Reliable internet
Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, offers the potential to manage financial affairs without the intervention of banks. It could also safeguard our privacy. TU Delft is working hard on research in this field.
Originally a paradise for all, the internet has been hijacked by companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. These internet giants trade in our data and can have a destabilising effect on democracies.
Earlier this year, researchers in the TU Delft blockchain lab and colleagues from Erasmus University Rotterdam and the UvA received €3.3 million for research into a new type of internet: the Internet of Trust.
The aim is to design a reliable and EU-compliant system that can store all kinds of transactions in a blockchain, a decentralised database, by combining ideas from computer science, economics and law. The plan is to have 50,000 internet users test whether the system is reliable and future-proof.
Project manager Johan Pouwelse explains: “Internet giants like Amazon, eBay and Google are essentially traders in trust. We use Amazon and eBay as trusted intermediaries, and go to Google for relevant websites. They each register confidential data separately on their own servers.
We want to replace these centralised, US-dominated servers with an open source alternative: a scalable and reliable way of maintaining trust and reputation.”
The Netherlands Identity Data Agency (RvIG) has joined the three universities in the project. Part of the RvIG’s contribution involves the development of a kind of electronic ID card based on blockchain, giving citizens greater control over their personal data. The idea is to use an app that shows who you are and only reveals information that is necessary in specific situations. For example, when you need to prove your age in the supermarket to pay for a bottle of wine, you can use the app to prove your age without revealing your date of birth.
The electronic passport could also be useful in the digital world. Currently, many online platforms still use Facebook or Twitter for logging on. However, with a digital stamp, that could become a thing
of the past.