Jack Dorsey’s TBD is introducing Web5 powered by Bitcoin

Block’s subsidiary company TBD announced on Twitter that it is building ‘Web5: An extra decentralized web platform’. Web5 would offer a censorship-free, identity-focused web experience to users.

TBD defines Web5 as a ‘Decentralized Web Platform [DWP] that enables developers to leverage Decentralized Identifiers, Verifiable Credentials, and Decentralized Web Nodes to write Decentralized Web Apps, returning ownership and control over identity and data to individuals.’

In other words, Web5 is a DWP that lets creators build decentralized web applications via DIDs and decentralized nodes. Web5’s monetary network will also revolve around Bitcoin, reflecting Dorsey’s belief that BTC will become the internet’s native currency one day. 

The Web3 Foundation describes DIDs as decentralized identifiers that enable ‘verifiable, decentralized digital identity.’

The project is based on the idea that Web3 which aims to create a decentralised web through incorporating Blockchain, crypto technology to decentralize the Internet, which TBD argues is executed wrongly because owners do not own their data and identity. Instead they are given accounts by corporations where their personal data is held captive. 

Web5 seeks to resolve this issue by creating a new class of decentralized applications and protocols to empower the everyday internet user and give back control of their data and a self-owned identity. 

Its monetary layer will be centered around and constructed on Bitcoin’s Blockchain while the underlying infrastructure will be built from decentralised identifiers, a decentralised web node, a self-sovereign identity service and a self-sovereign identity software development kit. This will allow users to interact with one another without centralized companies or intermediaries. 

‘On the web today, identity and personal data have become the property of third parties. Web5 brings decentralized identity and data storage to your applications. It lets devs focus on creating delightful user experiences, while returning ownership of data and identity to individuals,’ TBD’s website explains.

Unlike Web3 apps built on Blockchains like Ethereum, Web5 will not involve the minting and sale of new tokens. ‘Let me clear this up right now, everybody: No. There are no tokens to invest in with web5. Kthx,’ TBD’s Lead Mike Brock wrote in a Twitter post.

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