This is part 1 of my series, The Black Purposes of Web3, where I post my undergraduate thesis in sections. Read the series intro.

This post corresponds to the first chapter ("Introduction"), and is adapted closely from my original writing.

As people have become more aware of the data economy and the commodification of our personal data by large companies, the concept of data ownership and user privacy has become a popular topic of discussion, and many are looking for ways to reclaim their data and privacy when interacting on the Internet. Blockchain technologies, particularly Web3, have been a new area of innovation that is being heavily promoted as a solution to this issue, as well as a general improvement to the web as we know it. The goal of this research is to analyze and understand Web3 and the technologies behind it from a variety of perspectives, especially the potential societal benefits and harms to African Americans. This research seeks to understand how Web3 is different from past iterations of the web, the purpose and goal of it, and its value propositions, and with those findings, this paper will present potential social implications and recommendations for various parties involved.

The key idea of my research is to deepen understanding of and expand the conversation about Web3 by including multiple perspectives and areas of study, especially focusing on a societal approach to analyze this new technology beyond just the technical mechanics. Of course, analyzing impacts on "society" in a general sense would be a broad undertaking, so in this paper I will focus on African Americans as a part of American society. Exploration of potential consequences, especially from the perspective of marginalized groups, is a method that has typically been undervalued in the past regarding technological innovation – societal implications are often not considered until after significant development and dissemination of new technologies. Web3 and related technologies are relatively new but seem to be at the precipice of becoming mainstream, so it would be beneficial to aim for a more expansive understanding of it by using other metrics of success beyond simply technological achievement and complexity.

Because there is so little previous work that explores Web3 and its potential relationship with and impact on African Americans, what follows is a mosaic of seemingly disparate topics, histories, and case studies in an attempt to shed light on an issue that may otherwise be left in the dark and not considered until after harm is done.

In the upcoming posts, I'll explore the history of the World Wide Web and the versions that precede Web3. A foundational background is necessary for understanding where the Internet came from, where it may be headed, and why. With Web 1.0 being the first design of the web and Web 2.0 being the current iteration, these posts will outline the inspirations, uses, and limitations of each. Enough time has passed since the conception of both iterations such that it is possible to, using existing research, evaluate their introduction to society, the transition between the two, and some of their societal impacts. Since this is a project of inference and prediction regarding a new technology, looking to the past is a practical way to begin examining its future implications, especially since Web3 builds on such an established, consequential phenomenon.

When studying the impacts of the current Web 2.0 era, existing research inevitably deals with issues of the data economy and user privacy. I'll discuss how the architecture of Web 2.0 led to the common practice of aggregating considerable amounts of personal user data, and how the use of this data threatens privacy. Then, given the excessive collection, monitoring, and sale of personal data in a way that constitutes surveillance, I move to exploring the idea of data ownership – what that entails, whether it is part of a solution to privacy issues online, its feasibility, and current examples.

One technology that has been proposed as a solution for the problem of user privacy and data ownership is Web3. Later posts will define Web3 and introduce the motivations, values, goals, and assumptions of this new generation of the web, citing various leaders and scholars in the field. In addition to the value proposition, I'll explain the details of how the underlying blockchain technology works, and how the different elements of Web3 work together, both currently and expected in the future, as an implementation of its values, such as decentralization and ownership. There is also a considerable amount of media discourse on the topic, and there is an apparent lack of consensus on whether Web3 is a revolutionary solution or just a scam or an Internet fad. I'll present multiple sides of the discussion, most of which is happening online and dynamically rather than in a scholarly setting. Furthermore, I'll highlight a perspective that appears to be consistently missing and excluded from the conversation: that of African Americans. Although the voices of this societal group have largely been overlooked in the dialogue about Web3, there have been some suggestions that Web3 could be empowering, and I bring this view to light before investigating it and its implications in the following posts.

A later post deals with the intersection of race and technology, specifically in an attempt to determine how the historical relationship between Black Americans and new technologies might be reflected in the development and adoption of Web3. That post outlines themes of the issues and impacts of this relationship on African Americans relative to the rest of society. One of these themes is general opinion, and I question if there have been issues of not only systemic exclusion of African Americans, but also hesitancy on the part of the individuals to embrace new technologies due to lack of interest or negative sentiment. In order to capture attitudes of African Americans towards new technology, as well as other potential barriers to adopting technology, I analyzed a dataset titled "National Science Foundation Surveys of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology, 1979-2006" and compared survey responses along racial lines. The history, themes, and findings from the data analysis are applicable to the discussion of Web3 as a new technology and are used to make connections and informed predictions about whether past issues will persist or be "solved" by Web3, in addition to other possible benefits or limitations for the African American community.

Given the observations about the interactions between Web3 and African Americans and its potential effects, the final posts look to the future in a variety of ways. I'll consider how Web3, in terms of its technical aspects, common uses, and dissemination, could be improved for Black Americans such that they could also experience the advantages that have been widely promoted. There have also been alternatives to Web3 and blockchain technologies that have been proposed with different implementations of similar goals, and I discuss these along with uses of Web3 that have different priorities than those that are most popular. Lastly, I offer remaining questions and opportunities for future research on this emergent topic of Web3, African Americans, and society.

In the next post, I'll start with the history of the web—where it came from, how it evolved, and how we got to where we are today.