Source: Meng Yan’s Blockchain Thoughts
Two days ago I published my outlook on the development situation of Web3 in 2024, in which I proposed the idea of getting rid of “fundamentalist decentralization only”. . Because "decentralization" is a widely spread banner of blockchain, so when I say that we want to get rid of decentralization, it means transcending blockchain. This view comes from me, a long-term evangelist in the blockchain industry, and it does make some people feel surprised. In that article, due to space limitations, I did not elaborate on it. In the past two days, some friends asked me to introduce it. This question is not complicated, so I can expand on it.
My proposition is of course not to abandon the blockchain or return to centralization, but to put them back in place. Blockchain is just a tool in the Web3 toolbox, and decentralization is just a feasible way to solve a certain type of problem. They are not all of Web3, but are just specific tools to solve specific problems. Treating blockchain and decentralization as "two things" has actually restricted the development of Web3 innovation and large-scale applications.
1. Web3 is a trusted Internet based on autonomy
The core value proposition of Web1 is Internet sharing, the core value proposition of Web2 is user experience, and the core value proposition of Web3 The core value proposition is credibility.
The vision of Web3 is to create a trusted value Internet, or a trusted digital economy. What is trustworthy? It is in this network that any two people in the world interact according to rules and contracts. Whether it is economic behavior or social behavior, everything is in order. No one can go back on his word or change his words. The meaning of contract between people We are all equal, and no one can break the contract, lie around, deceive or bully others at will. Everyone can feel very comfortable doing business with anyone they just met a second ago.
Web3 emphasizes security and trustworthiness, but that does not mean that Web2 pursues insecurity and trustworthiness. In fact, Web2 has been working hard for more than thirty years, and security and trustworthiness are also its important goals. So although the core value proposition of Web3 is security and trustworthiness, Web2 can also improve the level of security and trustworthiness. What really distinguishes Web3 from Web2 are the prerequisites.
Web2 is managed, Web3 is autonomous.
The prerequisite for Web3 is autonomy, allowing you to own and control your own accounts, assets, social relationships, and data. The security and trustworthiness of Web3 is based on this premise, which is completely different from Web2.
Web2 can also be used to manage and transmit value, and will also pursue security and trustworthiness. Alipay, WeChat and various online banks all manage value based on the Internet and continuously improve the level of security and trustworthiness. The Internet industry has worked hard for 20 to 30 years to make this system very mature and the user experience is particularly good. However, none of them are autonomous. By using these Internet systems, you are actually handing over your money, your data, your social relationships, and even your account and identity to others. Some Web3 fans say that because it is hosted by someone else, it is not secure. This is not realistic. Objectively speaking, for most people, in most cases, it is safer to put money in the bank than to manage it personally.
However, the hosting structure of Web2 naturally allows, encourages, tempts, and even forces the party in a strong position to breach the contract, cheat, bully, and deceive the weak party. The strong party must work very hard, be very restrained, and be very restrained. Self-discipline and very anti-human endurance can prevent you from breaching the contract, cheating, deceiving, or bullying the weak party. The weak party must be very lucky, very lucky, very lucky, very lucky in order not to be breached, cheated, deceived, Don't be bullied. The use of four "very lucky" words in succession here is not a typo, but because in Web2's natural structure of relying on the strong to bully the weak, the weak party wants to avoid being breached, cheated, deceived, and bullied. There is nothing you can do except pray for luck.
The technical architecture of Web3 naturally protects the rights and interests of both parties in the contract equally. The legal rights of users in Web3 are protected. It is not given by one party out of goodwill or self-discipline, but the entire technical architecture naturally protects the rights of users in Web3. It’s decided whether anyone wants to accept it or not and there’s nothing they can do about it. In the final analysis, this is determined by cryptography, mathematics, and God-given. It does not need to rely on anyone's goodwill or self-discipline.
What exactly does Web3 autonomy mean? Means true freedom in the digital world. We know that in the modern value system, freedom precedes all other values. If a person only emphasizes safety and does not consider freedom, then it is safest to lock himself in the basement and never see the light of day. If a society only emphasizes safety and does not consider freedom, then it is safest to put all people in prison. This is obviously ridiculous. In modern society, without freedom, everything else loses its meaning.
