Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@chiliec
Last active August 12, 2026 08:11
Show Gist options
  • Select an option

  • Save chiliec/46ccf0a34c007ac09bc5efcebf174c7e to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.

Select an option

Save chiliec/46ccf0a34c007ac09bc5efcebf174c7e to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Web3 timeline for Chronoskop contest
{
"version": 1,
"title": "The Road to Web3",
"subtitle": "From the read-only Web to a user-owned internet (1991–2026)",
"startYear": 1991,
"theme": "system",
"settings": {
"fitToScreen": false,
"showDescriptions": true,
"editorWidth": 430
},
"years": [
{
"id": "cc0ab802-0144-4c9a-a086-79216832a401",
"year": 1991,
"events": [
{
"id": "a16d5a0a-1847-4d04-8743-f0463b25afbb",
"title": "World Wide Web goes public",
"category": "Web1",
"description": "Tim Berners-Lee releases the WWW — read-only 'Web 1.0': static pages, no native identity or money.",
"link": "https://info.cern.ch"
}
]
},
{
"id": "82193e24-6f0c-45d7-bea4-48df2fea4bf2",
"year": 1997,
"events": [
{
"id": "4823a7cd-4229-4a31-a0a3-c17218f33183",
"title": "'Web 2.0' concept coined",
"category": "Web2",
"description": "The term for the participatory, read-write web emerges; platforms, not users, will own the data and value.",
"link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0"
}
]
},
{
"id": "9540989b-5e75-4d3c-b8c0-bbbe877e82d2",
"year": 1998,
"events": [
{
"id": "e61c3cde-0bee-4992-b6f1-1ecb6bf1547b",
"title": "b-money & Bit Gold proposed",
"category": "Research",
"description": "Wei Dai (b-money) and Nick Szabo (Bit Gold) sketch decentralized digital money — direct intellectual ancestors of Bitcoin."
}
]
},
{
"id": "e7ee60c3-0aac-4d57-8dc9-933995ad8fab",
"year": 2004,
"events": [
{
"id": "ea686d97-5984-4850-ba6c-270ee1c85502",
"title": "Web 2.0 era begins",
"category": "Web2",
"description": "Facebook launches; social platforms centralize identity, content, and advertising revenue around a few corporations."
}
]
},
{
"id": "c820b16d-0c1c-4c3c-84c6-847b62ff66db",
"year": 2008,
"events": [
{
"id": "03cd270a-03bc-4bf2-8a5c-6cff0af4019c",
"title": "Bitcoin Whitepaper",
"category": "Research",
"description": "Satoshi Nakamoto publishes 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System', solving double-spend without a trusted third party.",
"link": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf"
},
{
"id": "dcebee27-e8b4-4279-a242-81a22e926dde",
"title": "Global Financial Crisis",
"category": "Economy",
"description": "The banking collapse becomes the political backdrop and motivation for trustless, decentralized money."
}
]
},
{
"id": "564abfba-0f26-4a20-ade7-1656dc8cadbb",
"year": 2009,
"events": [
{
"id": "513ecfe5-d415-4b48-a5a0-e437268208b0",
"title": "Bitcoin Genesis Block",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "Block #0 is mined with the headline 'Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks' embedded in it.",
"link": "https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block"
}
]
},
{
"id": "3b77fb63-2506-4714-baaa-66a17fecf303",
"year": 2010,
"events": [
{
"id": "846a5299-9e10-4bd4-904f-6d3fafb55f18",
"title": "Bitcoin Pizza Day",
"category": "Culture",
"description": "Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas — the first real-world Bitcoin purchase, now crypto's most famous origin meme (worth hundreds of millions at later prices).",
"link": "https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0"
}
]
},
{
"id": "f7dae053-3ea3-4506-9fdf-c5428307d087",
"year": 2011,
"events": [
{
"id": "50ff3b68-77de-4c7c-ad09-ef21a4a75f72",
"title": "Altcoins appear",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "Litecoin, Namecoin and others fork Bitcoin's ideas — the first experiments beyond a single chain."
}
]
},
{
"id": "dcaca694-46af-41f0-99c8-f3eefed32321",
"year": 2013,
"events": [
{
"id": "9f7bb986-042d-4b05-81e7-48e03b0bb893",
"title": "Ethereum Whitepaper",
"category": "Research",
"description": "Vitalik Buterin proposes a blockchain with a Turing-complete VM — programmable money and the technical foundation of Web3.",
"link": "https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/"
},
{
"id": "eece08a7-394b-4d6b-88ea-2dfe2ed80b3e",
"title": "Dogecoin: the first meme coin",
"category": "Culture",
"description": "Started as a joke on the Shiba Inu 'Doge' meme, Dogecoin proves community and humor can bootstrap a real, lasting crypto network.",
"link": "https://dogecoin.com"
},
{
"id": "74f36ed2-8d12-41e3-b7e0-01e02a2ef0d7",
"title": "'HODL' is born",
"category": "Culture",
"description": "A drunk 'I AM HODLING' forum post becomes crypto's defining mantra for holding through volatility — culture shaping investor behavior."
