Just seconds before this interview is supposed to start, I panic. How am I supposed to address the person I’m talking to? He was born Zhou Yinghua, and took the name Michael Chow when he moved to the U.K. as a young man, but I’ve never heard anybody call him either of those names. People in his orbit famously refer to him simply as M, but the optimal word here is “famously”— I don’t think I quite rank with Chow’s famous friends past and present, like David Hockney, Michael Caine, or Jean-Michel Basquiat, so I’m uncomfortable just using the letter. I go with the third option, addressing him as Mr. Chow—but even that makes me feel a little strange, because that’s the name of the string of restaurants he began opening in the 1960s, always in the right place at the right time.
As it turns out, none of this matters to the man I’m about to speak to.
“I don’t even know who the fuck Mr. Chow is. I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who the fuck I am. I still think I’m nobody,” he says before pausing. “Not nobody. That’s not true, but I’m not conscious of that shit.”
The new HBO documentary AKA Mr. Chow, which premieres this Sunday, is a look at Chow’s life and times, his philosophies, and the decades he’s spent blurring the lines between art and dining at his restaurants in London, Beverly Hills, and Manhattan. When Chow made his way to America in the 1970s, Chinese food was supposed to be inexpensive. It was served in paper oyster pails that you’d take home to eat, and what you got when you opened up the white boxes often didn’t resemble anything they served in China. Chow’s goal was to elevate the cuisine of his homeland. Instead of the chop suey or General Tso’s chicken that Americans were familiar with, he gave customers Peking duck pancakes, a quail’s egg fried in shrimp toast, and noodles—pulled in-house and tossed with bits of pork, cucumber, and a little hot sauce. Reviews from the era suggest diners typically paid about $20 a person before tax, tip, or cocktails– or about $87 in 2023 currency.
For the people who frequented his restaurants, the food—which generally earned mixed reviews—was never the point, nor was the price. It was never about going there because you had to try the minced squab nested in lettuce leaves; it was about eating it off of plates designed by Cy Twombly. You didn’t decide to dine there because you wanted a quiet meal; you hoped to be in the same room as Jack Nicholson, Julian Schnabel, Tina Brown, or any of the other famous people that Mr. Chow has counted among its patrons over the years. If you used matches from the restaurant to light your cigarette, you struck a matchbook with art by Ed Ruscha. If you were somebody people talked about, or you at least wanted to be associated with those people—in swinging ‘60s London, the Hollywood of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era, or New York during the neo-expressionism boom—all roads led to Mr. Chow, a place subsequently name-checked as shorthand for luxury by everyone from Steely Dan to Jay-Z.
But as the documentary shows, there’s a lot about the famous restaurateur that most of us didn’t know or consider. It shows Chow the personality as well as Chow the boss, Chow the painter, and Chow the immigrant. Everybody from art world maven Jeffrey Deitch to Grace Coddington—ex-wife number one—shows up to talk about him. But the documentary also explores the more painful experiences Chow has dealt with over the years, from the racism he faced as a Chinese man moving to the West to the AIDS-related death of his second wife, Tina Chow.
Killers of the Flower Moon is an indisputable Martin Scorsese masterpiece. As the legendary director grapples with his own mortality, he’s put out one of the finest films of his career, one that characteristically muses on similarly heavy themes: greed, corruption, betrayal, colonialism, violence. Based on the 2017 David Grann book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon tells the little-known story of the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma and the formation of the FBI. See, the Osage Nation had the foresight to maintain mineral rights on their land so, when oil was discovered, it made them fabulously wealthy. It also made them the target of a vast murder plot by their white neighbors.
I had eagerly been anticipating this movie since it was announced, an anticipation that only grew stronger when presented with the one single still that was available and then, each subsequent trailer. Something else I instantly clocked in the trailer? A cavalcade of hats, each bigger and more beautiful than the last. This was not false advertising, but merely a small sampling of the reality: I can confirm that all three hours and 26 minutes of Killers of the Flower Moon are absolutely teeming with hats.
