Dorsey wants to decentralise the web with Web 5, for real this time

What 

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, seems to have skipped right by Web 4 and is focussing his attention on Web 5, a new platform promising decentralisation built on the Bitcoin blockchain. The project combines elements of Web 3 and Web 2, hence the name Web 5

Why 

Web 5 will introduce decentralised identity and data storage for applications, returning the ownership of data to individuals, the company says

What next 

Dorsey has in the past criticised the centralisation of Web 3 technologies by a handful of companies. Web 5 is Block’s attempt to shift power back to the users. The Decentralised Web Platform (DWP) will enable developers to write what’s called Decentralised Web Apps (DWAs)

The story 

Jack Dorsey has been a busy man of late. Only last week he announced a Bitcoin education project co-founded with Jay-Z, and he’s in the news again with Block’s latest project, Web 5. The project will enable users to host their data on a decentralised web node and not in an app on company servers. 

The project, which aims to decentralise user data and identity, is spearheaded by TBD, a division of Block. “Decentralised and trustless systems create a world that empowers individuals,” TBD says on its site. “The right to engage in financial services and economic transactions is neither gated on proving creditworthiness and the ability to pay account fees, nor subject to censorship,” the company continues. 

Web 5 will let developers focus on creating optimal user experiences, while the trustless systems on which Web 5 is built will return ownership of data and identity back to individuals, according to the company. “We struggle to secure personal data with hundreds of accounts and passwords we can’t remember. On the web today, identity and personal data have become the property of third parties,” the company notes.

Taking a swipe at Web 3, Head of TBD, Mike Brock, said that “Some people seem to think we are joking about Web 5 and we are not for-real working on it. I promise you, that we are for-real working on it. It will actually exist, unlike Web 3.”

What exactly is Web 3.0 and what does it mean if something is built on top of a blockchain? Learn all about cryptocurrencies on our learning portal, here, where we untangle the sometimes complicated world of crypto.