What is Web3? The internet where what's yours is yours

Three stages of the web

The simplest way to understand Web3 is to set it next to what came before. ethereum.org sums it up in one line: Web1 was read-only, Web2 is read-write, and Web3 will be read-write-own.

Web2 gave us something huge: anyone can publish. But what you publish, your audience and your money live in other people's accounts. If the platform changes its rules, closes your account or goes bankrupt, you lose access. Web3 tries to separate two things that go together in Web2: the service you use and ownership of what you have.

Where the word comes from

In April 2014, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, published a text titled “ĐApps: What Web 3.0 Looks Like”. In it he described Web 3.0 as a reimagining of the things we already do on the internet, but with a different model for the interactions between parties: less blind trust in intermediaries and more rules that anyone can verify.

Watch out for a common confusion: years earlier, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, had used “Web 3.0” to talk about the semantic web, a different idea. When people say Web3 today, they almost always mean blockchains.

What really changes

Ownership

In Web3, a digital asset —a coin, a name, a ticket, an item in a game— is a record on a blockchain that says which address controls it. If the key to that address is yours, the asset is yours: you can move it, sell it or use it in another application without asking for permission.

Identity

Instead of “signing in with” a company, you identify yourself with your wallet. And with a name like yourname.eth, that identity is readable and portable: the same in every application that recognizes it. We explain it in depth in digital identity: your wallet, your ID and the blockchain.

Money

Sending value feels like sending an email: it works around the clock, crosses borders and doesn't depend on a bank's opening hours. Stablecoins, tokens that aim to be worth one dollar, are one of the most widespread uses today. See tokens, stablecoins and NFTs.

Public rules

Smart contracts are programs that anyone can read and that run the same way for everyone. A manager can't change the rule halfway: if it changes, it's with a new contract, in plain sight. See Ethereum, smart contracts and gas.

Coordination

A DAO is a community that decides with votes recorded on-chain and manages a shared treasury. ENS, the .eth naming system, is governed this way: the ENS DAO manages the protocol and its treasury.

The core idea fits in one sentence: in Web2 you rent your place on the internet; in Web3 you can own it.

What doesn't change (and is worth knowing first)

• The responsibility is yours. If you lose your recovery phrase, nobody can reset it. See what a wallet is.
• Scams adapt. Web3 doesn't eliminate fraud: it moves it to malicious signatures, fake sites and promises of returns. See crypto scams in Chile.
• Prices move. Many assets are volatile and can lose all their value.
• Not everything needs a blockchain. If a system works well with a database run by a company everyone trusts, adding a blockchain only makes it more expensive.
• The law still applies. In Chile, crypto services are regulated by the Fintech Law and gains are taxed. See regulation and taxes.

A concrete example: your name on the internet

Today your name on the internet is a different username on every platform: a handle on one network, an email on another, a customer number at your bank. None of them is yours: they are lent to you.

In Web3 you can register yourname.eth. That name lives in your wallet and is yours as long as you renew it; it receives payments; it shows your avatar and your social profiles; and it works in any application that reads ENS. If an application disappears, your name is still there. It is probably the clearest way to see what “owning” means on the internet. How it works under the hood is explained in the last block of this series.

What does it have to do with Chile?

More than it seems. Since 2023, the Fintech Law has regulated platforms that operate with crypto-assets; since 2026, exchanges report their clients' transactions to the SII; the Central Bank is preparing rules for stablecoins and has already tested tokenized instruments; and there are communities building from here. Web3 is no longer a niche topic: it has a regulator, taxes and an agenda of its own.

Where to go next

The next block in the chain explains the piece that makes all of the above possible: what a blockchain is and why it can't be erased. If you'd rather get practical, the guide getting started with Web3 from Chile lays out the first steps.