I don't think the messaging is native. The base of the stack is DID, verified credentials, and data stores. Apps can be built on top of that. TBDex will be one of the apps and that will be the messaging system.

Modus

The technical details kind of go over my head, is there a way to build decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials without the decentralized web nodes?

bitcoin

Block's TBD Announces Web5, A Decentralized Web Platform

This has a lot of promise. I’m not sure how I feel about them building in a native messaging layer though. Do we really need that?