There are a lot of people that are excited about the emergence of Web 3.0. Web 3.0 is being built on the idea of  decentralization. Technology like the blockchain makes it possible, in theory, to bypass the people in the middle. While that sounds cool in theory, something tells me that is not going to be end of the story.

The dream is to somehow get the benefits of both decentralization (more independence, speed and autonomy) without the added cost (redundancy of effort, slower decision-making).  Organizations have been going through these cycles for decades. They have gone through periods of centralizing then decentralizing and most even trying to create hybrid organizations where you have the best elements of centralization and decentralization.

While things like immutable ledgers and smart contracts are hyped as solutions for all kinds of transactions, the question remains who will write the smart contracts.

So Web 3.0 will great until the centralizers come back in to make it accessible to the rest of us. This is where the big money will be, and this is when everyone will ask what went wrong with Web 3.0.

Maybe Web 3.0 will get more accessible? Maybe the power won’t be quite as concentrated?

But there are still network effects…

Individuals are going to gravitate to where they thing everybody else to get the most benefit.

Small niche communities can be great, but building an audience for anything takes some kind of centralized ‘find and broadcast tool.’

Anybody that controls that tool, ultimately controls that audience. Decentralization can only take you so far.