This film was costume designer Jacqueline West’s first time working with Scorcese (who, it must be noted, is no stranger to wild hats). “Few directors are as conversant about clothes,” she told me. “He really has incredible taste in clothing, and a wonderful Italian eye. It’s in his blood.”
She floated two Westerns to the director when explaining what her influences would be: 1926’s The Winning of Barbara Worth and 1948’s Blood On The Moon.
Of course, hats were a practical necessity in 1920s Oklahoma, to protect from the sun—these guys didn’t have any Supergoop SPF—and rain when working outdoors. But, more than that, West said, “the hats were meant to be there to tell a story.”
More than 300 hats were created for the movie. The principal actors’ hats—Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart and Robert DeNiro as his uncle, William Hale, for instance—were made by Jack Scholl at Weather Hats in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. (West had a connection to them through her husband, who is a Bullock, as featured in HBO’s Deadwood.)
In the opening scene of Anatomy of a Fall, which took home the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival, author Sandra (Sandra Hüller) is being interviewed about her work by a young student. Then they’re interrupted, as Sandra’s husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) starts blasting music, replaying one song over and over. And not just any music– a cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.”, by Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band.
The song ends up being central to the story of the film, in which Sandra’s husband ends up dead, having fallen from the roof of their chalet, and she is charged with his murder. He was clearly trying to annoy her by bumping this track. But did they argue before he plunged to his death? And could their son hear over the steel drums?
Another question: So how did this version of “P.I.M.P.”—a German funk ensemble’s jaunty steel-drum-accented take on a Caribbean-inflected 2000s rap classic—end up being so central to a French art film that conquered the Croisette? For starters, it wasn’t the filmmakers’ first choice. Director Justine Triet says she and co-writer Arthur Harari originally planned on Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” being the song that derails Sandra’s interview. They had even written an analysis of Parton’s lyrics into the courtroom scenes. But about a month before shooting, they realized they couldn’t get the rights. “We were really disappointed at the beginning,” Triet says.
Forced to abandon her first choice, Triet eventually landed on Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s cover of “P.I.M.P.,” from the group’s 2016 debut album 55. She was already a fan, and had been listening to it consistently for years. The song had to represent Samuel—who the audience only sees in flashbacks after he’s dead—and Triet thought it would be appropriate that he picks a relatively obscure cover that still keeps the “essence of the tune.” You can see how someone like Samuel—a teacher and wannabe writer who probably thought of himself as pretty cool—would be drawn to this version.
“I think the song is aggressive because we hear it a lot of times,” Triet says. “But it’s quite funny at the same time, no?”
In death, Samuel has a way of putting Sandra in absurd situations that play out as grimly funny onscreen. When the investigators are trying to reenact the discussion she and Samuel might have had before his fall to see if their son could have possibly discerned their tone, “P.I.M.P.” is played again and again.
Later, when Sandra is on trial, the prosecutor suggests that she might have had motive to murder Samuel because of the misogynistic lyrics. Her defense points out that it was an instrumental version. As soon as Triet and Harari knew that “P.I.M.P.” was going to be in the film, they knew they were going to have someone try to use it against Sandra, assuming she would be somehow triggered by the context behind the beats. “It’s very famous,” Triet says, adding that everyone knows the vixen-filled music video.
The other major piece of music in Anatomy is a Chopin prelude that Sandra and Samuel’s son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), practices repeatedly. Triet liked the juxtaposition between something that sounded more melancholy versus something that was something of a joke for the viewer. As she explains, Chopin is classical, and “P.I.M.P.” is a classic—just in a different way.
A senior State Department official resigned this week over what he described as the Biden administration’s “blind support” for Israel in its ongoing siege of Gaza. Josh Paul, after more than 11 years working in the State Department office that oversees arms transfers, wrote Wednesday in a public letter explaining his resignation that he could no longer stomach Washington’s continued funneling of arms to Israel. “The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of the occupation,” he wrote, “will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.”
