🔗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! 

The other day, I came across a poignant article written by P.E. Moskowitz entitled “The internet is destroying our brains, but we can’t quit. It’s a factory we’re forced to work in without any pay.” As someone who started out in social media advertising (read: trying to capture peoples’ attention to get them to buy or do something often by using their data against them), worked in influencer marketing in its early days, and has now gone 180º to help to build a decentralized Internet by people and for people (where people are digitally sovereign), it really resonated with me.

It’s commonly-discussed (see: The Social Dilemma) and quite obvious if you use or have used the Internet and specifically social media, that we are addicted to being online. In fact, we’re actually even chemically triggered by social media and other online experiences. Said Jeff Orlowski, director of The Social Dilemma, “Social media powerhouses like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are “designed” to exploit users’ brain chemistry in order to keep them glued to their phones… They were designed to get us to come back. It’s to figure out how to reverse-engineer what we’re most vulnerable to, most susceptible to, to come back. And what we are seeing is a dopamine response in the brain.”

In their article, Moskowitz points out how the Internet is not just like a toxic relationship or junk food, where you can leave or stop yourself from eating, rather it’s “an all-encompassing technology, our main economic engine, the tool we are forced to use to meet others and mediate our entire lives.”

The truth is that the Internet has become more than an addiction, it’s become a necessity to keep up in today’s increasingly-digital world. Yet the Internet is not even accessible to about 40% of the global population – and for those who do have access, it does not serve us. It’s actually the other way around. We are the product.

“We produce the memes, tweets, posts, and pictures that keep us tethered to the internet, and then that content is monetized in the form of advertisements - revenue users help produce, but do not usually see a penny of,” says Moskowitz. We have become cogs in a machine that uses us for its own benefit. Or as they call it, “a factory we’re forced to work in without any pay.”

“Our entire society has been reformulated around the internet, much like it was centered around the factory during the Industrial Revolution. If there’s an Amazon Web Services outage, much of our society stops functioning. Without the internet, we couldn’t find jobs, or, at this point, even friends.”

🔗So, what do we do?

Moskowitz is correct in their thinking when they say the following, “A solution to our current internet-use crisis cannot come at an individual level anymore than one person quitting their job would solve capitalism’s poor working conditions. If we want any hope of making the internet less stressful, less back-breaking, and more fulfilling, content creators, gig economy workers, and even casual internet users need to push for a systemic solution.”

Simply pending less time on the Internet or using certain apps instead of others is not going to make much of a difference in the end. There are billions of people on the Internet today to make up for the loss. And the underlying system is still massively flawed and can be manipulated. Bold, widespread, systemic change is indeed what we need. A revolution, perhaps.

As pointed out recently in TGDaily, ThreeFold is that revolution.

ThreeFold is the engine for a new Internet, driven by a movement of people who care about a better future. With more than two decades of direct knowledge of the Internet and Cloud industries, we flipped today’s Internet on its head. We rebuilt the architecture from the ground up, with people and our planet at the center of our focus. Instead of relying on centralized hyper-scale data centers owned by a few private corporations, we provide the opportunity for people across the world with access to a network connection and electricity to plug in hardware and provide local capacity, and earn income while they are at it.

In our model, we prioritize simplicity, security, efficiency, and privacy. The technology runs autonomously, removing human error and malicious intent from the equation. Connections are peer-to-peer, meaning no middlemen get in the way of our content, our transactions, or other data. And importantly, people own their data. What we produce is ours. We decide where it gets stored and we decide who can access it (and for what value). In fact, it’s basically impossible from a technical standpoint for anybody to access someone’s data without their consent – including us.

On top of the technology, we provide experiences. People will have one single log-in and verifiable identity, and gain access to the tools (experiences) they need for communication and for work. As we are a decentralized movement, soon, anybody will be able to build anything they like on top of ThreeFold – but it is our vision and belief that the Internet should not be addictive. Rather a tool for all of humanity to connect, learn, and prosper – with people at the center, not treated as products.

To the author’s concern, content creators and gig economy workers would clearly benefit from such a digital world as well. Of course services like Airbnb or Uber or Etsy or even YouTube provide value as they are crowded marketplaces both for providers and customers. That said, they profit from people, typically on both sides of the transaction. In a peer-to-peer world, we can create fair and equal marketplaces where the content or product is owned completely by the person listing it there and the value goes 100% directly from person to person. This means no hidden fees, no uncertainty over ownership, no censorship or control from a third party. Of course it’s not all predetermined at this moment, but what I can say is that our biggest concerns in what we create are and will always be fairness and equality (and sustainability / regeneration). So, together, we will bring all of this tolife in the best interest of people.

🔗Join the Movement

In their article, Moskowitz concluded that “perhaps it is only a matter of time before enough of us say ‘enough,’ and protest the internet’s totalizing grasp on our labor and our lives.” But where does protest lead without a viable solution? Maybe this is the type of systemic change Moskowitz could imagine and could stand behind. It’s not a band-aid approach, rather a total re-imagination and re-execution of today’s flawed and manipulative Internet. It’s an Internet by people, for people. Instead of working in the factory, we become the factory co-owners – and the Internet works for us.

