Algorithmic spatiality of Web3 : news cartography, data sovereignty, and wallet software

Abstract

This project embarks on a spatial inquiry into Web3. Often hailed as the next iteration of the internet, Web3 is more than a facelift; it’s a calculated unveil that prompts us to re-examine Web2’s participatory past. Importantly, Web3’s algorithmic architecture both expands the web’s horizons and reflexively delineates its own perceptual identity. As it rises alongside digital platforms’ hegemony, we must scrutinize the territories it foregrounds — the very “wheres”— and the underlying “whys” that sculpt its distinct vantage for vested agendas. Drawing insights from media studies, critical data studies, and STS, this project focuses on influential powers sculpting the interplay between corporate developers and the Web3 landscape. The theoretical framework is primarily organized around the concepts of news cartography, architects’ gaze, and software performativity. Methodologically, this tripartite study leans on multiple ethnographic works to go beyond just studying tech structures, capturing both material and discursive forces that mold them. My empirical focus is grounded in specialist journalistic publications (in chapter 1), ethnographic observations, and aggregated data of sites (in chapters 2 and 3). Each chapter underscores its rationale for data collection, yet aliging with the ethos of infrastructure ethnography. My research pivots on the argument that Web3 gives rise to “algorithmic spatiality.” It extends beyond software’s materiality, echoing geographers’ assertions that (digital) space is programmed, assembled, and arranged. Thus, I view Web3 not just as a deliberate construct, but also as a dialogical practice of shaping and organizing its very essence. Influenced by Massey’s (1999) portrayal of power as spatial-relational dynamics, I employ “power-geometries” as a foundational lens to discern the varied influences of Web3 on sociality. This juxtaposes with the pervasive power of existing digital platforms, often termed the Web2 status quo, awaiting transition. For new media research, approaching Web3 with an algorithmic and spatial lens invites us to see sociality as a dynamic reshaping, subtly directed by coded practices, often obscuring their corporate genesis. I argue that to truly fathom our unfolding digital landscape, it’s imperative to closely scrutinize the pivotal roles of key actors. Especially, the corporate-scripted agents, in all their forms, actively molding these emerging topographies.