The Simple Goal
Our goal is not unique nor original as it is equivalent to many other amazing initiatives. Like others we want to create a collaborative instead of a competitive unequal society that we have today. We live in a system that promises opportunity, yet in practice amplifies inequality. Starting points are unequal, and because wealth generates more wealth, advantages compound over time. Access to capital, knowledge, and networks determines who gets ahead—and who gets left behind. The issue is not merely wealthy individuals, but a global system of capital and institutions designed to concentrate ownership over time. If you want to have a little 101 economics explanation of how this came about then please check our Status Quo chapter, but for now we recognize that the problem exists.
So how do we solve such a global problem ? To put it quite bluntly, we believe that each for profit organization should eventually become a non profit. This is obviously easier said than done, because well how are you going to survive if you spend your time volunteering for non profit organizations. On top of that not all sectors of the working life are as enjoyable to volunteer for as others, and not everyone has the time to volunteer even if they wanted to. We recognize these problems and therefore it won't be a switch over night. It will be a gradual process with lots of hick ups and obstacles on it's way but well that is also what makes it worth fighting for.
As stated, due to the economic system not everyone is as privileged with free time to work on this goal than others. We must recognize that if you are in a privileged position e.g you are from a rich country, have wealthy parents, are a student, can work part time to survive or you are retired then you will have the time to contribute to such a collaborative society. However, we must recognize that the more non profit organizations that exist the more likely others can gain time to contribute as well.
So where to start this journey ? Well, the lowest hanging fruit in this space are sectors where people can create massive impact with the least amount of effort. This space is by far the BIG TECH sector, because it is the sector that is the most wealthy, all other sectors are built on top of it, it replaces/disrupts peoples jobs, but most of all it is the easiest one to fight with a small effort of each individual. The idea is this, if you can change the most influential sector in this world then other sectors will follow suit. It is not a surprise that Deternet is focused on this.
The initiative
The
Deternet initiative seeks to build a global digital commons—one that is
decentralized,
open source, and collectively owned. This ecosystem would span hardware, software, telecommunications, hosting, and power infrastructure on a worldwide scale. Its approach centers on empowering a network of interconnected local hubs by providing them with the resources, knowledge, and support needed to grow and sustain this shared infrastructure.
Each hub would take responsibility for developing and maintaining systems within its region, while also helping individuals transition toward open-source tools and services in their everyday digital lives. The broader vision is to create ecosystems that function like open internet protocols—accessible to anyone, shaped by contributors everywhere, and free from centralized control. In this sense, it mirrors technologies like HTTPS, IPFS, Bittorent and DNS: universal standards that remain open rather than being owned by large tech corporations.
While much of the necessary infrastructure already exists, it is currently concentrated in the hands of a few dominant players. Part of the initiative’s mission, therefore, is to encourage established companies to participate and support this shift. This may be challenging, but with enough momentum, a decentralized movement could reach a tipping point—where organizations are faced with a choice: adapt and join, or risk becoming irrelevant.
The rest of this paper will discuss briefly these 5 different sectors that make the tech and therefore our modern society run. However, if you want go in depth and actually contribute to one or more of these sectors than enjoy the dedicated websites, community and documentation pages we have made for each of them. That is were you will find specifics, project roadmaps and contribution guidelines.
Software
We said that Big Tech is the easiest to change to a non profit compared to all the other sectors. Now, that statement is largely built on the software aspect of the digital infrastructure. That is because software can basically be replicated for free without others loosing access to it. That makes it a non rivalry good i.e no scarcity. However, why do we then have all these for profit applications that either charge a fee, extract all your personal data or they do both ;) ?
Ecosystems vs You Craft your Device
From device full of apps at the start to a black screen with no apps and start from grass roots
Today, BIG TECH focuses on creating ecosystems and preferably ecosystems that only interact with devices and accounts of the same corporation. Think of Apple for instance, there ecosystems is completely locked down and is not made to interact with other brands. You cannot share an Apple calendar with a person that uses android or another Calendar app. The same for photos, notes, email, iMessage, Airdrop, Find my all of these apps are integrated to only work with Apple devices. The same can be said for Google, Microsoft and yes even Proton is doing the same thing right now as well. The objective is clear ecosystems that don't interact and keep users locked in.
If you buy an iPhone then your phone already comes preinstalled with all the Apple Apps, iCloud and Apple Siri that works
The idea is not to have one corporation making all the apps but have an open source app made by a different group of volunteers for each type of app. For instance, a great photo app is Ente or Immich, while a great Calendar app is Silentsuite and a great note taking app is Joplin. Hence, it is not called Notes, Photos, Calendar etcetera as it is with current operating systems. No it is named all differently because it comes from different groups of volunteers. However, the goal is though for them to interact seamlessly with each other as wel. For instance a great journaling app like Journiv greatly integrates with Immich photos. In this way you don't need to store photos twice but have them stored once instead but used for different apps at the same time.
Apps and data needs to be stored somewhere in this physical world even though it might all seem non physical. Now, data can either be stored one someone else's computer or on your computer. Eventually, it is up to you how much you trust someone else's computer to store your data on. Finally, also there is a big difference between public and private data. One is completely happy that Wikipedi is public and that it is stored on other people's computers. In the end you wan that your contribution is seen by the world and not only to your self privately.
Nevertheless, today we are used that all is stored in the cloud. Sure, we have some laptops, phones local storage etcetera but most of it we safely store as a "backup" on someone else's computer i.e Apple, Facebook, Googlee's or Microsofts computers.
Now, we would like to create community run data centers that run open source apps on redundant infrastructure that everyone from that region can use for free. Today, there are no community driven data centers yet but there are community run open source application instances that people run for free completely based on donations.
A great example of this is vaultwarden.net and vaultwarden.uk. They are group of volunteers that went into a datacenter and actually installed three servers and run a kubernetes cluster instance of Vaultwarden for the world to use. It is completely based on donations to keep everything up and running i.e the costs for renting the datacenter space I suppose. Now, it must be said that this is an example of an application that barely uses any data. Hence, it is extremely cheap to host this for the whole world. However, it is still not free though. The reasons this also works is because the app is E2EE which is definitely a must if you let someone else host your precious data.
Now, not all apps are E2EE and hence that is where self hosting or a home lab comes in. With a home lab you are the only one that sees the data and no one else. Neither metadata that a maintainer of another server could see as well. For private data that is not E2EE it makes sense to do this. However, once it is E2EE then someone else could do the maintenance and you only donate to keep the project up and running just like Wikipedia for instance.
What about governments ?
Now, we could also say why not let governments solve this problem ? Well governments still work in the current economic systems. Even if public infrastructure is created then there is again a for profit company hired, paid by the public to build and maintain the infrastructure. Then we don't change the system, since it is not publicly owned and maintained but only publicly funded. The goal of Deternet is to create true non profits where people voluntary contribute their time and resources to make this happen. We need to be able to show that a non profit can exist and run without the backing of governmental support.