If you believe in what we are building, we invite you to join the movement:

• Become a farmer
• Stay updated on ThreeFold News
• Join the conversation
• Test the technology
• Follow us on Twitter
• Buy the ThreeFold Token
  
  

We are a growing group of people from around the world who not only believe what many of you believe, but we are doing something about it. Let’s grow the People’s Internet, together.

The United Nations publicly ruled Internet access to be a human right in 2016. Proper access to the Internet helps to protect people’s freedom of speech and thought, as well as other fundamentals such as access to knowledge and information.


Nonetheless, as of 2019, about 43% of humanity remains unconnected to the Internet, creating huge inequalities in access to information and knowledge. It is essential to take the necessary steps to strengthen the relationship between governments and people while still upholding all human rights.

ThreeFold created an infrastructure that is easily affordable and jointly operated by network peers to make the modern Internet open and fair to everyone. Anybody with a network connection and electricity can add capacity to the ThreeFold Grid. We’re looking for farmers around the globe and we’re also partnering with farming cooperatives to develop localized strategies and meet the specific needs of their region. Plus, the Foundation will incentivize and sponsor the extension and scope to areas that require Internet capacity the most, to ensure a fair and equitable delivery of the Internet to all.

Want to join the biggest internet revolution? Be part of it, today.

We have a lot more information in our wikis 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.

🔗So, how do I get a 3Node?

You can buy one of the ready-made nodes from cooperatives around the world. This is a good and very easy way to support the ThreeFold project and to “BE THE INTERNET.”

Today you can buy a 3Node via our website. We are also working with our farming cooperatives to decentralize the provisioning and distribution of hardware to a glocal approach (a global network of local networks). 

But what if 3Nodes are not immediately available? For example, last week we had a huge influx of orders for our Titan V2 3Nodes and sold out the entire batch with 3,000 extra orders. We’re now talking with many hardware distributors to make sure we can satsify all these orders, but this could take a while.

So if you are a little bit more adventurous, and want to build your 3Node from the ground up, yourself, here’s how to do it:

To “become the Internet” is fairly simple (but does take some technical knowledge and effort). Here’s what you’ll need:

• A computer with an INTEL or AMD brain, some memory, and some storage cabilities.
• A smartphone on which you can download and run the “ThreeFold Connect” app. This will provide you with a wallet (to receive your farmed TFT and to pay a very small amount of TFT to get started).
• A laptop / desktop (and USB stick) to launch your online 3Bot, configure your farm, download your bootloader and burn the bootloader to a USB stick.
• Some technical knowledge, interest and 45 minutes of time.
  
  

If you are still here and reading, we’re good to go! I go through the whole process in a 3-minute video which will give you a quick overview of how to set up your farm. (Click through to the video on YouTube and find helpful links in the description.)

Prefer a different format? We also have forum topics live about the pre-requirements and how to set up your 3Node (the steps I share in the video).

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this post and we hope to have you as part of our growing, global farming community. If you have any questions, please head to our forum or feel free to join us on our ThreeFold Farmer chat on Telegram.

Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash

🔗So what is this Smart Contract for IT about?

The Smart Contract for IT allows you, your company or your community to execute the storage and running of your files and applications securely with consensus and automatic billing. You could compare it as a fingerprint check and your data would be accessible only if presenting your private key (fingerprint). Let’s maybe go through the process for a better idea of how this works.

The smart contracts are like recipes for chefs to cook exactly what you want. In that sense they need to be very accurate and as descriptive as possible to deliver what you need. In the case of ThreeFold, the smart contracts would define different sets of Internet resources you would need to store files, run applications, or communicate across the network.

Whenever you want to reserve more resources to store your latest album or run your applications, you will define the resources you need to your 3Bot or Digital Twin (your personal virtual system administrators) which will then look at different smart contracts that are available and choose the most appropriate package. For e.g. Reserve 3 PB of Storage in Switzerland across 7 nodes.

Following that, your 3Bot or Digital Twin will create and register the smart contract in the blockchain database in a few seconds, providing you with all your specific needs. It will also store and secure some instructions to the BCDB for the nodes to meet smart contract completion.

ThreeFold had to make sure that user data would remain ultra-secure. Inspired by storage and communication algorithms used in space, we integrated it between the Smart Contract layer and Zero OS. The algorithm splits data into unrecognizable ‘slices’ that are distributed via network connections to different nodes locally or across the world, and that can be reconstructed only with your fingerprint.

🔗More than the average Smart Contract

Via your Smart Contract for IT, you can also define a consensus mechanism and create multi-signatures for smart contract execution or completion to deliver appropriate digital services in for example work related activities.

The beauty of the Smart Contract for IT is that it can work with thousands of connected nodes for the proper execution of any digital requirements on the infrastructure, verify if consensus was reached or not, download the right files to execute the smart contract and verify them, make sure that no hacker or outsider can ever gain access or influence its execution and more.

If you want to learn more about ThreeFold’s Smart Contract for IT, read more here.