell their work as NFT and redefine the model of creation and sponsorship through "crowdfunding". The crowdfunding feature allows sponsors to fund an idea by depositing ETH in exchange for tokens that prove your sponsorship, which in turn can be used to join the DAO or receive future returns from publications. Tokens are not only useful, they can also prove that you have supported an idea or author, and as more and more people support crowdfunding, tokens will become more valuable. Like New Yorker contributing writer Kyle Chayka, who helps fund Dirt. Xyz with the help of Mirrorsaid: "Subscription is certainly a sustainable business model for many forms of media, but it's not necessarily a good fit for all forms of content or work, but collectors and patrons are a great fit. NFT can support collector and patron relationships, as can the various tokens supported by Mirror, such as ESSAY or Emily Segal'sNOVEL。我希望以后的创作者可以靠 Token 和 NFT 来挣钱，而不仅仅是靠读者或定期付款，而其文章收入也应由创作者与赞助人所共享。」

既然可同质化或不可同质化的 Token 可以在赞助人与艺术家的关系中发挥作用，那么艺术家也应该可以与他们的早期支持者建立直接联系——借助可用于邮件列表、入场券和支付系统的 Ethereum 地址或 ENS 名称集合，无论哪个平台上的艺术家都能与他们的粉丝进行互动。

Web3 让合作治理与所有权结构的建设变得更为简单

If you joined any DAOs in 2021, you've probably joined Telegram or Discord groups with other strangers: voted on DeFi governance initiatives, rightProject fundingMake a decision, gainErykah Badu concertTickets; Join artists and developersLiving plan, collective purchase of the only copy of Wu-Tang Clan's 2015 album Once Upon a Time In Shaolin, and even joint purchaseA printed copy of the United States Constitution。

DAO, or"Decentralized autonomous organizations」，是一个由社区领导的实体，使用 Ethereum 智能合约来建立基础规则并执行商定一致的决定。Ethereum 中一些最大和最早的 DAO 管理着去中心化金融协议不断增长的金库。目前，规模前 20 的 DAO 已经掌握了价值近 105 亿美元的数字资产。

DAO not only serves DeFi, but also many other domains. Media outlets like Bankless and public funding organizations like Gitcoin use DAOs to coordinate, govern, and manage their financial activities. Currently, Web3 has more than1.3 millionName DAO Token holder. A New York Times reporter once quipped that DAO was"Chat rooms with bank accounts」。不过，Web3 吸引人的一点是，它可以迅速聚拢由志同道合的人组成的无领导网上团体，从而共同汇集资本、制定决策。

Web3 并不是每一层都是去中心化的

As any veteran user of the Web3 ecosystem knows, engineers are constantly trying to build decentralized architectures, easy-to-use applications, and scalable infrastructure, and making design trade-offs along the way. Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal, recently wrote in his articleWeb3 exploration experience的博客中写道：「搭建 Web1 的前提是，互联网上的每个人都成为内容的发布者和消费者，同时也是基础设施的发布者和消费者。我们都会有自己的网络服务器、自己的网站、自己的邮件服务器和自己的电子邮箱。然而，这其实并不是人们真正想要的东西——人们并不希望运行自己的服务器（我认为这一点怎么强调都不为过）」。

So, when he learns that most applications of Ethereum call data from trusted API sources, and that the US is runningThere are 5433 full nodes of EthereumAt 40 percent, you shouldn't be too surprised. MetaMask made a similar design decision earlier -- instead of requiring each user to run a self-hosted Ethereum node, they chose to useInfuraTo provide data for Ethereum. This allows developers to focus more on building applications rather than the infrastructure that runs the network. Dan Finlay, founder of MetaMaskwrites：「这种做法可以方便用户使用我们的平台，而无需耗用太多电量来托管节点。与此同时，在平台的使用与推广方面，它也改变了以往的规则，恰好印证了 Moxie 之前所说的：「人们并不想托管他们自己的服务器（因为这会占用整个笔记本的电脑容量）」。

However, that doesn't mean the Ethereum and Web3 communities are still considering itW3BCloudSuch a decentralized data center, or through a series of operationsMove lightweight clients to Eth2To reduce trust at all levels. While MetaMask uses Infura as its default server, it has always allowed users to choose their own blockchain connection. In addition, there isSnaps, the user can choose an alternative to using the server to connect to the wallet. Dan Finlayexplains，「Snap 可以帮助用户运行轻量级客户端、选用如 zk-STARK 链或新型友好语言的替代运行时系统，或者它也可以让用户连接到他们喜欢的中心化服务平台。」

While many teams in the Ethereum community are working to improve centralization, the success of newer, more centralized Crypto networks suggests that users may not care much about these things. However, it is not safe to say that the Web3 infrastructure will not grow further in the future, as more and more people now experience the benefits of a fully decentralized network.  

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