While Paul described Hamas’s recent attack in Israel as “a monstrosity of monstrosities,” in an interview with The New York Times, he argued that Israel is committing its own human rights abuses by continuously bombing the Gaza Strip and blocking medical provisions, food, water, and electricity from entering the territory where more than 2 million live. The official also appeared to juxtapose White House support for Israel with US aid to Ukraine, writing, “We cannot be both against occupation, and for it. We cannot be both for freedom, and against it.” In his interview with the Times, he added that Israel—which has killed more than 3,700 Gazans since Hamas’s October 7 attack, per the Gaza Health Ministry—is creating a new generation of enemies: “What it leads to is this desire to sort of impose security at any cost, including in cost to the Palestinian civilian population.”
Since resigning, Paul said he has received considerable support from State Department colleagues and congressional staffers. “A lot of people are wrestling with this being the current policy and are finding it to be deeply problematic,” he told the Times. “I’ve really been quite moved by some of the folks who have reached out to say that they understand where I’m coming from. They respect my decision. It’s been very supportive.” His resignation was first reported by HuffPost.
The White House and Congress have faced considerable domestic pushback over their support of Israel, as the past two weeks have seen thousands of Americans take part in pro-Palestinian rallies across the country. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters were arrested at the US Capitol building after staging a sit-in to protest the Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza. The demonstration was organized by a progressive Jewish group demanding a cease-fire. “We shut down Congress to draw mass attention to the US complicity in Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians,” Jewish Voice for Peace wrote in an X post claiming 10,000 people were involved in the demonstration.
As for Joe Biden, he has shown Israel unequivocal support since the unprecedented Hamas attack that Israeli officials say resulted in at least 1,400 deaths and more than 200 abductions. His administration is expected to ask Congress for a funding package that would reportedly provide $10 billion in mostly military aid to Israel. However, during a speech in Tel Aviv Wednesday, the president promised $100 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank and urged Israelis against succumbing to an “all-consuming rage.”
“What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life—Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian—everyone,” he said. “You can’t give up what makes you who you are. If you give that up, then the terrorists win.”
During the MLB postseason, teams will take any advantage they can get. A seemingly innocuous thing can become a powerful motivating factor. Like, say, the squirrel that dashed across the field during a 2011 Cardinals playoff series, powering St. Louis all the way to the World Series and earning its own Wikipedia page. For the last two years, the himbo Phillies have used the club anthem “Dancing On My Own” (though, sadly, not the original Robyn version) to soundtrack their champagne celebrations. This year, the Texas Rangers have adopted their very own, very specific tunes. They are being taken higher, to a place with golden streets. That’s right: they’re getting pumped up by listening to Creed.
Creed, for the uninformed, is a band of Florida men who made extremely popular music in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. And facts are facts: the 2023 Rangers, who are on the cusp of a World Series appearance, possibly would not be in this position if not for Creed. But, to put it as bluntly as possible, Creed is not exactly relevant anymore—and they’ve long been the butt of jokes in the music world. While their turn-of-the-century banger “With Arms Wide Open” won them a Grammy for Best Rock Song, it is also older than Rangers’ left fielder Evan Carter, who was born in 2002—and revealed that the Rangers now have Creed-related handshakes. So, how did the Rangers end up appreciating the lyricism of lead singer Scott Stapp? Let shortstop Corey Seager explain.
“It’s something to bond over,” Seager told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “That’s the hard thing about teams, right? You have people coming in and out. How do you gel? How do you come together? How do you fight for each other? You find little ways on different teams, and that’s one of our ways.” Sure! The entire Rangers’ universe seems to be on board with this. Earlier in the postseason, as the Rangers were sweeping aside the overmatched Baltimore Orioles, their entire stadium took part in some Creed karaoke.
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The Great British Baking Show has returned to Netflix, officially marking the end of summer. But for a certain demographic of Instagram and Facebook users, judge Paul Hollywood is always in season. In the tent, the silver-haired, 57-year-old bread expert strikes fear and doubt into the hearts of contestants. But online, his baking tips and advice appear to provoke a different emotion: abject horniness.
Hollywood maintains an active presence across Instagram and Facebook, where he has 585,000 and 525,000 followers respectively. On both platforms, the baker will valiantly attempt to post a recipe or an earnest update about his professional life, and someone (typically a middle-aged woman with a cartoon rabbit sipping tea as her profile picture) will comment “you can knead my biscuits any time” under her full government name.
