Bitcoin Forum

I know the idea of Web5 is still brand new (I think maybe the first one or two Web5 apps came out recently or are about to come out), but being based on Bitcoin and other decentralized technology I think it seems like a much more firm basis to build a "web 3.0" crypto economy than the token/gambling focus of Web3.


Anybody on here looked into the Web5 concept a bunch? What are your thoughts?

I think Web3 is looking more and more like a failure. As it has ended up just focusing on silly useless NFT pictures and an endless creation of token gambling projects. The idea of Web5 seems to be more about actually building a decentralized app economy with Bitcoin as its currency, rather than the hodgepodge of endless fads and investment schemes that make up Web3. The idea of tokens I think is what will end up killing off the smart contract chains and Web3 - because instead of building useful things it just draws everyone (creators and consumers) into get-rich-quick money making schemes which ultimately fall apart because there is no substance to them. That's not how you build a sustainable economy. Crypto tokens makes the focus on money making schemes, rather than actual businesses. I'm not totally informed on Web5 but it seems to be the idea of making actual decentralized apps with decentralized identity and data storage with decentralized payments with Bitcoin.

To be honest, I had never even heard of the Web5 concept until now. Are you sure it's a real thing and not just someone's whim?

I do have one question, though: What happened to Web 4?

You're not sure of this as well, just as FatFort replied, am also hearing about this for the first time, there are lots of questions to ask about this if really an idea coming on board sooner, who is or are under this development, gow is it going to be applicable to the bitcoin network and technology, we know of web2 web3, while web4 is either under work or research, but we've heard alot about the metaverse technology, maybe OP could also ve referring to this, or rather he might also be referring to 5G network which either of them all is not under web5, maybe OP could as well enlighten us more with possible links that suggestion the development or introduction of this web5 technology.


Let's see where this current web3 is heading into before we batch into web4 and so on, isn't it good taking a step at a time?

Lmao that's my very question as I'm reading OP's post. But apparently the reason why it's called web5 instead of Web4 is because it's a combination of Web3 and Web2 so yeah make it make sense lol. In any case they see a future of the internet built over the second layer of bitcoin blockchain which is ambitious and stupid at the same time cause why would you make a whole network shoulder the burden of an entire infrastructure like the Internet? Anywho, it's stupid, I don't think it's going to be a thing when Web3 is a more effective answer to the current problems that we have with the Web2 infrastructure, plus there's just no real merit to including "old internet" principles with the new one just so you can make an "innovative version of the internet" it's like putting food on a stick and calling it a different dish.

well, whatever they will come up with, the usability of this will depend on the users. once they deployed, we can easily see if people will be patrons of it or not. because look at what we have now, most are still sticking with web 2.0 applications. and those that are claiming to be web 3 are not totally web 3 in features. so they can create this web 5 or whatever they want to upgrade, but at the end of the day, you need to look at the practicality of things so people would use it in their everyday transactions.

It's a real thing as far as I know but the idea is still being structured. IIRC, it was originally announced late last year or early this year by Jack Dorsey shortly after the finalization of the twitter buyout deal. Prior to the announcement of the creation of the web5 idea, there was no official web4 concepts that were live.

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@OP, Web5 is very much promising and I'm excited about it. However, I do think that it's happening a bit too soon. Maybe in the nrxt decade, sure but right now, not so much. It has its own pros and cons.

Looks like it has been in development since 2022[1]. I guess the main difference will be the decentralized web applications, although I don't see how much it will differ since there is no demo or something similar. As of now, I don't think it will bring benefits to the Bitcoin ecosystem in general if the technical requirement to use them is somewhat high. Some people don't level feel comfortable with a self-custody wallet, I doubt anything more decentralized and technical will attract them.

