The manifesto can be found here: https://web0.small-web.org/
It's very short, so short that I can copy and paste it here:
web3 = decentralisation + blockchain + NFTs + metaverse
web0 = web3 - blockchain - NFTs - metaverse
web0 = decentralisationWeb0 is the decentralised web
In other words, web0 is web3 without all the corporate right-libertarian Silicon Valley bullshit.
Why did I sign it?
From a technical standpoint, the Web is, and it always has been already decentralized.
Early ISPs catered for a more technical audience than today's customers, so it was not uncommon to provide a subscription package containing internet access, email, shell access and web spaces (the so-called tilde webpages).
Then providers consolidated, internet access got indeed cheaper and other services became kinda-sorta free: you didn't fork out cash, but instead YOU were the product.
But the fact is, you can still create your web presence without resorting to big players. Some of them are free and require no technical prowess. Some of them require a subscription and some tech skills, but allows you to set up any internet-based service you like. Some of them fall in the middle, requiring you to subscribe but giving you disk space, database space and the ability to run server programs in a sandboxed environment.
But the bottom line is that absolutely none of these services need blockchain, NFTs and metaverse. To build a web presence you need disk space, a computer connected to the internet, and a program called "web server" running on that computer. Nothing more. Everything else is just redundancy, which becomes a need if you build systems and infrastructures.
- Why should I need a virtual 3d world controlled by a single entity if my content is akin to a printed page with some video added?
- Why should I need an infrastructure that leaves me bereft of controlling power?
- And why should I support something whose use cases can't be explained in layman's terms and require a quasi-religious fideistic approach?
To me, this is what we bureaucracy-besieged Italians call "Ufficio Complicazione Affari Semplici" (roughly, Simple Affairs Complication Bureau); that is, an unnecessary infrastructure whose raison d'etre is to funnel resources to some bureaucrats and their protegés.
To me, it seems something that somewhat worsens the situation described here. As per 03 Jan 2022, a power user with some tech skills can buy a VPS (there are cheap ones if you look hard enough), install a web server and set up their web node in few hours AND retain a lot of controlling power.
If I want to setup such an infrastructure on a VPS, it seems that I just can't do that. From this link:
I'm sure I'll get plenty of people complaining that web3 doesn't mean Ethereum, and that there are lots of web3 projects based on other technology. This is true, but everything I've seen under the banner of web3 has this same problem: it's decentralized in that many people can join the network, but not decentralized in that people can't easily spin up their own networks that are separate from other peoples'. Compare that to the web, where millions of entities run their own networks that are fundamentally independent, in some cases federating with each other, while in others remaining completely private and independent.
So, no web3, thanks.