TBD, a Block subsidiary, has unveiled intentions to create a new decentralized web built on Bitcoin (BTC) known as Web5.
The project has confirmed creator Jack Dorsey’s confidence that the world’s largest blockchain network will play a significant part in the internet’s growth. Since stepping down as CEO of Twitter in November 2021, Dorsey has been working on a new Bitcoin-centric project dubbed “Web5”.
Web5 is envisioned as an identity-based system that uses only one blockchain: Bitcoin, whereas Web3 uses blockchain technology and tokenization to decentralize the internet.
In a series of tweets, Twitter user Namcios deconstructed the Web5 concept, describing many software components that work together to improve the user experience and enable decentralized identity management.
Web5 uses ION, which is described as an “open, public, and permissionless DID network that operates atop the Bitcoin blockchain,” according to Namcios.
DIDs are decentralized identifiers that enable “verifiable, decentralized digital identity,” according to the Web3 Foundation.
According to TBD’s concept documentation, Web5 is essentially a decentralized web platform, or DWP, that allows developers to create decentralized web apps using DIDs and decentralized nodes.
Web5 will also contain a monetary network based on Bitcoin, echoing Dorsey’s prediction that the digital commodity will one day become the internet’s native currency.
Dorsey may be motivated to pursue a new web development model because he believes Web3 will never reach complete decentralization. Web3 and the venture capital community that supports its development have been publicly chastised by the Block CEO.
In December 2021, Dorsey stated that VCs and their limited partners own Web3, not individuals. He stated, “It will never escape their incentives.” “It’s essentially a centralized entity with a new label,” says the author.