Scroll through the comments on any Hollywood social media post, and you’ll find endless fawning over the judge’s piercing eyes (“Mesmerizing blue eyes! Handsome!”) alongside absolutely feral declarations of lust (“He can eat his way around me if he likes”) that could easily be dismissed as the spammy ravings of Instagram sexbots were they not attached to profiles of real women, most of whom appear to have husbands and/or children.
If you, like me, figured this thirstiness must be a holdover from something Hollywood did earlier in his career—because it certainly doesn’t make sense when applied to the Paul Hollywood we see on the show—you’d be wrong. Hollywood has been a judge on The Great British Baking Show (known in its home country as The Great British Bake-Off) and its various offshoots for the past thirteenyears. He’s been the sole fixture among an otherwise ever-shifting cast of hosts and other judges. While he co-hosted shows on Carlton Food Network and Taste CFN prior to this, he was best known for his cookbooks, and before that worked at a number of prominent bakeries.
That being said, his lothario reputation is not entirely unearned. In 2013, Hollywood’s affair with Marcela Valladolid– his co-star on American Baking Competition, an early, ill-fated U.S. Bake-Off spin-off—resulted in his (first) split from then-wife Alex Hollywood. After a brief reconciliation, the two divorced for good in 2019. “My own marriage was too over seasoned with extra marital affairs for my taste,” Alex later wrote on Instagram, “and so I opted out and chose the single menu instead.”
GQ columnist Chris Black enjoys chasing the conversation as much as the next Twitter power user. But more and more, he writes, civilians and celebrities alike are exercising their posting fingers when they should be exercising a little restraint.
John Mulaney loves a suit. The comedian retired his on-stage hoodies and flannels sometime around 2010 and has never looked back. Since then, it’s been one well-tailored ensemble after another, from his stand-up specials and Saturday Night Live monologues to late-night guest appearances and beyond. And throughout the years, the cut of Mulaney’s suits has stayed as trim and neat as a pin—even in 2023, a year where the big suit has reigned supreme, he’s stuck to his slim-cut guns.
Mulaney leaving The Late Show in his slick black suit—no tie necessary.
Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin
You’d think a celebrity with access to professional stylists and designer threads might be tempted to dip their toes in the slouchy suit waters, but not Mulaney. On The Late Show last week, he appeared in an immaculate black two-piece. It looked like could’ve worn at any point in the last 10 years—sharp and slim but not suffocating. However, there were a few subtle signals that Mulaney’s sartorial habits have evolved. “So…didn’t shave. No tie. You’ve changed,” quipped Stephen Colbert. “This is not the John Mulaney I remember.” It’s an astute observation from the host. Yes, Mulaney mostly looked and dressed as he had many times before, but the details were different.
On the eve of the first Republican debate, Team Trump had a large dinner with reporters at a steakhouse in Milwaukee. Journalists from an assortment of major outlets—including CNN’s Dana Bash,NYT’s Shane Goldmacher, CBS’s Bob Costa, NBC’s Kristen Welker and Dasha Burns,WaPo’s Josh Dawsey, and ABC’s Rachel Scott—were among the attendees at the off-the-record dinner. Trump’s team—Chris LaCivita, Jason Miller, and Steven Cheung—used the occasion to brutally mock Ron DeSantis; Politico’s Playbook, which was first to report the gathering, even had photos of the pudding snack packs and debate bingo cards passed out to the table.
I’m told it was quite a scene at the restaurant, with DeSantis’s team at another table a few feet away, and longtime Mitch McConnell adviser Josh Holmes dining outside with folks from the Ruthless podcast. Sources familiar with the Trump–press dinner said it was the kind of gathering you’d expect at a debate or convention, but noted it was emblematic of how the Trump campaign engages with traditional media (even if the ex-president is quick to bash them publicly). Meanwhile, DeSantis’s team, which has only just begun to do so (and not exactly consistently), looked on nearby. The dinner, one source said, seemed less an effort to court reporters—whom, I’m told, paid for their own meals—than to project confidence and establish their presence, despite Trump’s absence and the four criminal indictments he’s facing.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 06: Katy Perry and Edward Enninful arrive at Westminster Abbey ahead of the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 06, 2023 in London, England. The Coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the other Commonwealth realms takes place at Westminster Abbey today. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Katy Perry, who will perform during Sunday’s Coronation Concert, has made her way to Westminster Abbey alongside Edward Enninful, Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue.
