Magna carta: A lucid definition of Web 5

Ebuka: “Guyyy! I just saw Web5 on one website like this. Didn’t Web3 come out like one month ago?”

Ogwuche: “Ohhh! Web5 is the brainchild of Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter.

Ebuka: “Huh? It’s not still making sense. I also saw web2, web1. The whole thing is blurry to me.”

Ogwuche: “Ok. Let me drop a crash course. Give me a second to explain them from the genesis”

In the beginning there was Web1. It debuted with the World Wide Web. Web1 featured static web pages thus you couldn’t jump from website to website as you can now. It was read-only—very boring. Then came Web2, which we use now, which featured interactive websites that allowed user-generated content like Youtube and Facebook. But Web2 has an issue—user data is stored on different servers across the globe and can be sold, unethically, to other companies for profit.

Ebuka: “Ohhh! So that’s why I received an email from an unknown company advertising cinema tickets to the movie I was watching on my phone!”

Ogwuche: “Exactly. In that case your streaming service sold your data to that company”

Ebuka: “Hmmm. Please continue boss”

It didn’t take too long to act on this knowledge because Web3 was concocted soon. To prevent further confusion, you should bear in mind that Web3 isn’t some kind of evolutionary concept like we have in games and cars, rather, view it as a new paradigm where users can have full control of their data. To do this, Web3 plans to make user data decentralized through distributed data storage and retrieval; it uses peer-to-peer networks to distribute and store data across decentralized networks. So it features blockchain and other cryptocurrency technologies. A lot of people were in on this till further investigation showed that Web3 isn’t truly decentralized because some Web3 services are controlled by a very small number of privately held companies. Seeing this Jack Dorsey decided to cook us something, taking the best of web 2 and web 3 to create a more decentralized version of the web. He calls it Web5.

Ebuka: “Hmmm…So what is changing?”

Ogwuche: “Well…the change will happen behind the curtain. Visually a Web5 application might look similar to a Web2 application. The major difference is data handling. Allow me to elucidate on some major changes”

Decentralised Identifiers(DIDs): A decentralized identifier is like a pointer on the decentralized web. It can represent individuals, companies, data models or even abstract entities. People can send messages and also access information that you wish to share through your DID. Your DID can be used to identify you across any platform—goodbye to 20 different usernames for 20 social media accounts.

Decentralized Web Nodes(DWNs): This is the backbone of Web5. As aforementioned your data is hosted on peer-to-peer networks thus making it decentralized. With Web5 you can choose where to host your node and decide who would have access to it so you can communicate with another user directly by resolving their DID and grant them access to select information. You can also back up your data to different nodes and sync them. In the event of a node crashing, you still have your back up.

Unlike Web2 where user data is locked up in server farms and sold by centralized companies, in Web5 your information is owned and shared by you thus preventing unethical trading of user data. With Web5, users would use their DIDs to travel across different platforms with their data hosted on tamper-resistant decentralized nodes(DWNs) which they control. This allows one to use the internet without any fear of data-leak or manipulation. Web5 is an open source project by TBD, one of Jack Dorsey’s companies. By the use of decentralized technologies they aim at returning ownership to individuals.

To use DIDs, DWNs and other amazing Web5 services you would need a DWA(Decentralized Web Applications). Development of such Web5 applications are facilitated by the TBD Web5 API and programmers are already at work. Web5 technologies can function in any sphere and might even be more versatile than Web2 applications. For example, Web5 gives gamers the ability to enjoy cross-platform play; a form of gaming where gamers can use a character in different games–imagine super mario in Call of Duty!

Ebuka: “Ehen! it’s making sense now”

Ogwuche: “Alright. I want to watch the Chelsea match. Wanna come?”

Ebuka: “Abeg, I want to work on a Web5 project. The idea sounds awesome. Besides, I don’t want to catch heart attack"

[LAUGHTER]