Similar to the enterprise blockchain hype that happened a few years ago, Web3 seems to be repeating the same story, with lots of chatter but lagging adoption. Millions have rushed to trade crypto and NFTs attached to Web3 – with a lot of this activity based on speculation and hype – but that doesn’t mean they will replace legacy platforms anytime soon. New approaches such as DeFi (decentralized finance) don’t have the same problem of the legacy firms, but they face the challenge of scaling and mass adoption. However, many so-called ‘Web3’ solutions are not as decentralized as they seem, and still have to show they are scalable, secure and accessible enough for the mass market. This all may change, but there are clear limitations that will need to be overcome.

Whether Web3 is a marketing slogan or a true technological trend, there is a lot of money and technology behind it. Financial institutions are embracing blockchain technology and we are seeing a rising adoption of digital assets across industries. While the idea of utilizing digital currencies to exchange different forms of value in an increasingly digital world certainly makes sense, it’s a bigger leap to say that blockchain alone can support a broad set of use cases, including replacing the current Internet infrastructure.

The Internet’s client-server infrastructure replicates data and workloads across many computers, and uses tons of computing resources and energy while limiting the scalability of our applications. However, the clear inefficiencies and gaps in security in today’s centralized infrastructures are being challenged by simpler means of building, storing and exchanging data.

Blockchain is a clear evolution to the centralized client-server model, but there are severe challenges sourced from the blockchain trilemma between decentralization, scalability and security. Peer-to-peer systems transcend those challenges as they don’t require any valid2ation or verification from a third party, and enable end-to-end connections that can scale limitlessly without the potential of being altered or corrupted by intermediaries. In peer-to-peer systems, all participants are equally privileged, presenting a fairer model. Peer-to-peer represents an incredibly simple and efficient paradigm for organizing our digital world, and has already proven to be the most efficient alternative to centralized information systems.

Simply put, there is no reason to replicate full sets of data and workloads across many computers, and use tons of computing resources and energy while limiting the scalability of our applications. While there is an increasing reliance on blockchain principles to organize our Internet systems, blockchain also makes things redundant, slow, complex and energy intensive. To be clear, blockchain isn’t the problem, as it is a great technology to store and exchange value in a decentralized way, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.

By inter-connecting the computing processing power and storage capacity of billions of computers worldwide in a peer-to-peer way, data transfers could happen end-to-end between people and machines without the need to be verified. Peer-to-peer is also the only way to achieve a truly self-sovereign Internet – creating a ‘trustful’ environment that allows users and developers to have real data ownership.

Peer-to-peer systems aren’t meant to replace blockchains – they represent a way to decentralize models that blockchain cannot, such as Internet infrastructures. Peer-to-peer systems and blockchains, side by side. The best of both worlds. Peer-to-peer as the most efficient and decentralized alternative for us to exchange data and Internet resources. And blockchain for establishing trust through an irrefutable record of transactions.

With the rise of emerging technologies, a new technological foundation is needed to protect our sovereignty and freedom. The rise of blockchains, while well intended, ultimately has made the technological space more complex than ever before, and still benefits a plutocratic few (relative to its promise). More than just technology, peer-to-peer opens a world of new possibilities for humanity to co-initiate new paradigms and experiences.

By applying blockchain and peer-to-peer technology to the cloud, ThreeFold solves the security and autonomy issues of the Internet and realizes the initial promise of the Internet as an open-source, peer-to-peer, planetary mesh network of nodes owned by the people.

After introducing the ThreeFold Grid in part one and diving deep into storage and compute, we’re back with part 4 to look at the networking aspects of the ThreeFold Grid.

Computer networking is a rather complex phenomenon with a thankfully intuitive outcome: you send messages from one place to another. We all understand that our digital devices become a lot less interesting when they are not connected to the Internet. However, networking is not just Internet, and when it comes to building a new Internet, it’s important to understand what that means.

The existing Internet can be defined as a global set of networks and protocols that enable us to do things like load web pages and use apps that rely on external data. It depends on lots of underlying infrastructure, including fiber optic cables running along the ocean floor, our home routers and their connection to an Internet service provider (ISP), lots of cell service towers, and an increasing number of satellites. All of that makes the Internet possible, and it’s still required for a new Internet to function.

ThreeFold uses and builds new protocols to create a network that is interoperable with the existing Internet. These include private overlay networks, the Planetary Network based on Yggdrasil, and various interfaces to the public Internet. Let’s see how they work.