She’s wearing a lilac-colored ensemble from Vivienne Westwood, the late designer known for galvanizing British fashion through her punk and new-wave-inspired looks, complete with the label’s trademark orb in the form of a necklace. According to the brand, the short sleeved jacket with classic drape and matching tailored skirt was handcrafted in soft leatherette taken from the Vivienne Westwood fabric archives and is finished with a purple silk flower corsage. Perry added matching opera gloves, a Granny Frame purse and Three Row Pearl Bas Relief choker, a headpiece featuring a crinoline base with a layer of tulle and merry widow veiling; adorned with a Petersham ribbon bow. Westwood died at age 81 last December.
Enninful is wearing a bespoke morning suit from Savile Row tailor, Huntsman.
In a recent interview, Perry opened up about her invitation for an overnight stay at a suite in Windsor Castle.
“They said I’m allowed to stay at Windsor Castle, which I’m really excited for,” she said. “I might be posting a lot, because I’m going to be in a castle for real. This is wild,” she told Extra.
She also shared why she decided to perform at the Coronation Concert. “I’m an ambassador to one of his foundations for the British Asian trust, which primarily focuses on ending child trafficking, which is a huge issue of our time that people don’t talk enough about, and it just aligned with all my values,” she said. “[King Charles] asked me to sing and it all aligned.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 06: Katy Perry and Edward Enninful arrive at Westminster Abbey ahead of the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 06, 2023 in London, England. The Coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the other Commonwealth realms takes place at Westminster Abbey today. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Blue Bottle helped lead the third-wave coffee charge, and in the not-yet-defined fourth wave of coffee, it looks like we’re getting into instant coffee—but not like the Folgers and Maxwell House varieties of yore. Its new instant espresso is the same delicious espresso the brand is known for, except turned into instant dissolvable crystals. Each jar has enough crystals to make up 12 servings, and can be served iced or hot as easily as it takes to boil water.
The cooling specialists at Yeti have unveiled their lightest water bottle ever. The Yonder is a BPA-free, non-insulated bottle made for taking on the trail when a light load is the goal. It’s fully leakproof but unlike the Yeti Rambler line, it won’t keep your beverages cold for 24 hours. It’s also not meant for hot liquids in this case. Just clip this onto your bag and forget it’s there until you need to take a sip.
The GQ Fitness Award-winning Hydrow Wave is our pick for the best at-home rowing machine for most people. We have little hesitations on recommending the Hydrow Wave, which we love for its slim design and excellent 16-inch HD screen. Though if you’ve ever wished the Wave came in a color other than black, then rowing gods have answered your prayers. The Wave now comes in four splashy colors—from forest green to a bright blue—for an additional 300 bones. Worth it? Depends on if you want your workout equipment to blend in or act as a conversation piece. Your move.
Instant coffee is seeing a huge resurgence (see the above note on Blue Bottle’s instant espresso) and Cometeer is one of the best brands to know in this category. Its tiny K-cup-style pods are filled with frozen concentrated coffee, which you dilute with water for an excellent cuppa minus any actual work. The brand partnered with David Chang on a holiday collection, which includes a trio of Cometeer’s coffees—from some of the country’s best coffee roasters—as well as a mug from East Fork in a glaze that hasn’t been released for a hot minute.
If you’re jonesing for new dinnerware sets, we know of a few good ones. One brand in particular is Jono Pandolfi, which outfits some of the world’s best restaurants with its plates and bowls. It’s now partnered with celebrity chef Christina Tosi, who reworked the existing oval platter into a cookie tray—it’s very much in line with Tosi’s baking background considering she’s the founder of Milk Bar. The tray comes in a custom pink ombre glaze that’s almost as tasty looking as the cookies on there.
