🔗Introduction

In a recently published collaborative episode between HATCH, ThreeFold, and Hub Culture’s Chronicle Discussions, innovative minds converged in Zanzibar, Tanzania, to delve into the intersections of technology, digital autonomy, and the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI).

🔗African Regenerative Futures - Part 1

Led by Tate Chamberlain, the conversation featured Stan Stalnaker (Founder and CEO of Hub Culture), Kristof de Spiegeleer (co-founder of ThreeFold), and Kalebu Gwalugano (Founder and CEO of Sarufi), each offering unique perspectives on the open-source Internet, the future of digital communities, AI development, and data autonomy.

Kalebu introduced Sarufi, a platform he created to empower developers and business owners to develop tailored chatbots in local languages, utilizing AI technologies. Gualugano’s vision resonated with Stan and Kristof, who emphasized the importance of community-driven initiatives and open-source principles in driving technological innovation.

Hub Culture’s commitment to digital identity, asset tokenization, and AI governance aligned closely with ThreeFold’s mission to revolutionize Internet infrastructure and promote individual autonomy. The two entities showcased the potential for collaborative efforts in advancing AI capabilities while maintaining ethical standards and data autonomy.

The conversation covered a range of topics:

• Evolving nature of AI: Ethical considerations in AI development; Concerns about data privacy and algorithmic bias; Importance of responsible AI development
• Zanzibar’s tech scene and initiatives by ThreeFold alongside Sarufi & Hubcluture: Potential to shape digital communities and AI development; Foster collaboration and promote open-source principles; Prioritize digital autonomy and human-centric design; Guided by ethical principles and community engagement; Aim to create a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable digital future
• Collaboration between Kristof, Stan, and Kalebu: Convergence of values and visions; Emphasis on open-source software, digital identity, and AI development; Shared journey towards empowering and ethically sound technology; Exploration of AI, digital autonomy and community-driven innovation
• Exploration of AI’s Present & Future: Questions of autonomy, control, and intelligence; Intersecting paths of technology, community, and digital innovation; AI as an autonomous being; Challenge to conventional views of AI development; Current limitations of AI; Importance of understanding ethical implications

🔗African Regenerative Futures - Part 2

The African Regenerative Futures Summit in Zanzibar brought together key voices to discuss Tanzania’s development opportunities in a lively manner, focusing on technology, education, and entrepreneurship. Veronica Likunama and Victor Muhagachi emphasized the importance of local context and community support in overcoming systemic challenges. Dr. Stephanie Dungu’s entrepreneurial journey underscored the need for innovative solutions in healthcare. Participants advocated for a unique, self-sufficient development path for Africa, prioritizing local talent, sustainable practices, and collaborative efforts to foster holistic growth and redefine success.

You can listen to the full podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, or Apple Podcast

Held this June 7 - 9 in Zanzibar, Tanzania, the Transformative Impact Summit convened with this important focus, attracting an audience of people from around the world working across the entire impact ecosystem, along with students from local IT universities, and government officials from Zanzibar.

A jam-packed three-day schedule of focused talks gave essential background and context to the incredible group of participants and their initiatives. Different tracks for the summit included Financial Innovation, Regenerative Finance, Regenerative Agriculture and Food, along with health and social connection, and AI, Web3, and Tech for Good.

The diverse array of speakers and topics included:

• Kristof, Florian, and Greg from the ThreeFold team (more on this below)
• Matthew Schutte, co-founder of HoloChain, who talked about HoloChain and their perspective on application development
• Omrei Abumadi, founder of VVerse (a ThreeFold & OurWorld collaborator), who discussed the metaverse and showcased a virtual environment built just for the event
• Victor Muhagachi and David Machuche, co-founders of Chatafisha and Dunia Yetu collaborators, who spoke about how FinTech can empower Africa’s waste pickers
• Dr. Cornelia Wallner-Frisee, co-founder of Africa Amini Life, who presented “Education is Our Strongest Medicine”
• El Fuego Mutaz, Head of Africa at Refunite, a tech non-profit that uses technology and innovation to provide humanitarian assistance, who spoke about how technology can reconnect families, as well as reshaping the future of aid with local community leadership

Partnerships were forged, friendships were formed, and at least one project received some funding – other outcomes remain to be seen, as it has only been a few days since the summit ended.

🔗Why Zanzibar? Why Now?

Last April, some of the ThreeFold team attended Zuzalu, a two-month “pop-up city” co-created by Vitalik Buterin, who was inspired in part by the idea of network states and wanting to simulate new ways of living together.

