The Web3 Book
Bruno Pierri Galvao

The Web3 Book

Making Sense of the Internet's Next Era

Everyone has heard of Web3, crypto, blockchains, NFTs, and DAOs — and almost no one can say, clearly, what any of it actually is. This book answers that question plainly and honestly. It starts from how the internet itself works and builds, step by step, to what Web3 really proposes: an internet where people, not platforms, control their own identity, data, and money.

It is written for the curious and the skeptical alike — neither a sales pitch nor a takedown. Every term is explained in plain language with a real-world analogy, every claim is weighed against the evidence, and the hype is separated from what is genuinely new.

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Parts I and II are free to read here, all seven chapters.

The Web3 Book: Making Sense of the Internet's Next Era
35chapters in seven parts
377sources, cited inline
100terms in plain language
Chapters

What's inside

The book starts with how the internet works and why people think it broke, then builds up to blockchains, tokens, DeFi and DAOs, and ends with the evidence for and against.

Free to readFree for subscribersIn the book

Part I · The Question and Its Framing

  1. 01Introduction: The Question "What Is Web3?" and Why It Resists a Simple AnswerFree
  2. 02A Reader's Primer: Computers, Networks, and Software in Plain LanguageFree

Part II · Historical and Conceptual Genesis

  1. 03The Internet and the World Wide Web: Origins and ArchitectureFree
  2. 04Web 1.0: The Read Era (1990s–early 2000s)Free
  3. 05Web 2.0: The Read–Write Era and the Platform EconomyFree
  4. 06The Discontents of Web 2.0: Centralization, Surveillance Capitalism, and the Data QuestionFree
  5. 07The Etymology and Intellectual History of "Web3"Free

Part III · Technical Foundations, Explained Accessibly

  1. 08Cryptography for Non-Specialists: Hashing, Keys, and Digital SignaturesSubscribers
  2. 09Advanced Cryptography: Zero-Knowledge Proofs and the Privacy FrontierSubscribers
  3. 10Distributed Systems, Trust, and the Byzantine Generals ProblemSubscribers
  4. 11The Blockchain: Data Structure, Ledger, and ImmutabilitySubscribers
  5. 12Bitcoin: The First Working Application of the BlockchainSubscribers
  6. 13Ethereum and Smart Contracts: The Programmable BlockchainSubscribers
  7. 14Consensus Mechanisms: Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, and Their Trade-offsSubscribers
  8. 15Scaling and Connecting Blockchains: Layer-2s, Interoperability, and Multichain VisionsSubscribers

Part IV · The Components of Web3

  1. 16Tokens: Cryptocurrencies, Fungible Tokens, and Stablecoins
  2. 17Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Idea of Digital Ownership
  3. 18Wallets, Keys, and Self-Custody: The Mechanics of "Owning"
  4. 19Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
  5. 20Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and On-Chain Governance
  6. 21The Organization as Protocol: Toward the Trustless Firm
  7. 22Decentralized Identity, Reputation, and Naming
  8. 23Decentralized Storage and Computation
  9. 24Oracles, Bridges, and the Link to the Off-Chain World

Part V · Defining Web3

  1. 25Toward a Definition: "Read, Write, Own" and Competing Framings
  2. 26Web3 as Ideology: Decentralization, Cypherpunk Roots, and the Politics of Trust
  3. 27Disentangling the Terms: Web3 vs. the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) vs. the Metaverse

Part VI · Applications, Evidence, and Critique

  1. 28Use Cases and Case Studies: Finance, Art, Gaming, Identity, and the Public Sector
  2. 29Critiques and Skepticism: Hype, Scams, and Recentralization in Practice
  3. 30Externalities: Environmental, Economic, and Social Dimensions
  4. 31Law, Regulation, and Policy
  5. 32Security, Risk, and the Human Factor

Part VII · Synthesis and Future

  1. 33The State of the Evidence: What Can and Cannot Be Claimed
  2. 34Possible Futures and Open Research Questions
  3. 35Conclusion: A Considered Answer to "What Is Web3?"
Glossary

Every term, defined once and plainly

The glossary is open to everyone. Each entry links to the chapter that explains it.

Blockchain

A shared, continuously growing record of transactions, copied across many computers, in which entries are grouped into blocks that are cryptographically chained together so that altering an old entry would require redoing everything after it. In plain terms, it is a tamper-evident shared notebook that no single party owns or controls.

Smart contract

A program stored on a blockchain that automatically executes its terms when predefined conditions are met, without needing an intermediary to enforce them. The classic analogy is a vending machine: insert the right input and the agreed output is delivered automatically; the term predates Ethereum and was coined by Nick Szabo in the 1990s.

DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

An organization whose rules and finances are governed by software and collective member votes recorded on a blockchain, rather than by a traditional management hierarchy. In principle a DAO lets a global group pool funds and make decisions transparently; in practice, power often concentrates among large token holders (see Governance token).

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

A broad category of financial services — lending, borrowing, trading, earning interest — built from smart contracts on public blockchains, meant to operate without banks or brokers as intermediaries. DeFi promises open, around-the-clock access, but carries risks from software bugs, volatility, and scams.

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

A unique blockchain record that certifies ownership of a particular digital (or sometimes physical) item, such as an artwork, collectible, or credential. Unlike a cryptocurrency, each NFT is one-of-a-kind; importantly, owning the token is not always the same as owning copyright or the underlying file (see ERC-721, Fungible / Non-fungible).

Zero-knowledge proof

A cryptographic method that lets one party prove a statement is true without revealing any of the underlying information — for example, proving you are over eighteen without disclosing your birth date. It underpins both privacy-preserving applications and a leading class of scaling technology known as zero-knowledge rollups (see Rollup, zk-SNARK, zk-STARK).

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About the author

Bruno Pierri Galvao is a software developer who has spent years building in and around the Web3 space. He wrote The Web3 Book out of a simple frustration: the technology is genuinely interesting, but almost everything written about it is either impenetrable jargon or breathless hype. His aim is to explain what is actually happening, clearly, honestly, and without assuming the reader is already an expert.

The author also builds Satsuma, an autonomous system that runs on its own blockchain, and this site is hosted on its domain. The book does not mention Satsuma and does not recommend any project, token or investment. →