🔗Private overlay networks

Every deployment on the ThreeFold Grid belongs to a network, which is one of the Grid primitives. These networks allow data to be transmitted between workloads in a private and secure manner. They are called overlay networks because they pass traffic over some underlying network. That could be within a single node or between nodes on infrastructure provided by a farmer. The Grid uses software called WireGuard for this purpose, a simple, fast, and secure option among its alternatives.

By means of encryption, the traffic on a private overlay network is unreadable to any other device on that network. Likewise, the workloads within the private network have no visibility of the underlying network. Individuals who deploy workloads can access their networks over a secure tunnel, assuming that one of the nodes in the network is reachable from the public Internet. This is suitable for workload administration and some private applications. For public services and peer-to-peer communication, the ThreeFold Grid provides other solutions.

🔗Planetary Network

The Planetary Network is an implementation of the Yggdrasil Network, which is a next generation approach to network routing. It is a peer-to-peer solution where all traffic is encrypted and takes the shortest path to its destination. These features make it highly compatible with the ethos and goals of the ThreeFold Grid: privacy, security, and efficiency. The design also allows nodes, workloads, and users to communicate freely without relying on centralized intermediaries.

Many ThreeFold Farmers connect their nodes to a home router which blocks all inbound traffic by default. This is a sensible feature that doesn’t interfere with most Internet usage (enthusiasts who want to host their own website or a gaming server might bypass this, for example). However, nodes on the Grid need to be reachable, especially in order to receive workload definitions from deployers.

The Planetary Network solves this by accepting inbound traffic through an outbound connection to a publicly accessible peer. You can think of this like making a call to an operator and then waiting for another call to be routed to you on that line. Even if your phone is set to block all incoming calls, someone can still reach you if they can reach the operator.

This also provides a way for workloads to communicate with one another and be reachable by users. Anyone can enable the Planetary Network on their own device to access sites and services in a very secure and private way. While the ThreeFold Grid is designed to be fully interoperable with the existing Internet, the Planetary Network provides an alternative which can sit side by side in a seamless way.

🔗Reliable Message Bus

Using the Planetary Network, nodes and Grid users can send messages over the Reliable Message Bus. Notably, it is used for the delivery of workload definitions as mentioned earlier. Zero-OS supports some other RMB messages as well, for doing things like checking available capacity on a node in real time. RMB is a general purpose protocol that can be used by developers in their applications. It queries the ThreeFold Blockchain as a kind of address book for the Planetary Network, enabling nodes and users to find each other in a decentralized way.

🔗Public IPs and Web Gateways

Finally, let’s see how the Grid can offer services over the public Internet using public IP addresses and web gateways. Everytime we type a domain name into our browser, like threefold.io, it is resolved to an IP address. The browser then forms a connection with that address to retrieve the site we’re looking for. Reviving a theme from earlier, that IP must be publicly reachable.

🔗Public IPs

We’re in the midst of a shift from the older IPv4 standard to the newer IPv6 standard. While IPv6 has plenty of addresses for every device on the planet and many more, it hasn’t been universally adopted yet, and IPv4 addresses are in short supply. You likely have one assigned to your router at home, and these days, even getting a second one from your ISP can be a difficult and expensive proposition.

The ThreeFold Grid allows farmers who own blocks of IPv4 addresses to rent them out to deployers. These addresses get attached to individual workloads which are then reachable over the public Internet. A deployer could then assign their own domain name to that IP and host a website there. This is a very flexible way to make Grid deployments publicly available, but it comes at a relatively high cost.

🔗Web Gateways

Web gateways are another way to make workloads on the ThreeFold Grid available over the public Internet. In this case, the farmer may provide a domain name that points to one of their nodes which is publicly reachable. Deployers are then able to reserve a subdomain, like explorer.threefold.io is a subdomain of threefold.io, that routes traffic to their workload. It is also possible for a deployer to point their own domain to the gateway node which then routes traffic to the appropriate workloads.

We glossed over a bit in the earlier description of domain name to IP address resolution. In fact, multiple domains can point to a single IP address and this is common practice among existing web hosts. Adding similar functionality to the Grid helps to ease the demand for IPv4 addresses and is a lower cost solution for deployers than renting a dedicated IP. The web gateway also serves to enhance security and reliability of Grid-hosted services.