Meridian makes a damn good ball trimmer. Its new Trimmer Plus is part of Meridian’s new unisex rebranding, and offers five adjustable settings to be used practically everywhere. Use it wet or dry, and for dark areas, turn on the LED spotlight to light the way. Each charge gives the Trimmer Plus 90 minutes of shave time, and a built-in travel lock makes this an easy on-the-go companion, too.
Take out your Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 (one of our favorite fire pits) and get ready to make some pizza. Solo Stove’s new Pi Fire turns the brand’s fire pits into pizza ovens, so that you don’t necessarily need to buy the brand’s dedicated pizza oven, the Pi. The Pi Fire, available in various sizes to fit all of the brand’s fire pits, sits on top of the fire, so that the heat on your pizza stone reaches up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit—way hotter than a conventional oven can get.
General Admission’s forte is its vibey California apparel, but it also produces some groovy home decor like this tiny mushroom lamp. It’s made of onyx, plus assembled and carved in Mexico so that each has its own slightly distinct features.
La Marzocco just unveiled its smallest and cheapest espresso maker ever. Taking things a step further than the Linea Mini, the Micra is designed for at-home use (unlike the brand’s other commercial-grade espresso makers). The dual-boiler espresso maker—which makes it easy to steam milk and pull shots simultaneously—packs a big punch in a tiny machine, with precise temperature control and quite possibly some of the best at-home espresso shots ever.
Noma, which ranked as the number one restaurant in the world last year (no big), now has a web store where you can buy pantry items to make your cooking feel closer to the fermented stuff you’d find at the Copenhagen-based restaurant. Its smoked mushroom garum is sort of like a soy sauce except that it’s made from mushrooms and combines a deeper savory flavor with a dash of smoke. And if you need inspiration for how to use it, Noma even has some recipes for you to try out.
First, there was web1 – aka the internet we all know and love. Then there was web2 – the user-generated web, heralded by the arrival of social media. Now, wherever we look, people are talking about web3 (or sometimes, web 3.0) – the supposed next big evolutionary leap forward of the internet. But what is it, exactly?
What is Web3 All About? An Easy Explanation With Examples
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Well, opinions on this differ somewhat. Web3 is currently a work-in-progress and isn’t exactly defined yet. However, the main principle is that it will be decentralized – rather than controlled by governments and corporations, as is the case with today’s internet – and, to some extent, connected to the concept of the “metaverse.”
Before we start – just to avoid confusion – it’s worth mentioning that, until a few years ago, the term “web 3.0” was frequently used to describe what is now known as the “semantic web.” This was a concept put forward by the original “father of the internet,” Sir Tim Berners-Lee, for a machine-to-machine internet. Language is defined by its use, and the term is more frequently used to describe something else now. However, Berners-Lee’s concepts are considered to be a part of what we now call web3, although not the entirety of it.
What is the decentralized web?
Let’s look at decentralization first. Today, all of the infrastructure that the popular sites and hangouts we spend time on online are usually owned by corporations and, to some extent, controlled by regulations set out by governments. This is because this was the simplest way to build network infrastructure – someone pays to install servers and set up software on them that people want to access online, and then either charges us to use it or lets us use it for free, as long as we abide by their rules.
Today, we have other options, and in particular, we have blockchain technology. Blockchain is a relatively new method of storing data online, which is built around the two core concepts of encryption and distributed computing.
Encryption means that the data stored on a blockchain can only be accessed by people who have permission to do so – even if the data happens to be stored on a computer belonging to someone else, like a government or a corporation.
And distributed computing means that the file is shared across many computers or servers. If one particular copy of it does not match all of the other copies, then the data in that file isn’t valid. This adds another layer of protection, meaning no one person other than whoever is in control of the data can access or change it without the permission of either the person who owns it or the entire distributed network.
