A London blockchain startup is spending $30m on building ‘a new internet’
The roll-out of the Decentralised Architecture for a Democratic Internet, or DADI for short, begins today as the London-based blockchain startup seeks to build an internet run and owned by the public.
Labelled as a peer-to-peer network built on decentralised ledger technology, the Dadi network is promised to be up to 60 per cent cheaper to run that the internet’s existing infrastructure.
Powered and majority-owned by members of the public using spare computing power, Dadi hopes to take back control over the way in which we host, store and distribute data across the internet from tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft.
Major European media group Bauer Media is said to have already signed on to migrate their services and websites onto the new network, among a number of media brands using Dadi’s other web services in a traditional cloud setup.
The Dadi network was built by technology experts who have spent time at in leadership at brands like the BBC, Barclays and Nike, who spent four years and $2m (£1.6m) of their own personal funds in research and development before closing a $30m crowdfunding round in January this year.
Eventually, it would like to see its service replace the data centres managed and monetised by large tech companies. Dadi estimates that around 74 per cent of the market is controlled by the so-called Big Four: Microsoft (31 per cent), Amazon (26 per cent), IBM (9 per cent) and Google (8 per cent).
Consumers who want to join the Dadi network can earn income in exchange for their computing power, with 178,000 people registering interest in joining Dadi before it launched today.
Dadi’s founder and CEO Joseph Denne said: “A vast amount of computational power currently goes unused in homes and businesses, around the world. Expensive computers, games consoles, set-top boxes, smart televisions and other devices spend large amounts of their life unused or in standby mode. And that’s the power we’ll harness for this new network – drastically reducing reliance on expensive data centres that harm the environment.”
“In the same way that homeowners can now install solar panels and sell excess electricity back to the National Grid, the public will be able to connect their devices in the home to the Dadi network – earning passive income as a contributor and part-owner of a fairer, faster, safer internet.”