Web3 is the new old technology. While all the chat and the hype in yet another technology cycle is all about ChatGPT and its overlord generative AI, there is another revolution that has been brewing even longer.
The Web3 buzzword is known by many, yet really understood by few. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It is the metaverse? Is it crypto?
In this book by G C Cooke (ignore Graham’s use of his initials, it’s worth it), this coming, and already here, wave is nicely interpreted for those who know and those who are yet to know.
Whether it’s FinTech, entertainment, social networks or plain disruption, Cooke lays it out for us in easy-to-read, yet never simplistic, terms. Using heavily the business book of The Innovator’s Dilemma as the template for his ideas, it shows how we will all be affected.
There will be those who will profit by spotting the Web3 wave and those who will proser immensely by riding the wave, while others will sink below the surface, terrified of change, as much as I’m terrified by my overuse of water metaphors.
It also lays out what’s going to happen in Web 4 after explaining how we’re going to get there via the first two iterations. First there are protocols and then there are apps that run on these protocols. Web1.0 and Web3 are the same as are Web2 and Web4. Protocols followed by applications. Same as it ever was.
As somebody who has previously been a lunchtime adopter instead of an early adopter, in this case, as I suggest other readers of this book will find out, I have become an early adopter.
Moreover, there is no use of the C-word here, only explanations of AI and how it has a role to play in Web3. Personally, I think generated AI is the work of the devil (the use of such a term mean the machines have marked me down as a enemy and my days are numbered).
In the interim, before out mutual assured destruction, even by machines or water metaphors, I recommend this book, one that will have you swimming to your next success, come hell or high water. Boom!
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