The gateway provides a connection from the public Internet to the secure private overlay networks that all workloads use. However, this is not a standard network connection but instead a network socket, which provides security through separation. This is something like passing along the contents of mail pieces without their envelopes. Web gateways also enable redundancy, as multiple gateways can point to the same workload, and multiple workloads can serve the same set of gateways.

When we say the ThreeFold Grid scales limitlessly, this is one of the ways that’s true. Many nodes, many gateways, many applications, and many users can all fit into this model. Deployers can start with a single virtual machine and a single public IP like in the example I’ll use to wrap up this piece below, then ramp up to a globally distributed and highly redundant system as their requirements grow.

🔗Send, receive, complete

Now we’ve seen how the ThreeFold Grid handles networking. From private and secure communication between workloads, to next generation peer-to-peer communication and full compatibility with the existing Internet, these offerings are comprehensive. Not only that, but they can be pretty darn fun to play with too.

In my own recent experience, I deployed a virtual machine on the Grid with a public IP and hosted a simple website with a map of nodes on the Grid that I’d been working on. I was able to quickly share it with some colleagues and members of the community. It went from a project I was tinkering with on my own computer to a live site on the Internet in a matter of minutes, thanks especially to the networking features of the ThreeFold Grid.

For the final piece of this series, we’ll see how everything comes together to turn computer code into a meaningful digital experience. Stay tuned!

🔗An Internet By the People

The ThreeFold Grid is formed by people from all around the world that connect Internet capacity to a peer-to-peer Infrastructure owned by humanity. Together, we expand a data-sovereign and planet-positive Internet infrastructure that puts people back in control of their data, and their digital lives. ThreeFold’s infrastructure can store all of humanity’s data – from personal data to public datasets and security archives – and can run all emerging technologies such as blockchain, IoT, and Big Data – with more efficiency and security.

ThreeFold flips the current data center model upside-down, and allows people around the globe to connect Internet capacity in the form of hardware, and earn income for it. This decentralized approach means that anyone can take part in the world’s largest and fastest growing economy – the Internet and Cloud. 

You can see now how this new Internet is by the people, but how about the latter? What does the ThreeFold Grid enable?

🔗An Internet For the People

Now anyone, anywhere can connect to the ThreeFold Grid and use capacity with some key advantages:

🔗A World Where we Own the Value of Our Data

Today, all of the data we create online sits inside of centralized data centers and we do not own it. ThreeFold turns terms & conditions on their head and gives us, the people, full control of our data rather than third parties. We can keep our data private, decide with whom to share it, and even decide on where it’s stored and located. And considering that our personal data is worth between US $1,000 and $20,000 per year, ThreeFold offers a direct way for us to own our digital life and the value attached to it.

🔗We Exchange Value Without Intermediaries

The “People’s Internet” is peer-to-peer. This means connections between senders and recipients are completely end-to-end, eliminating the need for any form of intermediaries from the model. Can you imagine what the world would look like without intermediaries? Let’s take an example like Airbnb.

Today, if you are looking for a place to stay on vacation, you will probably end up using the services of Airbnb. But did you know that Airbnb charges both consumers and property owners for using their service? In a peer-to-peer world, this wouldn’t be necessary. You’d simply access a database of property owners (possibly through a peer-to-peer marketplace) and be able to complete the transaction yourselves. No hidden fees, just a direct exchange of value!

🔗Applications Run on the Edge

In its essence, edge computing brings compute and storage closer to people (and the devices where it’s being gathered) rather than relying on a centralized data centers located on the other side of the planet. This is the essence of the ThreeFold Grid. So, data doesn’t suffer any latency issues (performance) and it’s far more efficient / money-saving. Further, the distributed nature of the Grid allows for true privacy and security. Edge computing is not just a growing trend but, because of the growing number of connected devices and global Internet usage, it’s becoming a real necessity.

🔗But what about the planet?

If you’ve been following us, you must already know that the Internet is responsible for 10% or more of the world’s energy consumption. And with decades of experience in the Internet and Cloud industry, ThreeFold co-founders knew how to turn this around. We developed a lightweight operating system and infrastructure, removing unnecessary layers of complexity from the traditional and Web3 models (actually, blockchains are making it even more complex). The ThreeFold technology is always geared towards maximum efficiency while maintaing performance. And with these advancements, we can already save up-to 90% energy on storage workloads.

Additionally, the distributed nature of the Grid uses less bandwidth (see above re: edge computing). It’s been reported that Netflix alone takes up 15% of the Internet’s bandwidth. What if Netflix were to leverage the ThreeFold Grid? If stored closer to watchers, we could reduce network usage considerably.