Put together, these concepts mean data can be stored in a way so that it is only ever under the control of the person who owns it, even if it happens to be stored on a server owned by a corporation or subject to the control of a local government. The owner or government can never access or change the data without the keys to the encryption that proves they own it. And even if they shut down or remove their server, the data is still accessible on one of the hundreds of other computers that it’s stored on. Pretty clever, right?
Other important concepts that are often used in relation to the technical infrastructure of web3 are that it is open, meaning largely built on open-source software, trustless and permissionless.
Trustless means that interactions and transactions can take place between two parties without the need for a trusted third party. This was not necessarily the case on web2 or below because you would have to be certain that whoever owned the medium you were using to interact or transact was not manipulating your communications.
A good example of a web3 trustless transaction would be sending Bitcoin directly to another person – not via an online exchange or wallet stored on a centralized server. The entire process of making the transaction is controlled by the blockchain algorithm and encryption, and there is close to zero chance that anyone can step in and disrupt it.
Similarly, “permissionless” means that neither party in a transaction or interaction have to seek permission from a third party (such as a service provider or government) before it can take place.
By the way, if you think all this talk about avoiding government interference sounds a little bit anarchistic or libertarian, then you’re not alone! There are still big questions to be answered about the implications that this lack of oversight or control has for safety and legality. We’ve already seen governments attempt to create legislation that will allow them to retain some level of control over communications and interactions on the web3. This includes the UK Government’s indications that it would like to regulate citizens’ ability to send end-to-end encrypted messages.
Web3 concepts – the DAO
The Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) is a web3 concept describing a group, company or collective that are bound by rules and regulations coded into a blockchain. For example, in a DAO-based shop, the price of all of the items, as well as details on who would get pay-outs from the business, would be held on a blockchain. Shareholders in the DAO would be able to vote to change prices or who gets the money.
However, no individual could change the rules without having permission to do so. And no one who owned the physical infrastructure, such as the server owners, or the owners of the facilities where the profits were stored, could interfere in any way, like running off with the takings!
Crucially, DAOs – in theory – eliminate the need entirely for many of the “men-in-the-middle” needed to run an organization – such as bankers, lawyers, accountants, and landlords.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and web 3.0
Most people believe that AI will play a big part in web3. This is due to the heavy involvement of machine-to-machine communication and decision-making that will be needed to run many web3 applications.
How does the metaverse fit with web3?
The last important concept of web3 that we have to cover is the metaverse. In relation to web3, the term “metaverse” covers the next iteration of the internet’s front-end – the user interface through which we interact with the online world, communicate with other users, and manipulate data.
Just in case you’ve missed all the hype – the idea of the metaverse is that it will be a much more immersive, social and persistent version of the internet which we all know and love. It will use technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to draw us in, enabling us to interact with the digital domain in more natural and immersive ways – for example, by using virtual hands to pick up and manipulate objects, and our voices to give instructions to machines, or talk to other people. In many ways, the metaverse can be thought of as the interface through which humans will engage with web3 tools and applications.
It’s possible to create web3 applications without the metaverse being involved – Bitcoin is one example – but it’s thought that metaverse technology and experiences will play a big part in the way many of these applications will interact with our lives.
This all sounds great, and everyone must love it, right?
Well, actually, no. It should be mentioned that there has been a fair amount of high-profile criticism of web3. Elon Musk has made several comments, including stating that it “seems more like a marketing buzzword than a reality right now” and tweeting, “Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find it.”
Former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, on the other hand, has questioned whether it will be as free and open as many hope. He said, “You don’t own web3. The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”
Others don’t like many of the current proposals for web3 due to the fact that they are built on blockchain, which can sometimes be very energy-intensive, contributing to carbon emissions and climate change. The Bitcoin blockchain, for example, is estimated to consume around the same amount of energy as Finland. Other blockchains – such as those that are built on proof-of-stake algorithms rather than proof-of-work, are not as energy-intensive.
Some examples of web 3.0 applications
Let’s look at some examples of web3 in practice:
Bitcoin – The original cryptocurrency has been around for more than ten years, and the protocol itself is decentralized, although not all of its ecosystem is.
Diaspora – Non-profit, decentralized social network
Steemit – Blockchain-based blogging and social platform
