Web 5.0

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently announced his vision for a new decentralised web platform that is being called Web 5.0 and is being built with an aim to return “ownership of data and identity to individuals”.

What do the terms Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 mean?

• Web 1.0 was the first generation of the global digital communications network. It is often referred to as the “read-only” Internet made of static web-pages that only allowed for passive engagement.
• The next stage in the evolution of the web was the “read and write” Internet. Users were now able to communicate with servers and other users leading to the creation of the social web. This is the world wide web that we use today.
• Web 3.0 is an evolving term that is used to refer to the next generation of Internet – a “read-write-execute” web – with decentralisation as its bedrock.
• It speaks about a digital world, built leveraging the blockchain technology, where people are able to interact with each other without the need of an intermediary. Web 3.0 will be driven by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning where machines will be able to interpret information like humans.

What is Web 5.0?

• Being developed by Dorsey’s Bitcoin business unit, The Block Head (TBH), Web 5.0 is aimed at “building an extra decentralised web that puts you in control of your data and identity”.
• Talking about the idea on its website, the TBH says: “The web democratised the exchange of information, but it’s missing a key layer: identity. 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.”
• Simply put, Web 5.0 is Web 2.0 plus Web 3.0 that will allow users to ‘own their identity’ on the Internet and ‘control their data’.
• Both Web 3.0 and Web 5.0 envision an Internet without threat of censorship – from governments or big tech, and without fear of significant outages.
• Replying to a Twitter question if there was any difference between Web 5.0 and Web 3.0, Dorsey argued that Web 3.0 isn’t truly decentralised or owned by its users, but is instead controlled by various “venture capitalists and limited partners”.