Jack Dorsey-backed TBD Launches New Web5 Toolkit to Decentralize the Internet

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.”