The Web Doesn’t Have Version Numbers
You’ve probably heard the term “web3” bandied around quite a bit over the past year or so — along with related terminology like “blockchain”, “crypto” and “NFTs”. If you’re a web developer you’d be forgiven for thinking that this technology is something you need to jump on right away, or risk being left behind. This post by Hidde de Vries explains why we should be cautious about the misleading term “web3”, and not mistake it for some kind of official release. As he writes:
There is no institution that regularly releases new versions of the web, and recently happily announced this one.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to be aware of these new technologies. They are the subject of much debate at the moment, and may or may not prove useful in the long run. But, Hidde argues, there is plenty of the web that is getting on just fine without it, and lots of exciting innovation happening on the web platform itself that have nothing to do with the blockchain.
I hope that “web3” and its associated terminologies don’t become buzzwords that recruiters look for in a CV. For most web development roles, specialist knowledge of this area is completely unnecessary.