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An interview with Varsha Mahadevan, Director of Software Engineering, to understand the Dev migration — leaving Web2 for Web3
In the past six months, searches for ‘Web3’ on Google have increased over 33 times as people consider the movement towards decentralization. The term has become synonymous with a more transparent and equitable way for individuals to participate in building the next generation of apps and platforms that will shape the way we live, work, and interact with each other. To better understand what’s happening behind the scenes, we spoke with Varsha Mahadevan to find out why developers leave Web2 for Web3 projects.
Varsha spent the past 20 years working as a developer building high-quality products at Microsoft and BankBazaar.com before joining Coinbase as the Director of Software Engineering.
Developers are leaving Web2 in favor of mass Web3. Why do you think that?
VARSHA: The data shared in a recent Electric Capital report indicates that most developers currently building on Web3 joined the space last year. One key reason we’re seeing this massive migration of Web2 developers to Web3 is that developers love to be at the forefront of every innovation.
What are the biggest differences and similarities that you see between Web2 and Web3?
VARSHA: Regarding Web2 versus Web3 architecture, the concept of using distributed systems is familiar and revolutionary. The primary difference between Web2 and Web3 is the values.
Web1 is a global web consisting of most content consumers and only a few content creators. At the same time, Web2 opens the door to user-generated content and places a heavy emphasis on usability and interactive ability. However, this comes at the cost of relinquishing control of the user’s identity and data and giving that power and authority to a select few.
Web3 is an evolution of the world wide web defined as read, write, and own, and aims to allow users to take ownership of the content they create — and the projects they build. In Web3, no single entity controls the network, and everyone can participate in a trustless environment governed by a set of consensus protocols. Instead, users are empowered with a transparent and verifiable guarantee of the data they receive and send without trusting any central authority. These foundational values make Web3 a fairer internet for participants and builders alike.
What does it mean for developers to have ownership of their products in the Web3 world?
VARSHA: There is a paradigm shift in how developers think and design products in a decentralized world. Products are built to be self-sustaining without ownership and authority. In Ethereum, products built as smart contracts are deployed as immutable transactions. The traditional concept of product versioning doesn’t exist. Newer and better smart contracts can be built as new products.
What perks and advantages are there for Web2 developers to join a Web3 company?
What does the Web3 technology stack look like?
- Layer 1 blockchain (Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, NEAR, Tezos, Fantom, Polkadot)
- Layer 2 & sidechains (ZK Sync, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism)
- Developer environments (Hardhat, Truffle, Foundry, Anchor)
- File Storage (IPFS, ARweave, FIlecoin),
- API (indexing & querying),
- Identification (Wallet connection, self-ceramic ID)
- Client (web3.js, Ethers.js, Anchor)
The trend of moving from Web2 to Web3 of developers
Electric Capital, a leading venture capital fund focused on Web3 projects, recently published a report on the situation of developers in the Crypto space in 2021. Let’s go through the points. Important in this report.
Across Defi and NFT, protocols and smart contracts are the backbones that make it all work, and many of them are built using programming languages like Solidity, Rust, and Web.js.
Simply put, Web2’s ‘backend technology’ is Web3’s protocol.
The trend of moving from Web2 to Web3 of developers
Electric Capital, a leading venture capital fund focused on Web3 projects, recently published a report on the situation of developers in the Crypto space in 2021. Let’s go through the points. Important in this report.
2021 is an awe-inspiring year for the Crypto market, with new milestones in the price of Bitcoin and the size of this market. In 2021 alone, 34,391 developers have just started building Web3 projects. This is the highest number ever, 1.5 times the figure of 2020 and 14% more than the peak figure of 2018.
As the market value rises, the number of new developers entering each month goes along with that upward trend.
As the market value declines, new developers can still be seen entering, but this number has dwindled.
There is a massive growth in the number of active developers per month, from 10,525 in January to 18,416 by the end of 2021. This 75% growth can be attributed to improvements in Blockchain technology. 2021 makes developers more excited to continuously work on and build the Web3 ecosystem.
Notably, 60% of monthly active developers and 45% of full-time developers in 2021 are new entrants. This is an imposing number, so what attracted them to this market and made them willing to devote all their working time to Web3 projects?
Innovation
The 4.0 revolution has opened up a future with endless possibilities to improve our lives. The people who hold this mission are the developers, the creators of the applications, and the algorithms. , technology… for people to use. They love being at the forefront of innovation, so the gradual shift of developers’ focus to Web3 is not too much to explain. Web3 is slowly taking shape to become a new world with possibilities that no one could have imagined would exist in just a few years of construction. The ecosystem of protocols, tools, and services that support the development of Web3 is still in its infancy. It’s only natural that Web3 attracts the brightest minds looking to shape this future.
The difference in nature
Conclusion
