Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I’ve heard that Web3 is on the way. Which is strange news to me because it means I already missed the Web2, or at least didn’t notice it. I guess I spent the whole time on the so-called Internet, not knowing that it was already Internet number two.
Web3, I heard, is supposed to be a completely different Internet. On the surface it will still look like the Internet we know, you will be able to move through it with a browser. Inside the Web3, however, there will no longer be any centralized computers and no centralized databases. It is no longer dominated by mega corporations like Google or Meta.
Instead, it should run completely decentralized via blockchains, tokens and decentralized autonomous organizations. Everything will be very transparent in this network. And everything is clearly assigned. Perhaps there will no longer be a network at all, but rather a kind of blockhouse that you can only get into with tokens.
It is said that in investor groups you only have to shout “Blockchain!” and “Token!” to be thrown millions. At the moment, Web3 unfortunately mainly shows Ethereum and Bitcoin, i.e. everything that has to do with cryptocurrencies in a broader sense.
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Everything that has to do with crypto is admired. There is even a crypto family. The Dutch Taihutu family put all their money into cryptocurrencies in 2017, now they are rich. Father Didi Taihutu sold his company, house, cars and invested everything in Bitcoin in 2017. The Taihutus are said to have multiplied their wealth sixty-fold. They drive around the world in a Land Rover that has a large Bitcoin logo wrapped around it.
I can imagine what it would have been like if my father sold our house and I had to sit in a Land Rover with him the whole time. I don’t think I would have liked it even if he had been a millionaire.
Father Didi Taihutu even got a Bitcoin symbol tattooed on himself. I find it strange when people tattoo currency symbols. Money, regardless of its consistency, should only be the means to lead a good life, not the end.
Now the Bitcoin family wants to move to Portugal. There you don’t have to pay taxes on the sale of bitcoins. In Portugal, the father wants to build a crypto village. I wouldn’t like to move to Kryptodorf very much if people like that are my neighbors. And I hope that Web3 still has room for dreams other than making a lot of money quickly.
Otherwise I like to stay in Web2, if someone explains to me what that is.
More: Prüfer’s column: The empty cell phone battery, a symbol of finiteness