From the Cypherpunk Manifesto (Web1) and Satoshi (Web3) to Web5

The evolution of the internet has always been driven by the visionaries and thinkers who dared to question the status quo. A recent interview on Robert Breedlove's "What is Money?" podcast provided fresh inspiration to writing this week’s #Web3Wednesday post on how the internet has and is evolving—and why Bitcoin (in my humble opinion) plays a crucial role in its future.

This post, inspired by that discussion, will dive deep into the historical evolutionary inflection points from Web1 to Web 3 and the future predictive unfoldments of Web4 & Web5, exploring how Bitcoin and decentralization are shaping the next generation of the web while we honor those whose shoulders we all stand on today that trailblazed this path we all have the privilege to embrace with our contributions.

The internet has evolved dramatically since its early days, transforming from a network of linked databases into an essential backbone of modern life. But as we look forward from the transition from Web2 to Web3 (currently underway) out and to Web5, it’s crucial to understand the journey that has led us here—from the Cypherpunk Manifesto’s vision of privacy and autonomy to Web1’s simple data-sharing architecture, Web2’s “read/write” unlock of user-generated-content and its missteps into platforms-take-all, larger-than-ever, walled gardens; to Web3’s reset of the data proxy and true ownership back to the network’s edge, and beyond. The internet as we know it, in its current state, is far from realizing its full potential.

However, with the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) at scale, Bitcoin, and data-driven economies, the promise (and mandate) of a truly decentralized web could finally be within reach, and just in time as we face true existential risks to a free society if it doesn’t emerge.

A Brief History of the Web

Web1 (READ) was a static, read-only experience, mainly used by banks and universities to store and access data. In this early iteration, the internet was more of a massive library than the interactive, user-driven space we now know.

Web2 (WRITE) brought personal identity online. Platforms like Facebook, Uber, and others got users to log in and engage with expensive digital utilities in exchange for their data creating exponential shareholder returns and demonetizing multiple legacy businesses from music to publishing and we saw the rise of personal influence platforms that rivaled and exceeded legacy networks of content distribution.

While this era brought us extreme convenience, utility, and global connectivity, it also created centralized power structures and a global harvesting of our most precious commodity where tech giants (like the Magnificent 7 stocks in the S&P 500) gained unprecedented control over our lives and data creating a global surveillance state and unsustainable path for personal freedom. We live in a polarized society today, experiencing what seems to be a loss of common-sense because of the algorithmic (and malicious) denial of service attacks this age of social-mobile web enabled against our ability to think.

Web3 (Own), catalyzed by the invention of the blockchain by Haber & Stornetta in 1991 and their follow-on inventions of what would become fungible and non-fungible locations (tokens) on a decentralized ledger in 1997, amplified 17 years later after several other attempts to solve the Byzantine General’s problem with Satoshi’s invention of Bitcoin published October 31, 2008.

Now a multi-trillion industry with alternative networks like Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, and thousands more, Web3 introduced sovereign, non-custodial ownership via private keys, giving individuals true ownership of their data and digital assets, and online identities. Decentralized networks allowed users to operate outside of the traditional web and central bank financial systems, but it also brought complexities and issues from friction to mass adoption and opportunistic fraudsters like SBF.

For a great pre-history of the Blockchain before during and beyond Bitcoin this interview from 2022 with Scott Stornetta is a great dissertation and dive down the rabbit hole.

Now, as we move billions of people from web2 to 2.5 and 3 in the coming 3-4 years into the mass-scale utility of affordable and exponential AI and the parallel curse of deepfakes, complex scams of automated social engineering etc., we stand at the edge of needing to rapidly initiate Web4, an era that will build a bridge between the current iteration of the web and the decentralized, user-owned internet of the future.

What Does Web4 Represent?