The pre-emptive proposition of Web3 is to ensure the freedom of each user under the contract through digital autonomy. The freedom here mainly means having control over one's own digital private assets (identity, account, property, social relations, data, etc.) based on a fair contract. Web2 absolutely cannot give you this control power. It is determined by the technical architecture, human nature, environment, and the centralized platform’s ability to reduce operating costs and business competition. Couldn't Web2, on the basis of hosting, achieve the highest standards of user freedom and rights by respecting user sovereignty and being super trustworthy? Ideally, it is possible, but this Web2 platform needs to maintain natural principles and eliminate selfish desires. Not only is its technology super invincible, its security capabilities are flawless, it is proficient in various economic theories and the cultural customs of various regions, religions and ethnic groups, but it also has unlimited operational resources and good character. Noble and noble, guarding the powerful and powerful from outside, punishing family thieves internally, not afraid of power when facing superiors, being cold-faced and cold-hearted towards subordinates, being humble and like an ox, being rich and noble cannot be lascivious, being poor and humble cannot be moved, being mighty and unyielding, being able to carry mountains and seas for his principles, Holding the moon to catch turtles, working hard for all sentient beings, the sacrifice is worth it, becoming an immortal or a god, transcending the ordinary and becoming a saint, there is no Amitabha in the world. Does such a platform exist? Of course it doesn't exist. So in the real world, all Web2 platforms either force users to sign a contract of betrayal, or they bully users through various breaches of contract, or more commonly, they have already made you sign a contract of betrayal, and they must continue to break through the stipulations in the contract. You bully.
Because the classical Internet platform cannot give users autonomy, Web3 has to start from scratch. It is not just looking for trouble when it is full and has nothing to do, and deliberately being unconventional.
2. The core technology of Web3 is modern cryptography
To achieve security and trustworthiness on the basis of autonomy, technical support is required. The core technical support of Web3 is modern cryptography. Modern cryptography here refers to the entire cryptography system after asymmetric cryptography.
The reason why people think of Web3 is because of asymmetric cryptography. Without this technology, everyone would remain asleep in digital slavery.
When it comes to cryptography, everyone thinks of the plot in Liu Yunlong’s spy drama. However, the cryptography in those spy war dramas is all symmetric cryptography, and one secret key is mastered by several parties. This kind of cryptography can only be used as communication encryption. Ordinary people do not understand modern cryptography, so they do not know that the application of modern cryptography has long exceeded communication encryption. Its most important and far-reaching application is as an identity authentication mechanism and authorization mechanism in the digital world.
In the asymmetric cryptography system, we require everyone to keep their own private key and never need to show it or share it with others. This makes the private key as identifiable as fingerprints, iris, and DNA. A tool of personal identity too. Web3 can be used as an autonomous system because of the use of private keys. What Web3 discusses is how to achieve secure computing and trusted value management in this autonomous digital system based on asymmetric cryptography, and how to achieve better user experience and higher performance on this basis. and scalability, among other goals.
It is not difficult to understand this. The core technology of Web3 is cryptography rather than blockchain. As long as it is based on modern cryptography mechanisms, uses private keys to identify and prove identities, and uses private keys to control digital assets such as accounts, property, and data, then users' autonomy can be guaranteed, and safe and trustworthy applications can be constructed on this premise. system, then it is Web3.
3. Blockchain is a necessary component of Web3, but not all of it
If the core of Web3 is cryptography, then what role does blockchain play in Web3?
Blockchain is an indispensable basic component in Web3 and represents an important paradigm for Web3 applications. It has the following characteristics:
The core system is run by computing nodes controlled by multiple equal entities. Each node runs exactly the same instance. Each instance synchronizes with each other and backs up each other, achieving macroscopic status consistency.
Ensure permanent and trusted storage of data through the highest degree of redundancy and anti-tampering mechanisms.
All information is fully disclosed, extremely transparent and extremely symmetrical.
All nodes form a consensus based on the same knowledge and information through equal voting.
Within a certain scope, any third party can conduct audits and supervision based on public information.
This paradigm is suitable for application scenarios with the following characteristics:
Data The high value density is worth the high storage and management costs.
The temptation of profits is great, and extreme transparency and open supervision must be adopted to ensure that no one is cheating.
All parties involved can accept the setting of equal rights and symmetrical information.
The entire system software is not large in scale, has low performance requirements, and can sacrifice efficiency for safety and fairness.
The blockchain industry around the world has been looking for and trying for ten years. It turns out that there are not many application scenarios with the above characteristics, only the management of financial assets, Blockchain is suitable for systems with high-value digital assets such as identities, accounts, and key social relationships.
This may sound discouraging, but in fact, it is precisely this type of system that is ubiquitous in Web3. Web3 is to a large extent the Internet of Value, and all Web3 applications are more or less part of value creation, transfer, and derivation. In other words, high-value digital asset management is actually a protocol layer of Web3. The blockchain does not need to do anything. As long as it manages high-value digital assets, it is already one of the indispensable pillar components of Web3 and has become an epoch-making innovation in the entire history of computing technology development. .
