Over the past few years, we've heard a lot about Web3, blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies as "the future of the internet." More recently, another term has emerged: Web5. But what does it all mean? And, more importantly, what is the real difference between them? This article explains these concepts in a simple way—without technical jargon and without hype.
The internet has gone through several phases:
Today, our data, identity, and digital relationships belong to companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, or TikTok. Web 3 and Web 5 emerged as responses to this problem — but in very different ways.
Web3 is a vision of the internet based on blockchain and tokens (cryptocurrencies).
The central idea is: To replace companies with automated, code-based systems.
Instead of creating an account with email and password, you log into an application with a digital wallet.
Instead of a database, you use a blockchain.
Everything revolves around:
In practice, Web3 has created a huge decentralized digital financial market.
Despite the rhetoric of “freedom,” most of Web 3 has become:
The average user remains without true control—they have merely traded companies for financial markets.
Web 3 decentralizes technology, but recentralizes power in money.
Web 5 was proposed by Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) as a more human-centered alternative.
The central idea is: A decentralized internet without cryptocurrencies, tokens, or speculation.
Web 5 focuses on three things:
Each person has a personal digital vault where they store:
Applications request access to this data—they don’t save it.
In other words: Your data is yours. Always.
Web 3 created a new digital economy.
Web 5 attempts to create a new human internet.
An internet where:
This is not speculation.
This is about real digital freedom.
© 2026 Paulo Ferreira. All rights reserved.
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