Web3 is a Pyramid scheme for people who get hyped from just hearing the word 'blockchain' but who don't have any technical understanding of how one computer actually communicates to another computer.
Web3 scammers insert meaningless hand-wavy-techno-babble homophone phrases like 'Layer 1', 'off-chain', and 'decentralized' to hook FOMO VC into buying into vaporware.
Web3 is literally not a real thing. If you want real talk about empowering the users to own the network infrastructure then you better be talking about publicly owned ISPs and data centers; not about bullshit 'smart contract' VMs deployed into the proprietary Cloud environment of one Global monopoly or Another.
2009-2019 I worked for a multi-billion dollar company as 1 of 2 DevOps Admins for their on-prem web hosting where we took the IaaS coming from the companies private data-center and added/managed the rest of the layers to offer PaaS/SaaS web-hosting solutions for all of the companies departments. The income was great but the life balance and respect from coworkers was awful. In 2018 the company restructured and began mass layoffs because some 3rd party consultants told them it would be good for the ledger. My internal team was shredded and the handful of web development staff we had were all promptly dismissed with the exception of the 2 admins and our direct report. Thousands of web-app instances previously supported by a team of 10 where now just 2 people's responsibility 24/7/365.
I quit and moved to the opposite side of the country for a change of pace at the end of 2019 then took a Help Desk job at a fraction of the pay. Unfortunately I was laid off from the new Help Desk job just a few months later as the pandemic closed down smaller retail shops.
Despite my decade of experience and constantly applying to remote positions throughout 2020-2021 I literally received 1 interview but declined their offer because of too many red flags during the interview conversation (remote work not actually remote, duties well outside my experience, major deadlines within the 1st week which made it seem like they were just looking for a scapegoat to blame some major management failures on).
I was unemployed and without income for nearly 2 years with the exception of a few months and a few hundred bucks from the Help Desk job until my life was literally saved by better-late-than-never Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. I used the money from that PUA to move my family back across the country.
Reconnecting with an old co-worker from the previous corporate job gave me a lead on an actual fully-remote position with a different local company and I started working for them just last month. My new salary is a 40% cut from what I was making in 2019 but the work-life balance actually exists and I am not being forced to wear "all the hats all the time."
I see (toxic) company culture, work/life balance, and flexibility all as major factors in my journey to where I am now but holy-fuck have I had a difficult few years to get here.
Web3 scammers insert meaningless hand-wavy-techno-babble homophone phrases like 'Layer 1', 'off-chain', and 'decentralized' to hook FOMO VC into buying into vaporware.
Web3 is literally not a real thing. If you want real talk about empowering the users to own the network infrastructure then you better be talking about publicly owned ISPs and data centers; not about bullshit 'smart contract' VMs deployed into the proprietary Cloud environment of one Global monopoly or Another.