SAN FRANCISCO – VMware CTO Kit Colbert joined Chainalysis' Pratima Arora on stage at VMware Explore 2022 to talk about the mystery-shrouded Web3 and its relationship to blockchain technology following the vendor's newly introduced VMware Blockchain for Ethereum.

Colbert describes VMware's efforts in blockchain as "taking these ingenious solutions that were focused on the cryptocurrency world and actually generalizing them for the enterprise," he said during a solution keynote, referencing enterprise use cases for blockchain in supply chain, housing, finance, health care, and manufacturing.

Blockchain (which the panelists noted isn't a singular entity or "the blockchain" as it's often inaccurately dubbed) is simply the underlying technology behind Web3. "An open, distributed ledger — that's what blockchain is," Pratima Arora, chief product officer at blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, said during the panel.

Blockchain also powers other applications that support the success of Web3 by building on a similar ethos of a distributed ledger of transactions, she said.

"People think [Web3] is a grand vision, right, and predicting the future is hard. None of us can do that. So little things like FUD comes in. FUD means fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And every time you have grand visions, you'll have [that] fear, uncertainty, and doubt for what's going to happen," Arora said.

Web3 has also fallen victim to misinterpretation, leaving critics to believe it's little more than a rebranding effort for crypto that attempts to conceal some of the industry's cultural and political baggage. Others think it's an open vision of a pay-to-play internet where every activity and social interaction becomes a financial token to be bought and sold.

While that second thought isn't too far from reality, Arora defines the vision of Web3 as the internet owned by the builders and users.

In other words, Web3's social networks would be sort of like Facebook, but where Facebook doesn't control everything. That means users can own their own content and monetize it without an intermediary taking a cut of the dough.

And it'd be interoperable the way today's Web2 isn't. If a user amasses a following on one platform or network, their success is essentially tied to that one platform. And if a content creator is able to make a living financially off their following, that's closely tied to the specific platform as well, the panelists explained.

But with Web3, a user's following would be tied to them and their identity, not to an account on an intermediary network that has a significant amount of control and ownership over that content.

"We're going to see where the market takes it," Arora said.

Read all of SDxCentral’s VMware Explore 2022 coverage here.