Talk Notes: Defining the Web3 Stack (Nader Dabit)

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David Neuman // October 26, 2021
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Nader Dabit transitioned from a Web2 role at AWS to the Web3 world at Edge & Node. He recently gave a talk at Next.js Conf on the tech stack to build with Web3 technologies. Here are some notes that I took on the talk.

Web3

  • The decentralized web
  • Web1: read-only web. You needed to be a dev to create; everyone else was a consumer.
  • Web2: read/write/interactive web. Anyone can be a creator.
  • Web3: web protocols (SSH, TCP, HTTP) + native payments & state
  • Buying on the internet vs building the internet

Attributes of Web3

  • Decentralized
  • Ownership of data/platform
  • Native digital payments
  • Self-sovereign identity
  • Distributed trustless & robust infra
  • Open and public backends
  • Apps compete on interfaces for the same data

Types of Applications

Play-to-Earn Gaming

  • Fortnite. Web3-fying a Web2 game. 100% of money to this game cannot be taken out. Axie Infinity allows players to earn tokens by playing. 95% of money goes back to the users/players of the game.

DeFi & Stable Currencies

  • Inflation and government crisis in Venezuela, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Sudan
  • People need to leave the country because they’ve lost their ability to provide for themselves and their families
  • Stable coins are pegged against the US dollar; people can get paid in these instead of their local currencies
  • 1.7B people are unbanked; Web3 can provide access to this under-served demographic

Social Media

  • Web2: exploitation, advertising, zero ownership. Exchange your content for hearts and likes (gain followers)
  • Web3: tokenization, content ownership (follower gains)

Music

Blogging

Building Web3

API Layer

  • How do you query data from blocks on the blockchain? The data isn’t as easy to query as Web2 databases.
  • The Graph.

Off Chain Data

Video Streaming

  • Livepeer. 10x cheaper than any other centralized alternative.

File Storing

  • IPFS. Decentralized file storage network; not guaranteed how long the files will be stored
  • Arweave.org. Protocol that allows you to store files permanently.

Authentication & Wallets

Core Infrastructure

  • Typical infrastructure + smart contracts
  • Progressive decentralization —> full decentralization
  • Client framework, Blockchain, Client library, Wallet
  • Building a dapp: Ethereum, Avalanche, Solana, Fantom, Near
  • Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM): learning this will allow you to build on several different blockchains
  • Starter Stack: Next.js, Hardhat, Ethersj.js, Metamask
  • https://github.com/scaffold-eth/scaffold-eth
Software Development