The term “Web3” is used to contrast with today’s dominant “Web2” model, where large centralized platforms (social networks, app stores, cloud providers) store user data and control access to it. Web3 proponents envision an internet where blockchains and crypto wallets serve as the underlying identity and ownership layer — users hold their own assets and data via a wallet rather than a company’s database, and can move between applications without losing that ownership.

Founders should treat Web3 as a still-largely-experimental and contested term rather than a settled technology category. Much of what gets marketed as “Web3” today is really just a crypto-token layer bolted onto an otherwise ordinary app, and prominent technologists have publicly criticized the term as more marketing narrative than working reality. That doesn’t make every Web3 project worthless, but it does mean the label alone tells you very little about whether a given product actually delivers meaningful user ownership.

🇵🇭 Philippine Example

The clearest real-world Philippine example of Web3 gaming/ownership concepts in practice is Yield Guild Games (YGG), founded in the Philippines in 2020 by Gabby Dizon and Beryl Li, which built a community-owned model around lending blockchain game assets to Filipino players. Broader "Web3 app" adoption in the Philippines beyond gaming and crypto trading remains at an early, largely experimental stage — this glossary avoids overstating how mainstream Web3 usage actually is locally.

Related Terms