Opening the Door to the Web 2.5 World

Definitions

Web 1 was the internet for nerdy tech hobbyists living under the ground.

Web 2 was and is the internet with centralized companies and servers giving you - videos (YouTube), a space to meet and greet (Social Media), a space to run your mouth about cool stuff (Hackernoon), name it.

Then Satoshi Nakamoto happened and complicated things a little bit. Because he was a genius, he single-handedly created and launched blockchain technology through the one decentralized monetary protocol we all know - Bitcoin.

So we now have Web 3 - Blockchain technology. Very good for making precious digital stuff like bitcoins or your family’s medical history scarce but everywhere? Yet very secure. For it is heavily fortified through multiple interlinked hashed backups and long 12-word passwords called keys.

But Web 3 does not live in a bubble. It lives alongside Web 2 to form Web 2.5, the average of Web (2+3). Web 2.5 is a good name because we are not fully in the Web 3 world. Personally, I do not think it is possible, and I think we are stuck here for a while.

Web 5 (just 2+3) is a horrible name.

Welcome to my humble abode

I live here in Web 2.5.

Web 2.5 is awesome because it was the breaking of the internet into communities, and more of this is happening.

I currently have one foot in the Bitcoin community and another in the quantum computing community.

It is unorthodox in both camps! But I don’t think Satoshi Nakamoto first read a rules book.

To prevent them from stretching me like a gymnast, which I'm not, I envision creating a new community that merges these two worlds.

BitcoinQIS (QIS for ‘Quantum Information Science’).

I will send you a link one of these days.

Coffee?

So, Bitcoin is a privacy-focused community that I love because it preaches scarce digital money because inflation is theft. DYOR for a month, and you’ll understand my enthusiasm.

Web 2.5 jets in with the creation of Bitcoin (of course), but also a privacy-focussed and decentralized Bitcoiner/cypherpunk messaging site called Nostr, which was a way for Bitcoiners to have somewhere to band together in case Elon or major governments pull the plug on Twitter.

Why Nostr is really a Bitcoiner site is evident from the fact that you can "zap" somebody some satoshis. Not Ethereum or any other altcoin.

Now, Quantum Computing is a public-facing community for its ubiquitous freemium education models. This is how I got in. I was taught great stuff by great people, free of charge.

At the start, it seemed to me that Quantum Computing would be flowing to the Twitter rival Mastodon, but then it somehow got stuck on Discord.

Mastodon for its friendly interface and zero-level toxicity, thanks to the decentralized nature that takes you straight to the communities you want to be part of - quantum computing, of course.

Why Web 2.5 is not a fan of Web 2’s Centralization

Why a centralized nature, fuelled by an AI algorithm and maximizing 25k characters (on Twitter) after you pay up, still brings on toxic levels of free speech is because you have everybody of mixed-bag backgrounds and interests all trying to up likes. Yet most truth is kept behind encrypted closed doors, financed by free credit dollars.

I know people like Paul Zimmerman of P2P helped champion encryption, hence privacy, for all. Encryption is a good thing indeed. But encryption for all when only a handful of people control the money supply means encryption is useless at creating financial opportunity but instead, very useful for creating broke and toxic raged youth.

So yes, definitely, saying mean, cynical, NSFW, snide, coolly, advertising-type things is all anybody does who hasn't yet made good time honing their worthwhile content creation capabilities.

But in a community, there are the elders - the seasoned veterans of the field. How they communicate to their younger admirers breeds respect, admiration, enthusiasm, and community building towards big goals.

Even if we are still in a fiat world, communities help focus people’s energies towards making the world a better place. And thanks to the existence of Bitcoin, conversations towards non-inflationary economic policy will remain a hotter topic than climate change. Politicians won’t ignore it. In fact, some are riding it to victory.

The Future of Web 2.5

Now that your coffee is done, I’ll walk you to the door.

“Where do you think Web 2.5 will take us?” you ask.

Well, only time will tell. I think two great things will happen for me soon to sweep me off my feet. One, quantum computing will announce a major break through. I envision one that involves modeling a molecule critical to drug discovery in a way that the biggest classical computers have failed to do. Two, the Bitcoin halving will make many people financially free, and I will be happy.

“OK, but where do you think Web 2.5 will take us?”

Keep checking, Hackernoon.

Door closes.