Web4 isn't just a placeholder between Web3 and Web5. It represents a crucial step in the evolution of how we interact with the internet. If Web3 was about decentralizing data ownership, Web4 is rethinking and re-engineering the infrastructure and technology stack for how we access, store, and verify that data, particularly in an era of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This phase focuses on peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol networks and the interoperability between decentralized applications (dApps). Imagine a world where your personal AI assistant runs on your own device, powered by your own data, and doesn’t rely on a centralized server with a single-point of failure. Web4 will also harness mesh networks and off-grid communication solutions, offering guaranteed resilience in the face of internet outages and censorship.

Web4 introduces critical advancements in privacy and ownership but stops short of full decentralization. It merely advances the ball once again and creates the framework that allows Web5 to flourish, preparing us for a future where ownership of data, hardware, and software is entirely in the hands of individuals, not corporations unlocking an era of regenerative capitalism built on top of a sound money system.

Enter Web5: A Bitcoin-Powered Revolution

Web5 takes the principles of Web4 to their logical conclusion, offering an internet where Bitcoin nodes and decentralized identifiers (DIDs) allow users to fully own their identities, data, and assets. With Bitcoin at its core, Web5 envisions a world where censorship is not just difficult—it’s impossible.

By enabling microtransactions through Bitcoin’s Lightning Network and other Layer 2 innovations, Web5 incentivizes users to run Bitcoin nodes, potentially earning passive income by facilitating data transfers. This will fundamentally change how we pay for internet services. Instead of a fixed monthly bill, users could be charged based on the amount of data they transfer, creating a more equitable system.

Moreover, verifiable credentials stored in decentralized digital wallets will allow users to prove aspects of their identity—like age or employment status—without revealing unnecessary personal information and receive peer-to-peer attestations that are incentivized with rewards. This decentralized web will be highly secure and offer greater control over privacy.

Tokenization, AI, and the Web of the Future

Artificial intelligence will play a central role in the evolution from Web4 to Web5. The tokenization of all real-world assets (RWAs) both physcial and digital will become the global token economy in totality. As AI continues to create content that blurs the line between human and machine, Web5 and the use of tokens (programmable digital containers representing the state change of anything of value that can be transacted on a ledger) will be integral in verifying identity and authenticity of all transactions. AI systems will rely heavily on verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers to distinguish between human users and bots.

Additionally, with AI’s growing demand for new data, the value of verifiable user data will skyrocket. Web5 will empower individuals to own, edit, and sell their data, flipping the current model of data exploitation on its head and providing a true option to create a universal basic income via data dividends and not through an unsustainable fiat debt-based currency debasement model.

Bitcoin as the Internet’s City in Cyberspace

Bitcoin isn’t just money—it’s becoming the architecture for a new internet. Think of Bitcoin as the city in cyberspace where roads never close. If one route is blocked, there’s always another path. This decentralized structure makes the internet uncensorable and resilient to outages.

Another deep dive fireside chat I had with Tim Draper on this concept from 2022 remains more relevant than ever today as these concepts begin to appear in multiple novel use cases.

In this future, Bitcoin’s role extends far beyond financial transactions. It becomes the foundational layer for Web5 applications—from file storage to decentralized finance (DeFi) operations—all without the need for centralized servers and on top of potential rails like the Internet Computer to bring the Bitcoin Standard to any number of other blockchain networks providing unique and additive utilities. This vision creates an uncensorable, open-source, peer-to-peer internet where data privacy, security, freedom, and ownership are guaranteed.

Conclusion: The Future Web will be Decentralized

Web5 represents the culmination of decades of innovation, embodying the ideals of the Cypherpunk Manifesto that initially inspired the internet’s creation. It aims to decentralize identity, data, and assets, providing an internet truly owned by its users.

Web3 and Web4 will be the bridges from where we are to where we need to go, but Web5 is the destination—one where Bitcoin powers a self-sovereign, censorship-resistant internet for all of humanity.

Start building your agentic future today! One place is available for the start this month. Contact us now at hi@brnz.ai!