}
]
},
{
"id": "a1561a7b-8961-418c-8323-c273ed9fd2aa",
"year": 2014,
"events": [
{
"id": "8b2e8d7f-764b-4e5f-953b-bc3b93b6f497",
"title": "Term 'Web3' coined",
"category": "Web3",
"description": "Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood defines Web3: a decentralized web where users own identity, data, and assets via cryptography, not platforms."
},
{
"id": "99c14bcd-6574-4b30-9fd2-dc1408582fa7",
"title": "Tether (USDT) launches",
"category": "Economy",
"description": "The first widely used stablecoin bridges fiat and crypto, later becoming core DeFi plumbing."
}
]
},
{
"id": "5409ece3-b6fe-4e62-afc1-e04fd4f03733",
"year": 2015,
"events": [
{
"id": "eea49701-2cb5-4af9-86b8-b73a637ef931",
"title": "Ethereum Mainnet ('Frontier')",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "Ethereum goes live, enabling smart contracts — self-executing programs that make DeFi, NFTs and DAOs possible.",
"link": "https://ethereum.org"
}
]
},
{
"id": "f18a614d-09f4-487c-b0d1-722942573852",
"year": 2016,
"events": [
{
"id": "e3474df7-6a7b-4bfa-bd06-c0bf1a7ba036",
"title": "The DAO & the hard fork",
"category": "Governance",
"description": "A $60M smart-contract exploit forces a contentious hard fork, splitting Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) — 'code is law' tested in reality."
}
]
},
{
"id": "159a890e-62d8-48a4-92a2-499f286ac66c",
"year": 2017,
"events": [
{
"id": "d61e310a-0847-4267-b39a-5b4bf9f936a2",
"title": "ICO boom",
"category": "Economy",
"description": "Thousands of projects raise billions via ERC-20 token sales — permissionless fundraising and its excesses arrive at once."
},
{
"id": "cfbf9bd7-dac6-4ba3-a066-c3409aeeb9df",
"title": "CryptoKitties",
"category": "NFT",
"description": "The first viral NFT app congests Ethereum, proving demand for on-chain digital ownership.",
"link": "https://www.cryptokitties.co"
},
{
"id": "4a8aaad3-00ad-4ae8-a48a-6b931399a17e",
"title": "ERC-20 standard finalized",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "A common token interface turns Ethereum into a platform for interoperable assets."
}
]
},
{
"id": "fafae4e4-ad24-4e46-83c1-03bbb3373151",
"year": 2018,
"events": [
{
"id": "48afe31d-c300-4a67-b91a-f006c097f0e5",
"title": "Web3 Foundation founded",
"category": "Web3",
"description": "Gavin Wood establishes the Web3 Foundation to fund decentralized-web infrastructure (Polkadot, etc.).",
"link": "https://web3.foundation"
},
{
"id": "d63d451f-96b5-4c6f-af48-363ae6a466d7",
"title": "Crypto bear market",
"category": "Economy",
"description": "The post-ICO crash clears speculation and shifts focus to building real protocols."
}
]
},
{
"id": "e957f14e-7958-4b4a-b485-fe419d2b448a",
"year": 2020,
"events": [
{
"id": "2a164fd5-b7b3-4da1-9076-31b43cd1cfc3",
"title": "DeFi Summer",
"category": "DeFi",
"description": "Uniswap, Aave, Compound and yield farming explode — composable, permissionless finance ('money legos') becomes Web3's killer app.",
"link": "https://uniswap.org"
},
{
"id": "1131ab49-483e-4d03-81a2-e348448688a0",
"title": "Ethereum Beacon Chain",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "The proof-of-stake beacon chain launches, beginning Ethereum's multi-year move off proof-of-work."
}
]
},
{
"id": "50e22e06-937b-4e00-8558-a5ffefdee689",
"year": 2021,
"events": [
{
"id": "a0a3b96b-2b48-4d88-86a5-b75665369568",
"title": "NFT mania",
"category": "NFT",
"description": "Beeple sells for $69M at Christie's; PFP collections and on-chain art reach mainstream culture.",
"link": "https://onlineonly.christies.com"
},
{
"id": "64a35427-2f45-4807-a0c3-d9f68b13dcca",
"title": "L2 rollups scale up",
"category": "Scaling",
"description": "Optimism and Arbitrum bring cheap Ethereum transactions via optimistic rollups — scaling without abandoning L1 security."
},
{
"id": "79a2a1a2-2fab-4b7a-aa3d-5bcde17f5101",
"title": "DAOs go mainstream",
"category": "Governance",
"description": "ConstitutionDAO and others show thousands coordinating capital and decisions on-chain."
