Top guy Fred Wilson tells you: Why is Web3 the future?

Original: Why Web3 ?"

Fred Wilson, CO-FOUNDER OF USV

Original compilation: gm, rhythm BlockBeats

Recently, there has been a growing debate about Web2 versus Web3, particularly in the area of large companies controlling users' data ownership, which has attracted widespread attention both inside and outside the industry. Fred Wilson, co-founder of USV (Union Square Ventures), published an article on his personal website about Web3.

Founded in 2003 by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, USV has long been recognized as one of the world's most afic venture capital firms. The agency has invested in numerous Internet startups, and successful exits include unicorns such as Twitter, Tumblr, Zynga, Indeed, etsy and others. Since investing in crypto exchange Coinbase in 2013, USV has ventured into the crypto space and has invested in many high-quality projects including Polychain Capital, Algorand, Protocol Labs and Blockstack.

Next, Rhythm BlockBeats will translate USV's top investment mogul's views on Web3 to see how the unicorn catcher views the current hot Web3.

Over the past month, there have been many debates and conversations about Web2 versus Web3, many of which have been vocal in questioning Web3, but it is also useful to keep the debate and reasonable questioning. But for some Web3 enthusiasts on Twitter, it also reminds me of the missionary process of missionaries who tried to recruit un baptized people to join their belief systems, and frankly, that was too much for me.

Ultimately, Web3 will have to deliver on its promises, which will mean that the things it builds can provide new value to society; if that doesn't happen, Web3 will be the golden oil that some people ridicule. I believe this will not happen, and it is important that it can only be judged if it is verified, and empty talk is meaningless.

And it all comes down to a database that sits behind the application, and if that database is controlled by a single entity, such as some big tech company, then a huge market force goes to the owner or administrator of that database.

If the database is a public, truly open system, not controlled and managed by a single company, and accessible to all, then this market force cannot be built around data assets.

And, you can already see this effect in the fastest growing areas of Web3, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), which has built hundreds of financial applications on Ethereum, all of which share the same database, and users can move from one application to another and keep their data and login credentials stored in the wallet at any time.

But we'll continue this debate until teams build the same experience for a wide range of consumer and business applications, and the good news is that tens of thousands of teams are now building new things on the Web3 stack.

In addition, some of the best entrepreneurs and developers have joined in, and the tools on them are getting better and better, which reminds me of the early days of Web2 from 2001 to 2003. At that time, we were just starting out with USV, and no one was willing to pay for our business blueprints, so we barely raised the first money. But later, we proved that the business scenario we painted was real, and I believe that Web3 will do the same this time.

For more of USV's views on Web3, read: "USV Partners: Tinging the Inevitability of Web3 from the History of the Internet"