Jack Dorsey, Web5 and the Internet Computer Protocol: the decentralization of the web platforms
Twitter’s founder lately announced the web5 concept whose pillars are the same as the Internet Computer Protocol. Will decentralized web platforms be the future of the internet?
Jack Dorsey, founder and former CEO of Twitter lately announced the web5: an extra decentralized web platform. That’s what “Block”, his new company is currently building.
After a time of staying silent Block now want to compete with web3 VCs dropping the web5.
Based on the premises of the presentation they published online, they want to build a decentralized web platform that is not possible to be built in current web3 infrastructures.
Neither than one. The Internet Computer Protocol. Which is already a decentralized web platform.
The ICP, in fact, is ready to host everything the web5 is promising through its technology and infrastructure.
Could the blockchain web replace the cloud-based web? Will it be necessary?
Early to know, it’s the new innovation of the internet we should dig deeper and understand it.
In this article, we’re going to go deeper into the features Block’s web5 is promising and the infrastructure of the ICP which work as a decentralized web platform.
What is web5?
“Web5 is a Decentralized web Platform that enables developers to leverage Decentralized Identifiers, Verifiable Credentials, and Decentralized Web Nodes to write Decentralized Web Apps, returning ownership and control over identity and data to individuals.”
The vision of the evolution of web5:
In this slide, Block shows the differences between what is web2 today on the left and how they want to see the evolution of the internet.
Internet Computer Protocol is a decentralized web platform as Jack Dorsey’s web5
The Internet Computer Protocol solves the same problem by creating a public internet layer based on blockchain technology.
What is already built, the mission, and the vision of Internet Computer Protocol is to create a public resource of decentralized cloud computing with high performance and infinite capacity.
How?
You can build up everything on top of the canisters. Your dapp would be 100% hosted on the blockchain, made up of decentralized data centers and nodes.
Dapps built in the ICP are 100% decentralized, 100% on blockchain.
It’s what Jack Dorsey/Block wants to do, but why are they rebranding it on web5?
Why Jack Dorsey and Block are talking about web5?
Web5 concept wants to unite what today has been called web3 and what web2 is.
The definition we can read in the figure is trying to take distances from the cloud-based apps that are currently popular in the web3 community.
As Block web5, the Internet Computer does the same providing a decentralized blockchain web layer governed by the NNS, a DAO, and you can build everything 100% on-chain.
Rebranding it “web5” for making differences among cloud-based web3 dapps.
Today, everyone who’s building using blockchain technology is claiming to build web3. But it’s not 100% true.
Most of the “web3” dapps are in fact using blockchain just for minimal logic and data. The rest of the dapp is cloud-based, the cloud is the technology everyone uses in web2, and clouds are corporate-based: built and managed by private companies.
Is cloud service a problem? Generally not. We’re all using it. But for creating the web3 vision and real degrees of decentralization is important.
How dapps currently work:
How they work in the Internet Computer:
How they would work in the web5:
The pillars of web5 and how they are already built in the Internet Computer
In the next slides of Block’s web5 presentation, they present the pillars of web5.
In this paragraph, we’re going to have a look at the similarities from the pillars of the web5 and the infrastructure of ICP.
Decentralized Identifiers like Internet Identity
The Internet Identity blockchain authentication system enables you to sign in securely and anonymously to dapps on the Internet Computer.
Internet Identity builds on the WebAuthn protocol and uses secure cryptographic authentication, giving users three options to authenticate themselves:
- The built-in biometric authentication methods in your smartphone or your laptop (e.g., Face ID, Touch ID, or fingerprint scanner).
- The password or pin that users normally use to unlock their computer or mobile phone.
- A security key plugged into the USB port of your computer (e.g., YubiKey).
Verifiable Credentials as NFTs and SBT
Having verifiable credentials is possible through NFTs and Soulbound Tokens(SBT).
What is an NFT?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency. This differs from fungible tokens like cryptocurrencies, which are identical to each other and, therefore, can serve as a medium for commercial transactions.
Forbes. “What Is An NFT? Non-Fungible Tokens Explained.” Accessed Feb. 18, 2022.
What are Soulbound Tokens (SBTs)?
SBTs or Soulbound tokens are non-transferable and publicly visible tokens linked to the soul address. It helps in creating social identity through tokens to enable the services currently absent in the Web 3.0 and DeFi ecosystem such as undercollateralized lending or simple contracts, like an apartment lease.
Cryptotimes. “What are Soulbound tokens (SBTs) & How do they work?”
NFTs are tradable, instead, SBTs are not tradable. Depending on the use case, one of the two technology would be able to create the possibility to have verifiable credentials.
Decentralized web nodes as The ICA independent datacenters
The Internet Computer blockchain is not physical hardware that exists in any physical location. Instead, the Internet Computer blockchain combines computing resources provided by independently-operated data centers around the world.
Unlike a public or private cloud, the Internet Computer blockchain is not owned and operated by a single private company. Instead, the Internet Computer blockchain is a public utility with updates and operations that are managed through an algorithmic, decentralized governance system defined in the protocol. Its architecture enables multiple computers to operate like one, very powerful, virtual machine.
The nodes located in data centers around the globe that make up the Internet Computer are organized into subnet blockchains that in turn connect to each other using Chain Key cryptography. The distributed architecture enables secure communication without firewalls or technologies that are vulnerable to attack. Independent node operators pay data centers to host their nodes and receive remuneration for contributing computing capacity and hosting services to support dapps running on the Internet Computer blockchain.
To know more watch the status of the nodes and learn about the state and direction of decentralization of nodes on the Internet Computer
Is correct to say the Internet Computer Protocol is already web5? Probably yes.
Will the Internet Computer, web5 and decentralized web platforms be the next Internet innovation?
The concept of a decentralized web that puts you in control of your data and identity is powerful.
It gives back power to the people.
It helps innovation to breathe.
It limits the stagnation of power.
Reducing the barriers the giants put to the innovation means giving the people the possibility to create, organize and lead new projects.
It’s easier if there is competition to push new systems which care about the users. It’s what blockchain already does and will do in the future.
Interoperability and scalability are two main features needed for building the new Internet, calling it web3 or web5.
Blockchain and web3 until now are still a niche and not ready for mass adoption, until people will use them without knowing them.
Do you think your mother knows how the internet works? No, but she’s still texting you through the mobile.
It may be useful to start from the ground. Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision was about decentralization of the internet and nowadays web3 dapps are still not in the state as we have seen before.
(decentralization≠communism)
For reaching decentralization we need to start from the ground structure of the Internet, the new web should not rely upon web2 infrastructures.
An independent decentralized web platform, with decentralized data centers, digital identity and verifiable credentials can be the pillars of the new Internet.
And that’s where the blockchain storyline is going forward.
I hope you enjoyed the reading. If you arrived to read this I want to thank you! It took me a while to write this article. I am always happy to connect. You can find me on Twitter @pinoweb3
Main Sources:
https://developer.tbd.website/projects/web5/
https://dfinity.org/icig.pdf
https://internetcomputer.org/
https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/
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