What is Web5?
Hello World! welcome, let's investigate the world of web5 together. Web2 and Web3 have been around for a while and this begs the question, why Web5?, what is it all about?, What point exactly are we driving at with this new development?, What problems do we have regarding the present web concepts(web2 and web3)?, Is web5 not another charade?.
I know you must have your questions too but don't worry, we are here to learn and I promise you nothing but a substantial knowledge on this new concept called web5.
What problems do we have regarding the present web concepts (web2 and web3)?
I will be focusing more on web2, in this present world of web2. Most internet resources have a centralised database, in which the owner/creator of this internet resource whether corporate/individual has total access to all users information that consumes its content and in most cases, these data are used for personal gains without the user's consent and are sometimes also exploited by malicious individuals with ill-intents.
One of the questions you must ask yourself is; how do this certain application or website know exactly what I want? How exactly was my Facebook account hacked? How was my identity stolen?
And the simple response is, most of these centralised platforms are not well secured and are sometimes exploited and this where web5 comes in.
I know web3 must have crossed your mind and that's exactly what crossed mine when I first heard of web5. Web3 is all about having a decentralised and secured data store where the owner of the data have sole responsibility of securing the data but after the initial outburst of web3, it somewhat lost its focus and now more geared towards finances as in cryptocurrencies i.e Bitcoin; and this is exactly what web5 has come to correct, bringing the focus back to data decentralisation and security. So what is it exactly about?
So, what is Web5 all about.
In a nutshell, web5 is all about giving the user of an internet resource, the sole right to their information and granting these users autonomy on how much of their information either personal/public they want to put out there and also who exactly they wish to give the access to in order to consume these information.
Web5 takes away the traditional sign-up and sign-in processes used in web2 applications. So as a web5 user, you are assigned a unique Id, know as Decentralised Identifier (DID) which will be used across all web5 oriented platforms. Meaning, as a user you'll have a single identity which can be used to access any internet resource built on web5 and this totally eliminates the need to remember a specific password for a particular platform.
Web5 is basically web2 + web3, meaning, still retaining the traditional ways of software development but making the data required to power these internet platforms decentralised.
Web5 is built on web3 decentralisation concept. Web5 is based on the assumption that Web3, the idea of building a decentralized web with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, has the right intentions but is using the wrong tools.
Web5 leverages Bitcoin, the decentralized monetary network, and a plethora of sound computer science technologies to create a new ecosystem of decentralized identities, data storage and applications in which the users are in control of their personal information.
Building blocks of Web5
Decentralised Identifier(DID)
Verifiable Credentials (VC)
Decentralised Web Node (DWN)
How do Web5 achieve its goals
At first what are the goals:
Data decentralisation
Data security
Encapsulation (revolutionising the world of fullstack development)
Identity security
Verifiable Credentials
Data decentralisation This decentralisation is achieved by the use of what is called Decentralised Web Node (DWN) . These DWN can be easily referred to as a data storage and I'll be using the term storage in the stead of DWN for this write-up. What exactly are these storages for? This storage serves as the data store that help to keep the user information/data. Unlike the regular web2 data storage where every user information is persisted into a centralised database owned by a corporate business or an individual, whereby the users have little to no control over their information, Web5 totally revamped this storage concept by making it decentralised and thereby giving data owner full autonomy to how their data is been used and shared.
So how is this achieved? Every user that consumes a web5 oriented internet resource has a unique data storage (DWN) assigned to them on their first visit and this storage is located in the users browser's local storage and also assigned a remote data storage (DWN) which can be only accessed by that user and whoever the user gives the access to, sounds interesting right!.
Data security Your data is very secured in the sense that you as the sole owner of this storage(DWN) decides who as in person or what as in internet platform, has access to specific information in your storage.
So how is this data security achieved? For every content you as user create on a web5 oriented internet platform, a rule (a term known as PROTOCOL) is attached to each and every content you create. This PROTOCOL contains rules like
Who can read your content
Who can write to content
Read as in view your content and Write as in who can contribute to, engage or edit your content. And one other benefit of web5 is that previous access granted to other users can revoked by you anytime you want to.
Encapsulation (revolutionising the world of fullstack development) I believe web5 will change the world of fullstack development, with the use of web5 API in your application development!, you really do not need to a separate web server to serve content to your frontend applications when it comes smaller applications development and also, the use of web5 API eliminates the need for separate data storage.
So how's this achieved? Web5 API is really magical, the same API can be used on both the client-side and server-side which makes everything way lot easier and simpler. Meaning, you get to consume this API the exact way it is been consumed on the server-side, with little to no extra configurations, depending on the library you employed for your client-side development or what platforms your are building for (mobile or web)
Identity security Your identity is secured in the sense that every Web5 user is assigned a unique global persistent ID, commonly referred to as the Decentralised Identifier (DID) which can be used across all web5 platforms. Meaning, as a web5 user, you are assigned a single and unique DID which be used as your identity on all web5 platforms.
Is it possible for a user to have multiple DIDs? YES It is very possible to have multiple DIDs. You as a user can decide to have a different identity for your career and a different identity for your social life, and it's okay to do that.
The DID is also one of the building blocks of Web5
The DID consists of a unique uniform resource identifier (URI) string that serves as an ID with an additional public key infrastructure (PKI) metadata describing the cryptographic keys and other fundamental PKI values linked to a unique, user-controlled, self-sovereign identifier in a target system such as the Bitcoin blockchain.
Verifiable Credential This is one of the building blocks of Web5. Verifiable credentials also known as VC helps to cement trust between businesses and individuals. A Verifiable Credential (VC) is a cryptographically-signed statement made by an issuer about a holder (or subject).
The issuer is the entity asserting a claim while the holder (subject) is the entity about whom the claim is being made. An example of a VC stating "Sam worked at company ABC for a while," Company ABC serves as the credible issuer, and Sam is identified as the subject.
One of the major benefits of VCs are that, they can be verified without the need of an intermediary. This is due to the fact that VCs are signed by the issuer with some fancy cryptography magic, and anyone can become a verifier to confirm that the claims are indeed the real-deal. It’s all about being sure that a claim (like Sam's employment status) isn't just a fluke.
So why are VCs useful?
- Can be used for online transactions with regards to qualification and authorization.
So Do we really need Web5?
Yes we really do, and this article verily points out it's unique purposes.
