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# Refactoring the Web

Angie Jones reveals that users do not actually own their digital identities. Discover how Web5 empowers developers to build serverless apps where users truly control their personal data.

- **Speakers:** [Angie Jones](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@angie-jones)
- **Event:** World Congress 2023
- **Published:** August 11, 2023
- **Duration:** 37:37
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/597-refactoring-the-web

## Summary

Angie Jones explores the vulnerabilities of the traditional web and the promises of web5 in "Refactoring the Web," highlighting the critical need for a truly decentralized identity layer. Through the story of a user who loses access to her entire digital life after losing a single centralized email address, the presentation exposes the core flaw in the current web account model: users do not actually own their identities or data. The solution lies in web5, a paradigm combining the user-friendly convenience of web2 with the true user control of web3. By abstracting away underlying complexity, web5 empowers developers to build applications without the liability of hoarding and protecting user documentation. At the core of web5 are three open standards: decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, and decentralized web nodes. Decentralized identifiers function as user-owned digital anchors without unnecessarily placing personal data on a public ledger. Verifiable credentials enable trustless interactions by securely presenting validated claims, such as proof of income or medical records, to third parties. Meanwhile, decentralized web nodes act as personal data stores that decouple content from specific applications, enabling users to seamlessly carry their social networks and application preferences across services. For software developers, integrating web5 enables truly serverless architectures where identity and data storage are handled locally or synced across personal clouds. As Jones acutely notes, "decentralization alone is not a feature that most of your users are asking for"—it must function as a seamless implementation detail. With the web5 developer tools currently in tech preview, builders can query standardized schemas to read and write directly to a user's web node without managing proprietary databases, fundamentally refactoring how people own and interact with their digital footprints.

**Keywords:** web5, decentralized identity, decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, decentralized web nodes, user data ownership, open web standards, serverless application architecture, trustless online interactions, web5 sdk, identity wallet implementation, data portability, blockchain alternatives, personal data stores, decoupled application data

## Chapters

1. **The missing identity layer of the web** (00:00) — How the early internet democratized information exchange while failing to establish a secure identity layer free from third-party control.
1. **The fragility of centralized accounts and data** (03:10) — Tying personal online identities and content to universally centralized identifiers introduces significant risks of absolute data loss.
1. **Understanding Web5 architecture and decentralized identifiers** (05:57) — Combining localized accounts with the ethos of decentralization through modern open standards establishes true user-owned digital identifiers.
1. **Verifiable credentials for trustless online interactions** (10:15) — Cryptographically signed credentials allow untrusting entities to securely exchange verified context without maintaining centralized intermediate databases.
1. **Decoupling user data with decentralized web nodes** (12:04) — Housing personal and private digital content locally or on chosen decentralized storage helps prevent applications from locking user data away.
1. **Authenticating and querying data with standardized schemas** (14:24) — Resolving decentralized identifiers to locate user data via common schema definitions unlocks clean cross-application resource interoperability.
1. **Real-world use cases for portable decentralized data** (17:20) — Seamlessly migrating structured analytics between competing platforms prevents vendor lock-in and safely supports transferring private files like medical records.
1. **Implementing the Web5 SDK in software applications** (19:21) — Incorporating easily extensible JavaScript libraries enables developers to execute secure database operations directly against decentralized data stores.
1. **Audience Q&A on Web5 and decentralization protocols** (27:50) — Comparing modernized web deployments against alternative standards clarifies the incentive models for corporate adoption and data ledger security.
1. **Networking and upcoming live coding event announcements** (34:41) — Utilizing dedicated conference channels accelerates professional connections before transitioning into interactive live developer challenges and assessments.

## Related Moments

- [Core primitives of decentralized web applications](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1100-giving-the-individual-control-of-their-data-open-source-decentralized-web-nodes) (from "Giving the individual control of their data: Open Source Decentralized Web Nodes")
- [Rethinking data ownership in modern web architecture](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/928-break-the-chain-decentralized-solutions-for-today-s-web2-0-privacy-problems) (from "Break the Chain: Decentralized solutions for today’s Web2.0 privacy problems")
- [Empowering users with identity and asset ownership in Web3](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/635-web3-embracing-the-next-era-of-the-internet-within-a-web2-landscape) (from "Web3: Embracing the Next Era of the Internet Within a Web2 Landscape")
- [Introduction to the user-centric Web5 vision](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1100-giving-the-individual-control-of-their-data-open-source-decentralized-web-nodes) (from "Giving the individual control of their data: Open Source Decentralized Web Nodes")
- [Securing digital identity with decentralized identifiers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1100-giving-the-individual-control-of-their-data-open-source-decentralized-web-nodes) (from "Giving the individual control of their data: Open Source Decentralized Web Nodes")
- [Defining the transition natively toward web three decentralization](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/581-trust-as-the-key-concept-in-future-mobility) (from "Trust as the Key Concept in Future Mobility")

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