Web 3 killer? Jack Dorsey announces Bitcoin-based Web 5

Jack Dorsey announced a new crypto project—“Web5: The Decentralized Web Platform” on Friday on Twitter and in-person during a Web3 festival.

At CoinDesk’s Consensus Festival here Austin, Texas, The Block Head or TBD – the Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Dorsey’s Block (formerly SQ) – announced its new vision for a decentralized internet layer on Friday. The Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the new platform ‘Web5’, a combination of Web3 and Web 2.0, built on the Bitcoin blockchain.

While Web 5’s monetary layer will be built on the foundation of Bitcoin, the other technologies underpinning Web 5 are borrowed from myriad areas of cryptography and computer science.

In a statement shared with CoinDesk, TBD said: “Identity and personal data have become the property of third parties. Web 5 brings decentralized identity and data storage to individuals’ applications. It lets developers focus on creating delightful user experiences, while returning ownership of data and identity to individuals.”

While the new project from TBD was announced Friday, it is still under open-source development and does not have an official release date. Web 5, like Web 3, will allow users to interact with one another without intermediaries. This, in theory, means no threat from government censors or centralized service outages, among other supposed advantages. Web 5 will also aim to provide users with a “decentralized identity” allowing them to seamlessly move from application to application without needing to explicitly log in.

Meanwhile, Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and Block CEO Jack Dorsey are teaming up to take Bitcoin and financial education to the rapper’s childhood home, reports Bloomberg. Dorsey announced the launch of Bitcoin Academy on Thursday. The financial education program will be free for residents living at the Marcy Houses, a public housing complex in Brooklyn.