Father of the Internet: Web 3.0 does not need blockchain technology

The father of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, is credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW). He recently stated that the decentralized internet he wants to build with his Solid project does not require blockchain technology.

At a recent conference on The Next Web site, Tim Berners-Lee said that the decentralized internet he wants to promote doesn't need a blockchain. His vision for the web's successor: a decentralized architecture that puts users in control of their data.

Berners-Lee has long believed in the need to decentralize his own creation, the WWW. That's why, in the framework of The Next Web conference, when he was asked whether Web 3.0 met his aspirations, his answer was a simple but emphatic "no."

The Father of the Internet: The Ambition of Project Solid

Berners-Lee has been working on "Project Solid" for many years. It is built with standard web tools and open specifications, and Web 3.0 is based on blockchain.

In Berners-Lee's project, private information is stored in decentralized data stores called pods. They can be hosted anywhere the user wants. Users can then choose which apps can access their data. The idea of this project is to provide interoperability, speed, scalability and privacy.

"When you try to build these things on the blockchain, it just doesn't work," he said.

Berners-Lee speaks at World Wide Web Foundation's launch

According to Berners-Lee, Solid has two distinct purposes: One is to prevent companies from misusing our data for unsolicited purposes, manipulating voters, and generating clickbait. The second is to provide the opportunity to benefit from our information.

In this way, for example, healthcare data can be shared between trusted services to improve our treatments and support medical research.

"When part of the solution is in my head, part of the solution is in your head, and you're on the other side of the world, all connected to the Internet, I want to be able to solve problems. That's what I want for the World Wide Web. It's more Many places have become a means of distributing content, but it’s not lost.”

Tim Berners-Lee's World's First Web Server

Entering the Crypto World

Tim Berners-Lee is no stranger to the crypto world. In July 2021, an NFT with the original source code of the World Wide Web was sold for $5.43 million.

The auctioned NFT contains the original time-stamped file written by its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989 while working at the CERN lab. The company rejected Berners-Lee's idea as too vague to move forward.

Despite CERN's rejection, Berners-Lee remained optimistic and wrote implementations of the three languages and protocols himself. In the end, 9,555 lines of code became the internet.