[1] https://developer.tbd.website/projects/web5/

Web3 has been a fad ever since the early days of the infrastructure development and even the bright minds of crypto space such as Vitalik or Dorsey just had a negative reaction towards the development. Vitalik once pointed out that NFT has been just helpful for gamblers where they risk their money to make more money but there has never been any underlying use-case for the same. For example, NFTs can always be used as gaming items such as purchasing digital lands or having a monetary economy in a vibrant game such as GTA or as a way of rewarding the digital artists such as Beeple but anything more than that has been seen as an easy way to lure investors and make money and disappear along with the whole company  ;D

Similarly Defi has been helpful for building decentralized banking solutions such as Maker , AAVE or Uniswap but creating shitcoins and pumping or dumping our bags is more or less related to gambling which was never the reason they were initially developed for. Web5 TBH is more promising and many entrepreneurs such as Dorsey has been supportive towards the vision and goal. Internet is a decentralized social phenomenon and transacting fiat currencies in this place will obviously move the power again to the governments but developing solutions to use Bitcoin as a currency of the internet is more or less related to the vision of the decentralization.

As you have said, 95% of the web3 applications are a pyramid manipulative scam paving way for get-rich-quick schemes and creation of real businesses or any kind of innovation has reached a saturation point. In the 2021 solana pump, almost every nft project which were created during the hype failed and majority ran out of businesses thereby running away with investors money  :D So tackle this situation and to trash this scam mania, web5 should be developed by builders asap.

I think saying Web3 focus is on coin and gambling now does prove that you can give something a bad name... I mean it wasn't too long ago when they said Bitcoin was also a fad because it was focused on gambling and speculation. Or AI for gaming and marketing and content creation.

Erroneous on both counts (the focus). The most visible activity, sure. The majority of utility, sure. But I'm pretty excited by web3 concepts of more user ownership of personal info, and removal of single points of failure for data storage or host -- these align with some Bitcoin foundational philosophies.

I doubt that many NFT projects really are web3. Just as few DEXs were truly Web3 (exhibiting only self-custody features).

I believe OP is referring to this
https://developer.tbd.website/projects/web5/

but it seems like a very immature project yet. At the moment I haven't even followed the developments of web3 with interest but basically what are the differences?

To the people commenting that they haven't heard of it. Yes it is a real thing. Just google "Web5" or go here: https://developer.tbd.website/

It was proposed a year ago by Jack Dorsey and the infrastructure and the first apps for it have been worked on for the past year. But yeah its just starting. From what I understand Jack Dorsey launched a division of his Block company, called TBD, a year ago to start developing the protocols and work on the initial infrastructure and apps of Web5.

And I assume it was called Web5 as opposed to Web4 just to separate it from the Web3 idea, because of Web3 turned into just a scammy altcoin fad mess so they don't want to have people think it is just an iteration or update to Web3. That would be my guess as to why it isn't named Web4.

I don't know about it in technical detail but from what I understand it somehow uses Bitcoin (as well as other decentralized tech) as the backbone of its infrastructure. The primary features of Web5 are decentralized identity and personal ownership of your data and decentralized web nodes, with bitcoin and stablecoins being the payments rails for Web5.

So, it's basically like what Web3 was supposed to be but turned out not to be, and uses Bitcoin rather than a bunch of random altcoins. Whereas Web3 basically devolved into being a bunch of centralized scammy and token-based gambling apps (the idea of DeFi basically turned into "GambleFi" and was never very decentralized in the first place), Web5's goal is to actually be a network of decentralized apps built on real decentralized tech like Bitcoin. Web3 turned into just centralized blockchain apps to mess around with mostly useless tokens, so it completely failed to be the "decentalized app internet" it was supposed to be. Web5 picks up this idea where Web3 failed.

I believe I heard about the first Web5 app, a messaging app, being launched recently, or maybe about to launch, though I can't find it at the moment searching online for it.

So yes it is very early right now and is in more the infrastructure building phase than actual apps being out for it yet.

My first time reading about web 5, when web 3 hasn't even made any significant progress in term of development and adoption, well, maybe there have been some progress in development, but sincere, we can't say same for adoption..

