I was at a developer meetup in Singapore, one so generic I can’t even recall the topic in 2022. But I met a guy named Justin, who was incredibly passionate. He invited me to another event the following week:
“The Solana Developer Meetup.”
My immediate thought was: “What is a Solana? Is it a new JavaScript framework? A library?”
A week later, in 2022, I walked into Draper Startup House as promised. For those who don’t know, Draper is a hub for startups—part coworking space, part hostel—with a really nice bar and a lot of energy.
The event started. And I got lost in the first two minutes.
Wait, what is “Web3”? Hold on, what are even “Web1” and “Web2”?
I had been in the tech industry for years.
Yet, sitting in that room, I felt like I had never heard of the internet before.
I went home that night and did what any engineer would do: I opened Google.
I mean, in 2022, I didn’t have ChatGPT.
I wanted to understand the architecture. I wanted to see the whole picture. I wanted to know how the frontend talks to the backend.
But instead of clear documentation or a “Getting Started” guide, I found a blank wall.
If you want to learn AI today, the path is crystal clear.
You read the “Attention Is All You Need” paper, you take Andrew Ng’s course, you play with Hugging Face. The knowledge is open, organized, and scientific.
Web3 was different. The “knowledge” wasn’t in textbooks.
It was buried in chaotic Discord servers, cryptic 50-page Whitepapers, and hype-filled Twitter threads where people were screaming “WAGMI” (We Are All Gonna Make It) and discussing floor prices…
It took me months of piecing together fragments to realize something important: something I had already known as a software engineer.
It has a database (Blockchain).
It has a backend logic (Smart Contracts).
It has a frontend (dApps).
And it has APIs (Oracle and other services).
The problem was the Map. No one had drawn the blueprint of how these startups actually fit together from an engineering perspective.
So, I decided to draw it myself.
I am categorizing the entire Web3 ecosystem into 4 Fundamental Layers.
1. Layer 1: Infrastructure
This is the bottom of the stack.
In the Web2 world, this is your AWS, your Linux servers, and your TCP/IP protocols.
In Web3, this is the Settlement Layer.
The Blockchains (L1s): Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin. They provide the security and the final truth.
The Scaling Solutions (L2s): Arbitrum, Starknet, Optimism. Think of them as compression algorithms that make the L1 faster and cheaper.
The Nodes (RPCs): Infura, Alchemy. These are the gateways. Without them, your app can’t even talk to the blockchain.
If this layer fails, the entire industry goes offline.
No worries, we will discuss them in more detail later in the future issue.
2. Layer 2: Middleware & Data
Blockchains are surprisingly introverted.
They are isolated databases that can’t see the outside world (they don’t know the price of Apple stock or the weather in Singapore).
This layer connects the blockchain to the real world.
Oracles: (e.g., Chainlink) APIs that fetch off-chain data.
Indexers: (e.g., The Graph) The “Google” for blockchain data, allowing developers to query complex data easily.
Storage: (e.g., Arweave, IPFS) Because storing images on a blockchain is too expensive.
This is the most underrated layer for builders. You will eventually need to learn about it when building a dApp.
It is the glue that makes dApps usable.
3. Layer 3: Liquidity
This is unique to Web3. In Web2, payments are a plugin (like Stripe or PayPal). In Web3, value transfer is the bloodstream.
DEXs, AMMs: (e.g., Uniswap) Peer-to-peer markets that run 24/7 without a centralized server.
Lending Protocols: (e.g., Aave) Algorithms that act as “banks”.
Bridging: The infrastructure that moves money between different blockchains.
4. Layer 4: dApps
This is the tip of the iceberg, the only part the user actually sees.
Wallets: (e.g., MetaMask, Rainbow) The browser and passport for Web3.
Applications: DeFi dashboards, NFT marketplaces, Web3 Gaming, Social platforms (like Farcaster).
To put it simply, this is where the user interacts with Web3. We will dive into some interesting projects breakdown when we are in this issue.
Most people get overwhelmed because they try to understand all four layers at once. Don’t do that.
Over the next few weeks (but I will write AI sometimes when I feel like it), I will be dissecting this map layer by layer.
I will break down the tech stack, the dominant players, and the opportunities for indie developers/smaller startups in each box.
Next week, we start from the bottom: Infrastructure.
We will break down how blockchains actually scale, and map out the fundamental blocks that support every other layer in this diagram.
If you are a builder, welcome to the room.