However, blockchain is not all of Web3. Technologies that conform to the characteristics of Web3 also include cryptographic technology components such as ZK (also related to blockchain), VC, and DID. These components can cooperate with the blockchain or with the centralized system to solve the problem of safe and trustworthy computing under the premise of autonomy.
4. To be applied on a large scale, Web3 must transcend blockchain
Blockchain is only suitable for solving the problem of high-value digital asset management, although this has given it a shine It has a great status, but it cannot conquer the world. For problems that do not fall into this category, it is very awkward to use blockchain to solve them.
Most problems in the real world do not fall into this category and are not suitable to be solved by blockchain. And this unsuitability is not because the real world is too backward and modern people have too conservative ideas. It’s not suitable now, it won’t be suitable in the future, and it won’t be suitable in the age of AI and robots.
Why do you say that?
First of all, in most cases in the real world, information is not evenly distributed. Not only is it not, but it cannot be evenly distributed. Regarding a thing, some people must know more, some people know less, some people need to study it in depth, form conclusions, and even make decisions, and some people only need to briefly understand it. If we eat from the "big pot of information" and engage in absolutely symmetrical and even distribution of information, there will be no division of labor and collaboration, no exchange, and no modern economy. Like blockchain, everyone must know the same amount about everything and vote together. This is not in line with the way most things in the world are handled.
Secondly, private information exists in most cases in the real world. Private information is different from the asymmetric information distribution mentioned above. Asymmetric distribution of information means that informationis not necessaryfor everyone to know, while private information means informationcannot be known to everyone. The market economy is based on competition, and competition is based on the privacy right of each subject to protect his or her private information from being spread at will. Like blockchain, all information must be forced to be disclosed, which will eliminate competition. This is not true of the real world.
Third, in most situations in the real world, not everyone is equal, there is authority, and absolute fairness and security must be sacrificed for efficiency. Therefore, people establish order, establish division of labor, recognize authority, and authorize some people to make decisions involving multi-party interests within their own contract boundaries and take actions, instead of having to consult with everyone at every step. If, like the blockchain, everything requires voting, then the real world will be difficult to move forward and nothing can be done.
Fourth, in most cases in the real world, the value density of data is not high. It does not need to be permanently stored, it does not need to ensure that it cannot be tampered with, and even the vast majority of data is discarded after use. If, like the blockchain, hundreds or thousands of redundant copies of all data are permanently stored, the cost will be too high for anyone to bear.
So blockchain is indeed not suitable for solving most problems in the world. This is the fundamental reason why the application of blockchain in the real world has not been successful in the past ten years. Blockchain is a diamond, but most jobs in this world are not porcelain work, but hammering various nails. If Web3 has to use the diamond diamond of blockchain to hit nails, it will only hit the wall.
In the past ten years, many blockchain projects have faced conflicts between the real world and the blockchain paradigm. In fact, they have cut their feet to fit the shoes, and dogmatically preached that the set of blockchain rules is "more You cannot accept the "advanced" "future digital economic paradigm" because you have backward thinking. Actually this is bullshit. This set of paradigm rules only applies to the field of high-value digital asset management. As for problems outside this field, as long as the basic rules of the economy still play a role and as long as humans (and AI) still need division of labor and collaboration, they were not suitable to be solved by blockchain in the past and are not suitable to be solved by blockchain in the future. It is also not suitable to be solved by blockchain.
If the only diamond in the Web3 toolbox is blockchain, then the game is over at this point, and Web3 will never be applied on a large scale in the real world. Fortunately, there are other tools for Web3, including ZK, VC, and DID, and there will be more and more tools in the future (MPC? FHE?). These tools can be applied to a wider range of application scenarios, can solve a large number of real problems in the real world, and can serve as a bridge to stitch together real-world applications and the Web3 value layer managed by the blockchain. Combining these tools with blockchain can solve many problems in the real world.
So for Web3 to be applied on a large scale, blockchain alone will definitely not work. Cryptozoology researchers must continue to add new tools to the Web3 toolbox, and Web3 innovators must continue to combine these new tools to solve various real-world problems.
Our confidence that Web3 will definitely defeat Web2 comes from this. Because tools are developing rapidly, more and more problems can be solved, and the value they can embody is becoming more and more certain. We have seen and initially proven this in the innovative practice of ERC-3525 Semi-Fungible Token (SFT), so we are particularly optimistic.
Most people in government, academia, and the classical Internet still look down upon Web3, thinking that it is just a bunch of people speculating on money and not being used in practice. This is a shame, but also a good thing. If the final rise of Web3 cannot cause a cry of "can't see, look down on, can't understand, and it's too late", then it will be too short of pleasure.
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