And yeah, you are definitely right about all the shit and scam tokens and NFTs being sold out in the name of decentralized web 3 ecosystem, but then,  how will using bitcoin as a base currency in web 5 help matters, will this not involve building decentralized apps on Bitcoin blockchain which might result in a another congested network which leads to high transaction cost on the chain?.

Actually web5 is just a concept and not really real, it can even be said as people's imagination, only Web3 is a real concept and has been implemented on the internet. Moreover to say that web3 is a failure is quite unreasonable, considering that this concept is just being developed and there are not many users globally and it still needs to be developed further. This concept should be further developed in the future, considering that many people are quite enthusiastic about the presence of Web3 on the internet.

Too early for web5 right now, why even create topic about it? It's upcoming and we aren't even into web3 yet, why Web5? I don't care which ever is going to work out, whatever works work, and what will matter is experience.

The different is not even like that of layer 1 vs layer 2 projects, so we shouldn't be talking about web5 right now, Let's focus on web3 and see if it will work as it looks promising right now.

I am still in doubt about Web3 because it look like a fad right now, something that's not going to show anything on the long run, im still waiting for any development that will make Web3 a success.

Marketing hard at work. Skip Web4, go straight to Web5. Or skip that too and go for Web6. Or Web95, that number worked great for Windows. Followed by Web360 and Web2000.

--Knight Hider

Things are happening so fast that we haven't even learned what's on web3 yet not we do have this web5. It wouldn't be surprising if there are AIs involved in this stage of the internet but it gonna get more complicated since there is also an update about G5 which I think the G6 is coming.

I couldn't keep up with what is new. If there is anything that is to know, there will be hyped about it and scams about it. And I guess its the scam that will force us to learn what's on this web5.

One grows weary of hearing the same catchphrases over and over, dont you? Web3, Web5,. We stumble over overstated concepts and broken promises like we're competing in the digital Olympics.

Currently, Web3 appears to be in hot water. I share your sentiments about how it has declined, particularly as a facility for the production of dubious coins and NFTs. While we marvel at what Web5 can accomplish, I do worry if we are simply replacing one buzzword with another.

A welcome change is the emphasis on decentralized identification, data storage, and payments, as well as on Bitcoin-using apps. However, we must carefully consider any scale challenges and potential problems with Web5 before we crown it as king. Being cautious is crucial, especially in the volatile cryptosphere.

Yours is even better, at least you know the concept of Web3 and 4. As for me,I have no idea on the concept of web3 so I am planning to make a rigorous study on this web3 technology. And this thread make me to navigate the internet and I come out with this https://builtin.com/blockchain/web5, From what I discovered, web5 is the upgraded version of web3 is like Bitcoin blockchain that individuals control their data in the net. This will be nice for the Cryptocurrency blockchain.

Thanks for the reference link. It's just filled with buzz words. Based on what I've seen so far, it doesn't have much difference compared to the web3 we have today other than the fact that it just adds another layer of complexity in a bit to decentralize more things like nodes. If it's true that only Bitcoin would be utilized, it would be interesting to know how they plan to keep decentralized nodes up and running without incentivizing node runners.

At this point in crypto, our primary concern should be simplifying abstract concepts and reduce the barrier to entry to the barest minimum if we want to achieve mass adoption.

Ahahaha, funny you come up with this (semi-)scam just now. It's not new at all. I heard about this over one years ago and dismissed it on the spot.
So, as others have stated already, web5 is just a pure marketing name.

I'd highly recommend to watch this awesome 2-minute summary by fireship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDZWWFSZUF0
Probably all you need to know in there.

Personally I am waiting for webXP /s

As far as I understand Web3 is yet to be fully developed and it still needs a lot of time to be fully functional while web5 is just some plans and the grounds for it are yet formed.   I also agree with the reply that this web5 thing is only buzz word or someone just announced it for dibs. 

Web3 is yet to be fully developed and integrated so this web5 stuff will not happen anytime soon.

