Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wants to save his creation from centralization. But does it match Web3’s promise of salvation?
At the TNW Conference, the computer scientist gave a one-word answer:
“No.”
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That punch may seem to clash with Berners-Lee’s recent actions. The 67-year-old is now campaigning to save his “dysfunctional” brainchild from the clutches of Big Tech.
He has also made $5.4 million selling an NFT – one of the alleged mainstays of Web3.
But the Brit has his own vision for the successor to the web: a decentralized architecture that gives users control over their data.
Berners-Lee wants to build it on a platform he calls Solid – but you can also call it Web 3.0†
“We once talked about it as Web 3.0, because Web 2.0 was a term used for dysfunctioning what happens to user-generated content on the major platforms,” he said.
“People have called that Web 2.0, so if you want to call this Web 3.0, okay.”
It just doesn’t work on the blockchain.
Berners-Lee shares Web3’s purported mission to transfer data from Big Tech to the people. But he takes a different route to the goal.
While Web3 is based on blockchain, Solid is built with standard web tools and open specifications.
Private information is stored in decentralized data stores called ‘pods’, which can be hosted wherever the user chooses. They can then choose which apps can access their data.
This approach aims to provide interoperability, speed, scalability, and privacy.
“If you try to build that stuff on the blockchain, it just doesn’t work,” Berners-Lee said.
Berners-Lee says that Solid serves two different purposes. One is to prevent companies from misusing our data for unsolicited purposes, from voter manipulation to generating clickbait.
The other is to provide opportunities to take advantage of our information.
For example, healthcare data may be shared with trusted services to improve our treatment and support medical research.
Our photos, meanwhile, were able to be delivered to Facebook friends, LinkedIn colleagues, and Flickr followers without having to upload the photos to each platform.
This evokes Berners-Lee’s original goal of turning the web into a collaboration tool.
“I wanted to be able to solve problems when part of the solution is in my head and part of the solution is in your head, and you’re on the other side of the planet — connected through the Internet,” he said.
“That was the kind of thing I wanted the web for. It started to become more like a publishing medium, but all is not lost.”
Solid has yet to prove an effective cure, but the father of the internet still believes his wayward child can get back on track.