Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss an employee revolt at Coinbase, ads playing when TVs are off, Instagram changes, AR and Stranger Things, a chip maker’s fine being dropped, Microsoft’s sleeping tabs, podcast listening and smart speakers, PS4 new titles going away by 2025, the smart kitchen, and more.
Michael – didnt say where hes calling from or how he listens – but used the AskDave button on our site and asked: “I was wondering if you could explain the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. I know a little bit – enough to dabble a little in purchasing cryptocurrency. But not enough about it to explain it to someone like my parents.”
Michael, the short way to explain it is Web2 is centralized, and Web3 is decentralized. The longer way to explain it is “it’s still a solution looking for a problem.”
Web2 is the internet as you know it today, where you can start a blog, upload a video to YouTube, and generally not just consume, but actively create parts of the internet.
So far the only real world use of Web3 are cryptocurrencies and they have failed to deliver on any of their promises so far. The most popular ones are not really all that private unless used in a very specific way, they don’t work as tax havens anymore, they’re not immune to inflation, the ones pegged to fiat currencies don’t stay pegged, they’re mostly exchanged via a centralized exchange rather than directly, and exchanges are starting to discover why certain fiat economy rules were put into place in the first place and adopting the similar measures.
Web3 should allow people to trade with each other directly, and it should allow for a shared ledger of not just commercial transactions but other information, meaning that there wouldn’t be a central database but a distributed shared ledger that should be more resilient.
In the real world, there haven’t been any solid, widespread use cases for the technology yet outside of cryptocurrencies, and if you check technically inclined forums like Y Combinator’s Hacker News you’ll see lots of skepticism from real world professionals.
Sooner or later we’ll find better real-world uses for a decentralized, tamper resilient ledger, but right now Web3 is mostly used as a term that people use to sell fantasies of the future, not unlike the old promise of an immersive, almost real VR world vs the reality of “oh, I have to sit in one place and my character in the game doesn’t move at all.”
When you participate on the show – anytime 24/7 – and we HEAR you with any consumer tech question, comment, help for another listener, tech rage or just share your favorite App these days … you could win prizes.
The 2022 COOL “Into Tomorrow” HOT Summer Giveaway:
The 2022 COOL “Into Tomorrow” HOT Summer Giveaway: Call anytime, 24/7 – 800-899-INTO (4686), click the Ask Dave button on the website, or use the “Message to Studio” option on the FREE Into Tomorrow App!
All CALLERS — using the AUDIO option on our Free App or 1-800-899-INTO(4686) – automatically qualify to win prizes.
Audio archived for at least 6 months