Our commitment to the planet goes beyond the technology. Through a partnership with Take Action Global (TAG), we aim to take three times more CO2 out of the air compared to what we put in. Imagine regenerating the earth while using the Internet?

At ThreeFold, we believe that it’s time for us to take back control. As the world turns more and more digital due to the pandemic and even just the natural progression of technology, it’s time that we not just realize the problems of today’s Internet, but that we do something about it.

This will happen! So join in, and spread the word! 

We have a lot more information in our manual about the technology, but what we want to emphasize here with you is that we don’t have to accept data leaks and hacking. There is an answer to the cybersecurity issues the world is facing. And that answer is ThreeFold.

If you’ve seen The Social Dilemma, you know all too well that today, people are being turned into products. Everything we do online – all of the data we upload and all of our digital activities – is tracked and oftentimes used against us. Targeted advertising is just the beginning.

Personal data is used by algorithms to make incredible important decisions, like whether someone should receive financial or health support or benefits. In China, people are now even receiving “scores” for their behaviors. It sounds like Black Mirror, but it’s real life.

That’s the scary part. The good news is that things don’t have to be this way. ThreeFold is building the engine for an Internet where people can finally be autonomous with their data.

With today’s Internet, infrastructure is centralized. Companies provide services in exchange for your personal data, which is stored on servers in hyper-scale data centers owned by private companies.

In ThreeFold’s model, those servers are called 3Nodes, and rather than sitting inside centralized data centers, they sit inside the homes or offices (or small data centers) owned by independent people and organizations called Farmers. But the data inside is owned by the person or persons who put it there. They maintain access right as well. From a technical standpoint, data is dispersed across 3Nodes by an algorithm that makes it such that nobody can access it. In addition, connections are peer-to-peer, meaning data goes directly between sender and recipient rather than passing through intermediaries as it does today – bringing further levels of security.

Thus, people can finally have data autonomy, knowing their data is safe, and truly theirs.

Just like a brain is an interconnected network of neurons, the Internet (or internet) is a global interconnected network of computers and devices that communicate with each other via the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). The communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture.

To create a new Internet from scratch, ThreeFold had to start at the operating system (OS) level. An operating system is a software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. And this is how Zero OS was born

🔗What makes Zero OS special?

Zero OS is a stateless and lightweight operating system. Given it has no shell, remote or server interface, it is much safer than the big majority of the OSs on the market. When storing your data on Zero OS, it is fingerprinted and made available only when requested by you or those you provide access to.

The state of an application represents its state of being in a given moment in time. Think of a stateless transaction as vending machines, a single request and a response. In ThreeFold’s Internet infrastructure, this can be represented as data being accessible only when requested. The only way to access data on Zero OS is via the private key (or fingerprint) of a user. In that sense, the data is not accessible unless the data owner requests access to it.

🔗How does Zero OS apply to developers?

Thanks to its lightweight architecture, Zero OS is a perfect fit to run microservice architectures and emerging IT workloads such as IoT, Blockchains, Big Data, and more. A key benefit of microservice architecture is the freedom it offers you to choose the best runtime for the task at hand.

Let’s take the example of decentralizing service-oriented developing teams. A common challenge there is that most of the time they don’t really understand the applications they are exposing. But no one knows the data infrastructure of the applications better than those who craft them.

ThreeFold permits decentralized developer teams with the ability to share keys (access) to the developing environment on Zero OS and the gateways to the world wide web within the secure peer-to-peer overlay network. This is game changing. Also with all the automation frameworks provided, it creates the perfect environment to develop current and emerging technologies.

Put shortly, decentralized development and integration is now officially an organizational or cultural change, not a technical one anymore.

🔗Zero OS allows anyone to provide sovereign capacity

Given stateless systems separate the OS configuration and user data, Zero OS simplifies the maintenance and the deployment of digital workloads, while making it impossible to hack into user data on a hardware level.

3Nodes provide all the storage, compute and network primitives for a new internet infrastructure. Given they are booted with Zero OS, anyone can now participate in the Internet economy without jeopardizing user data sovereignty and security.

Conclusively, Zero OS is ultra secure, perfect to develop current and future technologies, and enables anyone to take part in the planet positive and data sovereign Internet brought by ThreeFold.

Learn more about Zero OS and the grid primitives here.