Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, is not a big fan of blockchain
Having a decentralized Internet is the goal of web3. Do not depend on servers that store all the data, let the information be replicated and stored in multiple nodes, and digital identities can be reused on different platforms without violating the bases of user privacy.
It is clear that Blockchain offers a solution to this problem, since everything that is stored using this technology is perfectly traceable and inviolable, but it is not the only solution.
This has been indicated by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, who commented at the TNW conference that a decentralized architecture is necessary to give users control of their data, but not necessarily using blockchain.
While Web 2.0 was the web that was created with user-generated content, Web 3.0 is the web of decentralization, but Tim Berners-Lee is somewhat reluctant to use that name, preferring to build that new philosophy on a platform that he calls Solid.
The difference is that Web3 is based on the blockchain, while Solid is built with standard web tools and open specifications. In Solid, users’ private data is stored in decentralized data stores called “pods”, which can be hosted wherever the user wants, allowing each user to decide which applications can access their data.
Four pillars must be respected: interoperability, speed, scalability and privacy.
He believes that all of that cannot be done with blockchain, while with Solid it would be possible to prevent companies from misusing our data.
By decentralizing information we could, for example, put our photos and videos on the Internet in a decentralized way and tell Facebook, Linkedin or TikTok to publish the ones we want, without having to repeatedly upload the content on each platform. The data without ours, and the platforms use it in a controlled way.
Tim wanted the web to be that from the beginning, but over time it evolved into a giant publishing medium. Still, he is hopeful that everything will go back to how it should be.
