Web 5 will be a combination of Web 3 and Web 2 that will run on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Since the emergence of blockchains and cryptocurrencies, the term “Web 3” has become increasingly popular. It is the natural evolution of the Internet, whose main objective is the decentralization and peer-to-peer information sharing, without the intervention of a third party that controls or governs the infrastructure.
Web 3, also known as “Semantic”, uses semantic data, adapts to any device, maintains cloud computing and allows the evolution of social networks (thanks to decentralization), as well as intelligent searches or the creation of free content.
Web 3 is associated with terms such as metaverse, blockchain, cryptocurrencies or artificial intelligenceBasically, Web 3 is an extended Internet, endowed with greater meaning, in which any Internet user will be able to find answers to their questions more quickly and easily, thanks to better-defined information and much more appropriate search results.
Jack Dorsey and Web 5
Although Web 3 is still in its infancy, Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, announced through his account on the social network that the team The Block Head (TBH) is working on Web 5.
TBH is one of the Bitcoin-focused business units within Block. According to Dorsey, Web 5 is a combination of Web 3 and Web 2, which is being built on top of Bitcoin's infrastructure.
“On today’s web, identity and personal data have become the property of third parties,” the presentation document states, adding “here identity and data will be decentralized and ownership of data and identity will be returned to the individuals.”
One of the reasons that Jack Dorsey has given for the Web Development 5 has been the real decentralization. In this sense, the former CEO of Twitter has pointed out that Web 3 is not really decentralized, since venture capital firms invest large amounts of money, so they are the real owners of most of the protocols.
Pillars of the Web 5
Dorsey's new Web 5 concept will be based on three fundamental pillars:
- Decentralized Identifiers (DID): These will be the identity files, owned by the users, that will allow identification and authentication in the applications.
- Verifiable Credentials (VC): Formats and data models for cryptographic presentation and verification of claims. VCs tell applications who we are while preventing spoofing.
- Decentralized Web Nodes: Data storage and message relay nodes that serve as the basis for decentralized applications and protocols.
And where will the digital identifiers be stored? In what TBH calls “Identity Wallets”, i.e. identity wallets. These decentralized applications will allow users to manage their data and credentials, as well as the decentralized applications they are using it on.
They will also allow Sign, verify, discover and present credentials, perform authentications, and manage permissions that we have given to the different decentralized applications.
Identity wallets will also have features for managing DIDs, as well as certain options that will allow us to know at all times where we are using the credentials and how each of them is being used.
How does all this translate?
One of the possibilities of Web 5 is to provide guaranteed portability of personal identities. This way, users will no longer have to worry about having hundreds of usernames and passwords that they have to remember or store (in centralized applications, whose data does not belong to them).
TBH's idea with Web 5 is to offer a single decentralized identity, which will be stored in a wallet and with which credentials for all kinds of decentralized applications can be created.
Thus, when a user logs into a decentralized application using their DID, all credentials and information from the application are stored in the wallet. In this way, all contacts, messages and articles created are stored in the wallet, so they can be exported to other applications and, thus, neither contacts nor work are lost.
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