9 Components of the Decentralised Ecosystem that we Need to Build a Decentralised Society

Last year, Sir Tim Berners-Lee revealed his new vision, one where the internet becomes decentralised again as he originally had envisioned it. His technology is called Solid POD. It will allow every internet user to store their own data, be it video; articles; wearable tracking data or comments, and share that with anyone or any website that has connected to the Solid ecosystem.

Using the Solid POD, the user will remain in full control over their data and who has access to it and who not. A great new initiative that will hopefully bring us closer to a decentralised society where data is owned by those who created it, privacy is protected, security is a given, and distributed ledger technology will enable trustless transactions among individuals, organisations and things.

However, distributed ledger technology, which includes blockchains, is still a very nascent technology, and the complete ecosystem is still under development. To achieve a decentralised society, many more components need to be built, requiring global standards and significant investments. I estimate that it will take another 3–5 years before the ecosystem is ready for full-scale, enterprise adoption. Fortunately, many startups are working on various components of this decentralised ecosystem.