People comes up the idea and call it web5 for marketing gimmick. Even there's no firm idea how web3 works and even fully integrated, web4 and web5 already exists by their own terms and definitions.
In fact, most internet users just interact more on web2 concept of internet.

Unfortunately, even web3 and it wasn’t fully used and explored well for many reasons and one of the important reasons is security, people are afraid of even trying or apply web3 applications for their companies because of several attempts and breaches in hacking these applications which leads every time to huge losses. Without talking about the noose formed by govs against crypto and anything related to such as web3.
Web4 is a better development in my opinion and a very useful one after merging AI with many applications and discovering the limitless of artificial intelligence, But web5 honestly i have no information about it yet. And i think it’s a bit early to go for it as we may still see more updates with Web4 and AI.

You mean that crappy spin-off by the founder of twitter?

Garbage. Just a tacky marketing scheme to promote his own language and ecosystem. There is no chance that he will be able to conquer the internet with web5, when web3 already exists and is serving a fantastic purpose.


If you are only looking in the areas where you will see silly NFT pictures, token gambling projects, "endless fads" (fads always end, btw, makes no sense) or investment schemes, then of course your opinion of web3 will be skewed. The fact is that this is extremely incorrect. If you take away the bad and look at the technologies that have been created via web3, especially that of what is within decentralized finance then you will see that web3 is actually extremely prosperous and enables a lot of good capabilities that will improve day to day life, if crypto is adopted as a mainstream currency.


It seems that you are not totally informed on web3 just as much as you are not informed about web5. Decentralized apps, identity, data storage, payments with Bitcoin, are all possible with web3.

Indeed, they are just trying to hype their project and for sure just want to get the money from the investors.
Web3 are still not fully operational since many are still using the normal Web option and if a project already claims to be the Web5 and have a good innovation, better to think again before investing.

Exactly, we are still not done with Web3 and if there's a Web5 already that only means Web3 is not that good.
Though I still see some projects coming in using the Web3 platform and its promising. That statement for having a Web5 technology is indeed using it for their marketing gimmick, many will surely follow that hype but if you know how to analyze a project, you can easily notice what is fake here.

Web3 didn't just fade away but it was never really used much for developments as of now, and I thought we are yet to enter the era of web3 now I'm hearing about web5 already, we should first give some time and space to web3 and see if apps and platforms developed using the actual web3 tools and techniques work well or not, and then we should reach a conclusion if it doesn't work as per our expectations, we have only seen it being hyped but not being used.

Whatever projects promoted themselves to have utilized web3 actually lied, I've not seen a single platform that has actually utilized web3 technology and didn't just use the name for marketing, so I personally believe web3 needs its time, and developers need to focus on it and use it so that it can be seen by the world.

I believe there is currently no significant outlook for both of them. Web 3.0 does not yet deliver its promises, in fact, currently, it is recognized as a scam for regular users. While on the other hand, Web5 is merely a buzzword to mock Web3 developments. It does have an attempt to solve crucial issues that Web3 lack of, but as of now, there isn't any hope it would be achieved sooner.

A lot of time and development still required to make it perfect, and also solid and rigid usecase is also essential in order for both these thing became popular.

Tech for it is so far away, and the concept could be done with something else than bitcoin. Jack Dorsey who came up with the web5 term is just a bitcoin maxi.
But it's been a long time coming and after all the issues with are figured out, there will need to be tech that's so new it needs to be tested for years before anything big can be adopted into it. For a long time it will be just a hobbyist playground with ton of privacy and security exploits to deal with.

WEB3 has been fully realized as something technological. All we have seen is an attempt to speculate on this technology and nothing else. Whether it's WEB5, WEB25, etc., it's unlikely to change anything. All the technology in cryptocurrency is almost irrelevant, everyone just wants to make money. WEB3 has suffered the same fate, no one is properly using this technology, projects are trying to just parasitize on it and make money. Can this be considered a failure of technology or a failure? Hardly, because no one is not interested in the utilitarian features of technology, everyone is interested in how much you can earn on this technology, and most importantly, how fast.