Web3

Web3 is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, tokenomics, and privacy-enhancing technologies. The term is sometimes confused with the Semantic Web, as both have sometimes been referred to as "Web 3.0". Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with Web 2.0, in which they say user-generated content is controlled by a small group of companies referred to as Big Tech. The term "web 3.0" as applied to blockchain technology was coined in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and the idea gained interest in 2021 from cryptocurrency enthusiasts, large technology companies, and venture capital firms. The concepts of web3 were first represented in 2013.

Academic surveys describe Web3 as combining smart contract platforms, peer-to-peer networks, and cryptographic mechanisms, while noting trade-offs involving scalability, interoperability, and governance.

Critics have expressed concerns over the centralization of wealth to a small group of investors and individuals, or a loss of privacy due to more expansive data collection. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have argued that web3 only serves as a buzzword or marketing term.

Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 refer to eras in the history of the World Wide Web as it evolved through various technologies and formats. Web 1.0 refers roughly to the period from 1991 to 2004, where most sites consisted of static pages, and the vast majority of users were consumers, not producers of content. Web 2.0 is based around the idea of "the web as platform" and centers on user-created content uploaded to forums, social media and networking services, blogs, and wikis, among other services. Web 2.0 is generally considered to have begun around 2004 and continues to the current day.

Web3 is distinct from Tim Berners-Lee's 1999 concept of a Semantic Web, which was also sometimes referred to as Web 3.0. While the Semantic Web envisioned a web of linked data, web3 in the blockchain context refers to a decentralized internet built upon distributed ledger technologies. Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood first popularized the use of the term Web 3.0 in a blockchain context in 2014. Wood used the term to refer to a "decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain." "Web3" and "Web 3.0" have been used interchangeably by later writers, leading to confusion between the two concepts. In popular and industry usage, "Web 3.0" is sometimes used interchangeably with "web3" to refer to blockchain-based proposals rather than the Semantic Web.

The definition of the term has been described by Bloomberg journalist Olga Kharif as "hazy", but it revolves around the idea of decentralization and often incorporate blockchain technologies, such as various cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Kharif has described web3 as an idea that "would build financial assets, in the form of tokens, into the inner workings of almost anything you do online". Web3 has been proposed as a possible response to the over-centralization of the web in a few Big Tech companies. Web3 could potentially improve data security, scalability, and privacy. According Kharif in December 2021, skeptics say the idea "is a long way from proving its use beyond niche applications, many of them tools aimed at crypto traders". DuPont et al (2024) describe web3 as an umbrella term for NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain which appeals to users who are "not necessarily plugged into the cypher-punk or crypto-anarchist ideals of Bitcoin". Rohn (2025) describes the term as synonymous with "blockchain economy".

In 2019, The Conversation quoted legal scholars discussing concerns over the difficulty of regulating a decentralized web, which they reported might make it more difficult to prevent cybercrime, online harassment, hate speech, and the dissemination of child sexual abuse material . The concept of Web3 has also been described as a part of a cryptocurrency bubble, and as an extension of harmful and short-lived blockchain-based trends such as NFTs. The use of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and blockchains in general also introduce potential harmful environmental effects. Others have expressed beliefs that web3 and the associated technologies are a pyramid scheme.

A policy brief published by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge in March 2022 defined web3 as "the putative next generation of the web's technical, legal, and payments infrastructure—including blockchain, smart contracts and cryptocurrencies."