Web1 / Web2 / Web3

A shorthand history of the web: Web1 (roughly the 1990s) was "read-only," a library of static pages; Web2 (mid-2000s onward) became "read-write," dominated by interactive platforms where users create content but companies own it; Web3 proposes a "read-write-own" era built on blockchains, where users control their own identity, data, and value. The framing is influential but contested, and is the central organizing idea this book examines.