Is there a difference between the terms Web3 and Crypto?

Both terms have a lot in common but there are some significant differences as well.

Web3 and Crypto are two terms at war. And Web3 is winning.

It seems to me that the term Web3 is a rebrand of Crypto. A rebrand that represents a split in goals and philosophy between the Crypto Maximists and the newly formed NFT/Metaverse sect.

Crypto

The general Crypto philosophy centers on data privacy and decentalisation. No government oversight or regulation, libertarianism and self-rule. Your money can be public but inaccessible by anyone but you, especially the government.

If you're a Crypto maximist, you have all your digital assets secured by a hardware wallet and your seed phrase is buried in a locked box 5 miles away.

Web3

The Web3 team seems to care more about DeFi, DAOs, NFTs and the metaverse. They want cool and convenient ways to use all these new technologies. Financial empowerment, access, and belonging seem to be core tenets.

Web3 folks are Ok with some level of centralization, data ownership over data privacy, will share their wallet address publicly and quite possibly they have their seed phrase stored in google Keep or Notion.

Outcome

It feels like the Web3 NFT/metaverse faction is far more attractive to the majority of people and is doing a better job of onboarding new people.

The term crypto will be phased out, along with some of its principles. But many principles will remain, even if as slightly compromised versions.