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WEB5 DOCS

Understanding Web5

Web5 is a forward-looking vision that seeks to create an extra-decentralized, privacy-first internet—one where users control their identity and own their data by emphasizing on-chain verification and off-chain computation.

The idea

Section titled “The idea”

The significance of Web5 lies in drawing a clear boundary visible to people: the boundary between non-custody and custody, high cost and low cost, censorable and censorship-resistant, self-sovereign and platform-sovereign.

Web5 = Web2 + Web3. Web2 is low-cost with good user experience but censorable, while Web3 is high-cost with poor user experience but censorship-resistant. Web2/Web3 represent two different goals, two different set of trade-offs, two worlds that need cooperation as well as clear boundaries. Without recognizing this point and always trying to pursue two conflicting goals within one architecture, the final result will be either getting nothing or having one devour another - usually the one optimize for short-term devour the one looking for long-term. As we see today, so-called decentralized applications endlessly compromise security and censorship-resistance for the sake of pursuing a web2-like experience. Only by acknowledging the existence of boundaries can both Web2/Web3 become better.

The boundary between Web2 and Web3 should be reflected in economic and technical architecture. The economic boundary is evident in the free experience of using Web2 versus the high costs of using Web3, including on-chain resource usage costs (such as transaction fees, on-chain computation fees, and rental for on-chain space), node operation costs, private key management costs, etc. The technical architecture boundary lies in whether censorship-resistance can be achieved. Only users willing to pay higher costs can truly enjoy the world of Web3 with fully owned, censorship-resistant assets. If user experience and low cost are prioritized over security and censorship-resistance, centralized or semi-centralized systems would be a better choice.

Explicit boundaries are what differentiate Web5 from Web3. The pursuit of clear boundaries in Web5 can enable a positive collaboration between the two worlds, making both Web2 and Web3 better. In contrast, in the worldview of Web3 or that everything should be on-chain, boundaries are vague, always trying to fit different goals and trade-offs into one or many blockchains, attempting to convince people that user experience, low cost, security, and censorship resistance can all be achieved simultaneously. In fact, this approach only makes Web3 increasingly resemble Web2.

How can Web5 make both Web2 and Web3 better? In the world of Web5, web5/3 should be open, verifiable, and censorship-resistant systems, such as L1 chains or L2 (rollups, channels) that can provide security and censorship resistance matching L1. This part trades costs for high security and censorship resistance. web5/2 is not censorship-resistant but can still achieve openness and verifiability. Openness means open-source code, migratable private data, accessible and replicable public data; verifiability means any node or client can locally verify requests/transactions/data related to itself are correct, such as nostr, atproto, DHT, semi-centralized/permissioned blockchains.

Only on this basis there’re choices. Web5 developers can choose and combine web5/2 and web5/3 tech to meet the needs of their respective scenarios, providing the best experience through web2 and secure, censorship-resistant assets/contracts through web3. Users with different needs and cost preferences can choose different web5 applications respectively, without being forced to accept a Web3 that increasingly resembles Web2.

The Tech Stack

Section titled “The Tech Stack”

At the end of the day, Web5 is a idea and a vision. It is also a series of principles on how to build the right software for the right purpose. By leverage these principles, we can explore and build tech stacks that embodies the vision of Web5.

It shall be noted that anyone can use their own tech stack to build Web5 applications. As long as the applications adhere to the principles of clear labeling, on-chain and off-chains, self-sovereignty, and user control, they can be considered part of the Web5 ecosystem. To explore such a tech stack, the Web5 fans have been putting efforts and proposed a specific Web5 tech stack that consists of the following core components:

It shall be noted that the above tech stack is just one of the possible implementations of Web5 principles. And such a effort is still at an early stage. We are trying to put these components together and will share more details in the near future. If you would love to learn more, please check out the web5-wips, which is a collection of Web5 Improvement Proposals (WIPs) that describe standards and protocols for the web5 tech stack. Join the discussion here.