Webnative

Webnative is a design philosophy and ecosystem for building web applications that place user-owned data at the center of the experience. In a webnative model, individuals control their data across apps and devices, and data can be moved or shared without lock-in to a single service. This approach emphasizes portability, privacy, and interoperability rather than data silos controlled by individual applications.

Core ideas include cryptographic identities, portable data formats, and decentralized or distributed syncing. Users own an identity backed by public-key cryptography, and data is addressable by content rather than by app-managed accounts. Applications access data through a common API rather than embedding data inside the app itself.

Technical architecture typically features a local data store that is content-addressed and versioned, a data model that supports files and directories with linked metadata, and a synchronization layer that can operate over peer-to-peer networks or privacy-preserving servers. Conflict resolution commonly relies on CRDTs to preserve consistency without centralized control.

The webnative stack often includes a browser-based file system and an application interface designed for cross-application interoperability. Projects describe workflows where users grant apps access to specific data while retaining ownership and control at the device level.

In development discourse, webnative is seen as part of the broader movement toward a decentralized or self-sovereign web, complementing or competing with other approaches such as decentralized storage, identity, and data portability initiatives. Challenges include standardization, performance, and user experience.