All terms
The difference is who owns the account, the data and the exit.
In Web2 the platform holds your account, your content and your audience. The service is usually free, polished and fast, and the platform can change the rules, take a larger cut, or remove you at any time.
In Web3 you hold the keys, the assets and the social graph, and you can leave with them. The service is usually slower, rougher and requires more of you, and nobody can remove you.
A Web2 marketplace can delist your item and freeze your payout. A Web3 marketplace can refuse to display it, and the item stays in your wallet and can be listed elsewhere.
That the split is about technology. The difference that actually matters is who can remove you: the platform that owns your account, or nobody. Most products in the space sit somewhere between the two, whatever they call themselves.
Common questions
What is the practical difference day to day?
Does everything need to be Web3?
Where to go next
More web3 terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.