Explaining Web3: From the blockchain and crypto to NFTs and the metaverse

Last week on Twitter, Jack Dorsey trashed the buzzy tech trend known as Web3, telling consumers to be wary and dismissing it as a tool for venture capitalists hyping cryptocurrency. Tim O'Reilly, the author who coined the phrase Web 2.0 back in 2004, also warned this month it was too early to get excited about Web3. Time Magazine's Person of the Year, Elon Musk, trolled simply, "Web3 sounds like bs."

Is it? Web3 is tech's hottest buzzword. Yet the term is amorphous and evolving rapidly, its meaning often changing depending on who's talking about it. 

Used by enthusiasts to describe the next phase of the internet, Web3 is characterized by internet services and mobile apps rebuilt on decentralized blockchain technology. It often includes a broad spectrum of emerging technology like cryptocurrency, DAOs and digital assets like NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Some enthusiasts also associate gaming, the metaverse and augmented and virtual reality with Web3 because some virtual worlds rely on blockchain-based digital assets.