Block Inc. intends to forego Web3 entirely in favour of a new Bitcoin-centric identity management model.
TBD, a Block subsidiary, has unveiled intentions to create a new decentralised web built on Bitcoin (BTC), confirming 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 explored a number of Bitcoin-related projects, the most recent of which is named “Web5”.
It is envisioned as an identity-based system that only uses one blockchain: Bitcoin. Whereas Web3 uses blockchain technology and tokenization to decentralise the internet, Web5 is envisioned as an identity-based system that only uses one blockchain: Bitcoin. In a series of tweets, Twitter user Namcios deconstructed the Web5 concept, describing how multiple software components work together to improve the user’s experience and enable decentralised identity management.
Web5 is said to use ION, which is a “open, public, and permissionless DID network that operates atop the Bitcoin blockchain,” according to Namcios.
DIDs are decentralised identifiers that enable “verifiable, decentralised digital identity,” according to the Web3 Foundation.
According to TBD’s concept documentation, Web5 is essentially a decentralised web platform, or DWP, that allows developers to create decentralised web apps using DIDs and decentralised 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 decentralisation. 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. “It will never escape their incentives,” he said. “It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”
Source: Cointelegraph