NFT flaw? Web 3.0 just had its 'Emperor's New Clothes' moment; what Signal founder said
A respected cryptographer pointed to a critical flaw in NFTs and other ‘distributed’ tech, in a devastating critique.
Web3 or Web 3.0 has become the latest craze for investors who fear missing out. Hotter than bitcoin, harder to understand than artificial intelligence and also painfully abstract, Web 3.0 points to a more transparent, decentralized and equitable web, which in principle is better than an Internet controlled by a handful of mega corporations. This idea for the next iteration of the web is a terrific concept, but one which, like communism, can’t really work in its current form.
The problem is Web 3.0 is not all that distributed nor is it particularly equitable or transparent. It is highly centralized, despite being touted as a decentralized alternative to the web. That was the indictment from Moxie Marlinspike, a highly respected cryptographer and founder of encrypted messaging app Signal, who published a damning blog post about Web 3.0 over the weekend. On Monday, Marlinspike also announced he was stepping down from Signal after a decade of running the company.
To be sure, bigger names have already taken a shot at Web 3.0:
But Marlinspike’s post caused waves in the tech industry for its clear-eyed and technical breakdown of why Web3 wasn’t working as promised.
Web 3.0 broadly refers to a next chapter of the Internet where the apps and services people use are radically restructured to run on blockchain technology, as opposed to company-owned platforms, meaning their inner workings are made more transparent and content creators have opportunities to take a slice of proceeds. It has been pushed hard by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in several Web 3.0-building companies because the
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