---
title: "Digging into Web3"
description: "Web3 is not so much a fact yet but more of a vision and perhaps best explained by looking at what Web1 and Web2 entailed."
url: "https://hoeijmakers.net/web3/"
date: 2022-02-11
updated: 2026-04-21
author: "Rob Hoeijmakers"
site: "hoeijmakers.net"
language: "en"
tags: []
---

# Digging into Web3

Just a quick update. I'm busy going through a course called [Solidity](https://soliditylang.org) in addition to my work as a [producer](https://soulwebacademy.com) and [entrepreneur](https://soulweb.nl). That is a programming language that you use to create Smart Contracts. Such a contract is an algorithmic progression of agreements and is placed on a blockchain as a so-called DApp (decentralized app). Chances are, I've already lost you?

## What is Web3?

Web3 is not so much a fact yet but more of a vision and perhaps best explained by looking at what Web1 and Web2 entailed.

**Web1** was a generation of the web where we all happily created a website and learned about emailing. At its core, it was an almost entirely public good, comparable to clean air, schooling, or infrastructure investment.

> Economists formally think of public goods as ones which are non-rivalrous (meaning we can both consume them) and non-excludable (meaning I can't stop you from using them).

**Web2** is a generation of the web dominated by large, private companies like Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook with platforms of a much more closed nature. And the vast majority of value accrues to the platform itself rather than to the users.

**Web3** is more or less a reaction to the problems of the current web. No privacy, limited openness. Web3 is shaped by decentralization and a crypto token-based network.

## Where Web3 is going

These are still big chunks to me, and it is certainly not yet clear exactly what Web3 will mean. There's debate whether it's going to be a kind of libertine Wild West by design, or whether something of a social or idealistic system is actually going to be possible. For now, it's what you hope to see.

I want to get a better handle on it in the near future, by working on it even more practically, and write about it with enthusiasm because I certainly find it exciting, and I hope you have or get interested in the idea of Web3 as well. I started on the wrong foot by confusing Web3 with Web 3.0, the [semantic web](https://hoeijmakers.net/semantic-web/), and I am happy to be on the right track again.