The term Web3 is used in the programming and marketing context a lot. But what does it mean?
- What does Web3 mean for a programmer?
- What does Web3 mean for a user?
Ethereum Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Ethereum, the decentralized application platform and smart contract enabled blockchain. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityWeb3 originally meant three different APIs injected into a web context. This was circa 2015-2016.
Web = web context
3 = three different APIs
Web + 3 = web3.
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It tells how applications (developed by a software developer) can communicate with other applications that they have not developed themselves. For example, how your wallet can communicate with #Ethereum is defined by API.
"Context" in this case means simply "within a web page." Any web page could access these APIs and build applications on top of them. These applications become known as decentralised apps, or Dapps. APIs are provided by a browser plugin (usually MetaMask).
The original Web3 APIs were
However today Web3 can mean anything related to blockchain technologies and is mainly used as a marketing term.