- Forward Industries Chairman Kyle Samani said Web3 is dead, drawing criticism from several members of the crypto community.
- For him, only DeFi and DePIN are blockchain applications truly standing out.
Web3 is dead. It’s the ongoing FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) thrown around by pundits as Bitcoin (BTC) and most cryptocurrencies struggle in the persistently bearish market.
Kyle Samani, Chairman at Forward Industries, recently poured more fuel into the fire. He proclaimed that the true future of the blockchain industry no longer lies in Web3. Instead, it will be driven by decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).
Beating a Dead Horse That is in Web3
“Web3 is dead,” said Samani. “All we have is DeFi and DePIN.”
For Samani, the crypto community is now just beating a dead horse in Web3. One of the primary causes of its decline is the industry’s major focus on institutional adoption rather than empowering users.
The venture capitalist mirrored the thoughts of some critics who argued that the trend has led to the growing influence of centralized entities in the sector. These include governments and corporations that have mandates running counter to Web3’s decentralized and democratized vision.
Samani’s statement came in response to the social media post of Eli-Ben Sasson, CEO of StarkWare. The latter claimed that the new landscape is causing crypto’s identity crisis. Additionally, the heavy institutionalization of many digital assets is driving out OG users in droves in protest against the ongoing erosion of their decentralized systems.
Blockchain, Web3, DeFi, DePIN, and Crypto
Samani’s comment drew criticism from people who pointed out that it oversimplified the distinction between blockchain, crypto, and Web3. They clarified that DeFi and DePIN are just parts of Web3 that have actually reached production scale.
Some people often mistakenly use Web3 and blockchain interchangeably. However, in the context of this discussion, it’s important to establish a fine line between the two to prevent confusion.
Blockchain is the foundation of decentralized and digital ledger technologies. Web3 is the application of blockchain to transform the internet into an open, permissionless, and trustless ecosystem.
DeFi is a financial system using peer-to-peer networks powered by blockchain. It uses crypto as its settlement instrument and smart contracts as its self-executing foundation.
On the other hand, DePIN is another application underpinned by blockchain technology. It enables individuals and enterprises to crowdsource real-world physical infrastructures to expand wireless coverage, cloud data storage, and compute power while incentivizing contributors to the network with native crypto tokens.
Given these things, cryptocurrencies offer economic incentives and a transactional pathway for participants in their decentralized ecosystem. Overall, each comprises foundational components of a broader vision that was once lumped together under the catch-all banner of Web3.
