It’s too early to foretell all of the implications of the current Ethereum blockchain Merge, however it undoubtedly addresses essentially the most frequent (and legitimate) criticism of web3 relating to extreme power consumption. Critics should discover a new motive to oppose ETH, however my hope is that this Merge will result in one thing else: An opportunity for us to additionally merge what’s greatest about Net 2.0 with what’s most enjoyable about web3.
There’s seemingly a rising rift in Silicon Valley, with the standard Net 2.0 trade and the burgeoning web3 ecosystem depicted as being in opposition to one another. And trapped someplace within the center are rising startups.
I’m energetic in all three teams, and I consider most of this controversy is predicated on wild pronouncements and hype by VCs and different evangelists who aren’t builders. Incessant movie star promotions of NFT drops, as an illustration, have contributed to the impression that web3 as a complete is a Ponzi scheme. The truth is, NFTs are solely a small a part of the web3 ecosystem, and, in my opinion, not even essentially the most attention-grabbing or probably transformative.
Whereas Net 2.0 and web3 could seem incompatible, I consider it’s higher to see applied sciences like blockchain and ETH as potential back-end options for scalability challenges that every one corporations face. In an identical means, web3 advocates ought to acknowledge that Net 2.0’s maturity makes it indispensable for a lot of core use circumstances.
Regardless of web3’s nice potential, it’s nonetheless a lot simpler to develop a Net 2.0 app just because the ecosystem is mature and enjoys a big and thriving developer group.
Let’s contemplate a pair examples the place both sides has one thing to contribute:
From web3: An rising revolution in open supply
To seize what’s occurring in web3 growth now, we have now to return to earlier than the Net 2.0 period.
In the course of the dot-com increase, there was various buzz over open supply, Linux and sizzling corporations like Pink Hat. Whereas only a few shoppers would go on to put in Linux as their working system, this buzz helped contribute to one thing equally vital. Within the background, with few folks noticing, Linux shortly grew to become the go-to working system for working the back-end servers of 96.5% of the highest million internet domains — to not point out the large Android market.