},
{
"id": "a039b081-08c8-4147-adb4-de4c23297913",
"title": "Meme coins & 'gm' culture go mainstream",
"category": "Culture",
"description": "Dogecoin and Shiba Inu hit tens of billions in market cap; 'gm', diamond hands, and PFP identity turn crypto into an internet-native subculture."
}
]
},
{
"id": "a9c949ed-b9d9-4d03-8d09-009f9b01e599",
"year": 2022,
"events": [
{
"id": "4f5186bf-9f77-438f-94a8-e9aab746ec63",
"title": "The Merge",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "Ethereum switches to proof-of-stake, cutting its energy use ~99.9% — a landmark for sustainable Web3.",
"link": "https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/merge/"
},
{
"id": "48d81bed-f489-49de-9f40-b44758c38a29",
"title": "Terra/LUNA & FTX collapse",
"category": "Security",
"description": "An algorithmic-stablecoin implosion and a major exchange fraud wipe out ~$60B+, hardening the case for self-custody and transparency."
}
]
},
{
"id": "33961f8c-7e7d-4524-98ef-4542d68a0899",
"year": 2023,
"events": [
{
"id": "e8a6d915-7a91-429d-b1c5-08e806d51f91",
"title": "Account abstraction (ERC-4337)",
"category": "Protocol",
"description": "Smart-contract wallets ship without protocol changes — gasless, social-recovery UX that makes Web3 usable by normal people.",
"link": "https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4337"
},
{
"id": "1d18db44-b75c-4f59-9a1b-bb09802bf991",
"title": "Bitcoin Ordinals & inscriptions",
"category": "NFT",
"description": "Arbitrary data (art, tokens) is inscribed directly on Bitcoin, reviving on-chain experimentation on the oldest chain."
},
{
"id": "7ad5b5d2-ec87-42e9-a74d-456f1dd97ce2",
"title": "Telegram + TON: self-custodial wallets go mainstream",
"category": "Adoption",
"description": "Telegram integrates TON-based self-custodial wallets and Mini Apps for ~900M users, turning a messenger into a crypto on-ramp and setting the stage for tap-to-earn.",
"link": "https://ton.org"
}
]
},
{
"id": "a07b80b7-86c6-4df9-b92e-2a5139219682",
"year": 2024,
"events": [
{
"id": "3cd4d2b6-9cee-4dd5-a569-ec30f5bdfb75",
"title": "Spot Bitcoin & Ether ETFs",
"category": "Economy",
"description": "US regulators approve spot BTC and ETH ETFs, opening institutional capital rails to Web3 assets.",
"link": "https://www.sec.gov"
},
{
"id": "fe8f8655-b053-4712-99ba-089dcfd91ac1",
"title": "EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding)",
"category": "Scaling",
"description": "'Blobs' slash L2 fees by orders of magnitude, making rollups cheap enough for mass use.",
"link": "https://www.eip4844.com"
},
{
"id": "a9617e87-3a02-4818-ad01-bb178445e425",
"title": "Tap-to-earn mania",
"category": "Gaming",
"description": "Telegram tap-to-earn Mini Apps on TON — clickers paying token airdrops — reach 300M+ players. 'Farming' points becomes a daily habit, every project ships its own clicker, and airdrop days bring euphoria and crash-outs alike. The largest, most viral user-onboarding wave in crypto history, and a mobile-first, non-Western path into Web3."
},
{
"id": "04f4f6dc-1cc3-4652-9ba9-66cb80c0e363",
"title": "Solana meme-coin supercycle",
"category": "Culture",
"description": "Launchpads like pump.fun let anyone mint a token in seconds; dog/cat/political meme coins dominate on-chain activity — speculation as culture, and a stress test for 'permissionless'.",
"link": "https://pump.fun"
}
]
},
{
"id": "2f79250c-e807-4d1c-86ac-4abf397be9c4",
"year": 2025,
"events": [
{
"id": "6de8efb2-9020-42a0-9ef0-f3f349ddb9d4",
"title": "Restaking & modular chains",
"category": "Scaling",
"description": "EigenLayer-style restaking and modular data-availability layers reshape how security and blockspace are provisioned."
},
{
"id": "bee6f65b-8b4b-4719-882a-8b2bd006fb25",
"title": "Stablecoin regulation matures",
"category": "Governance",
"description": "Clearer stablecoin frameworks in major jurisdictions push crypto payments toward mainstream commerce."
}
]
},
{
"id": "3180575a-11ab-4f64-9694-5d3080493181",
"year": 2026,
"events": [
{
"id": "57b3ce82-621e-4a62-813f-be1bfe44682c",
"title": "Web3 x AI agents",
"category": "Web3",
"description": "Autonomous agents transacting on-chain with wallets and stablecoins emerge as a native Web3 use case — machines as first-class economic actors."
}
]
}
]
}
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment