MIAMI BEACH, Florida – TBD, a division of Jack Dorsey’s financial-technology company Block (SQ), has launched a new open-source toolkit for its Web5 project, designed to make it easier for developers to create decentralized Internet applications.
The collection of technologies includes tamper-proof, self-owned identifiers similar to email addresses or usernames called decentralized identifiers (DIDs); secure digital certificates called verified credentials (VCs) that provide legal proof of things like name, age and ownership of assets; and decentralized web nodes (DWNs) that store data in a decentralized way.
The full Web5 platform is expected to launch later in 2023, but with this initial release, developers can start building decentralized applications on TBD’s developer platform.
“We’re at Bitcoin Miami right now. I’m here because I think Bitcoin is one of those open protocols for freedom,” said Mike Brock, general manager of TBD at Block. “And I think that’s what Web5 is as well.”
One of the first applications TBD will launch on their Web5 platform will be a remittance app for Africa and Mexico that uses bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins as payment rails. The app will be based on another TBD open source project called TBDex – a protocol for discovering liquidity and exchanging assets.
“We think remittances is probably the closest thing to a near-term killer app for bitcoin and stablecoins,” said Brock. “The international remittances market is a mess.”
Block, which unveiled Web5 in June 2022, describes the project as “a group of technologies that enhance the Web with decentralized identity, personal data storage and verifiable data exchange capabilities.”
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Today, the internet space is abuzz with a new launch by Jack Dorsey-backed TBD, a project striving to decentralize the current web infrastructure. The new venture, called Web5, has released its inaugural toolkit to the public in order to allow developers to create decentralized web apps and services.
The toolkit provides developers the necessary tools to build their own web-3.0 applications in line with the mission of TBD. This includes a number of development and API frameworks to allow developers to produce a more secure and accelerated web experience. Furthermore, it supports blockchain technologies and protocol layer protocols to build peer-to-peer applications and services.
This move will allow developers to break away from the centralized internet experience and support an open-source and decentralized platform. Web 5 hopes to solve the current challenges of scalability, cost and trustworthiness to the internet. It also allows developers to access the token data on compatible decentralized applications and Ethereum sidechains, while providing access to a set of analytics tools to troubleshoot and optimize their performance.
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and founder of TBD, was quoted saying, “The creation of Web5 will open up a whole new realm of possibilities for the internet and the development community, as well as create new opportunities for decentralized applications that will foster the free exchange of information and protect users’ privacy.”
Web5 stands to revolutionize how developers are able to interact with the decentralized web and may lead to a more secure and accessible internet. TBD and Jack Dorsey-backed efforts have been warmly welcomed, and will go a long way towards diversifying the web landscape in a more secure and cost-effective manner.