Rethinking Web3: When Trustless Systems Matter

Tech Talk
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There is a lot of talk about Web3 and blockchains. This is a quick look at where decentralized trustless systems actually matter and why most everyday interactions do not need them.

Web3 is not about putting everything on a blockchain. It is about reclaiming data ownership and moving beyond centralized data highways.

Web browsers are the first and most visible problem. They mediate nearly all interactions and introduced DNS and certificate authorities, creating trust hierarchies that users do not control.

The shift is toward peer-to-peer, end-to-end encrypted, post-quantum resistant systems such as the embryonic lines of Nostr, Urbit, and Pear runtime, which let users interact directly and privately.

Blockchains or their trustless equivalents are essential only for specific cases that require a neutral, verifiable third party. These cases, including decentralized finance, DAOs, and tokenized assets, form the backbone of the alternative economy. Most everyday interactions, like adding a calendar event or sending a message, do not need global consensus or any kind of onerous proving.

The promise of Post-Web or Web3 is a system where most activity stays local and private while trustless systems are used strategically to enable value creation where it truly matters.

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Regarding messaging – it does not need global consensus but there is a need for communication that doesn’t rely on web2 channels. It should be possible for an application to broadcast an announcement for example on-chain and for all addresses to pick that up. If there’s a problem, exploit, or upcoming change – you shouldn’t need to read twitter to know about it. Then when you get into this problem you will quickly realize that when solving for this problem it allows you to make signal, email, discord style variants and so why not? It’s better to think about it like a value-add service to dapps, etc rather than a standalone product/service itself.

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In the case of messaging, the problem of discovery is typically solved using a DHT and the peer identity keys without relying on trusted third parties, like DNS or certificate authorities. The use of initial seed nodes is still somewhat contentious, but as long as you can access this list somewhere, you are fine. For the protocol, Signal’s triple ratchet with CRYSTALS-Dilithium in hybrid mode (combined with a classical scheme) and Kyber KEM seems to be the way to go. A blockchain could make sense for anchoring peer identities in different contexts.

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