During those weeks, we had the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of interesting and innovative organizations and individuals. It was an amalgamation of people from around the world, some there for Web3, some for longevity, others network states, and many with a focus on impact.

One person we really connected and aligned with was Elliott Bayev of Global Unity, who has since become a dear friend of our project. Elliott is a super-connector, weaver of people and concepts, and storyteller – on a mission to unite humanity and empower global cooperation. At the time, he was in the midst of planning for the first Transformative Impact Summit, which was held last fall in New York City during UN Climate Week.

While at Zuzalu, with Elliott and others, we often talked about the noticeably low presence of attendees from certain regions, specifically Africa. Visa restrictions and sometimes lack of resources made it difficult for this audience to attend. This seemed unfair, to say the least, and did not allow for these important voices to be heard.

What resulted was a commitment to do our part in bringing these types of conversations to the African continent. ThreeFold partnered with Niklas Anzinger to create the Africa Regenerative Cities Summit last July and did a follow-up event last November. We’ve hosted and participated in other smaller events in Zanzibar and nearby Dar Es Salaam. Now, Elliott has brought the second Transformative Impact Summit to Zanzibar. (And we’d be remiss not to mention the team who put together and hosted Zanzalu, a direct spin-off / extension of last year’s Zuzalu.)

🔗ThreeFold at Transformative Impact Summit

ThreeFold was honored to present on a few different occasions throughout the summit and had the pleasure of hosting two evening events for speakers and attendees.

On the first day of the summit, our co-founder Kristof De Spiegeleer spoke on the topic of Public Private Partnerships being a model that can change Africa, and on Saturday he spoke on a panel about uplifting Africa with technology and more specifically about ThreeFold, OurWorld, and the OurWorld Digital Free Zone project.

In addition, ThreeFold ecosystem developer Florian Fournier spoke on the topic of crafting a conscious society for our world on the second day. And Gregory Flipo, co-founder of Sikana and ecosystem developer for ThreeFold presented on educational video content on a global scale. Crucially, all three were clear in communicating that new decentralized and sovereign infrastructure and systems are key to enabling truly transformative impact.

While the talks throughout the summit inspired and gave context, much of the magic happened in the evening gatherings or even now after the summit has ended, where we have been able to connect more one-on-one to explore ways of collaboration with some of the attendees and speakers.

🔗What’s Next?

Elliott and Global Unity continue their efforts to connect and empower individuals and organizations dedicating their lives to making the world a better place, with a strong commitment to Africa and its people. Their next event will be the annual Transformative Impact Summit in NYC during Climate Week, September 27-29.

We, the ThreeFold team, will continue to collaborate with Elliott and his team, finding opportunities to support each other – and as active participants in the Global Unity / Transformative Impact network, we see many possibilities unfolding.

Primarily, impact projects need responsible digital infrastructure. ThreeFold could be a perfect choice for the impact space and we are eager to collaborate.

🔗But first – why is testing important?

Testing upgrades as they’re developed ensures we have a stable operation of the TFGrid that is constantly optimal for our community. It lets us see what works well and what still needs fixing. By the time our community gets these upgrades, they’ve been tested many times to make sure they’re top-notch.

When it comes to testing the developments on the ThreeFold Grid, we need to be careful, especially when we’re doing separate tests from the different networks. If we don’t focus on testing the developments independently, testing can become a lot slower and more complicated.

Different networks for testing: We test on 3 different networks before we release anything on Mainnet.

🔗Testing all Networks sequentially

Our journey through these networks follows a well-defined path.

First, verification starts on Devnet with the dev team leading the validation process. Once the development team approves, we release the grid to the Qanet for further examination.

The QA teams conduct iterative test runs within Qanet, leading to a Bug Assessment Meeting to address reported issues. If the release is deemed ready for deployment, it moves to Testnet for an extended observation period.

Following two weeks of rigorous testing on Testnet releases advance to Mainnet once a community vote approves a Grid Enhancement Proposal, indicating readiness for widespread adoption. As the release enters Mainnet, QA teams begin new test iterations to ensure a smooth transition for user accessibility.

Testing is done both manually and automated:

Manual testing: At the core of our testing process is the thorough manual inspection of components using the advanced Testlodge tool.

Automation Testing: We also run Automated scripts on GitHub actions daily; to give us an early indication about the TFGrid.

We will go through these two types of testing further in part two.

🔗Conclusion

The testing journey within the ThreeFold Grid is intentionally and necessarily thorough, a delicate balance between manual precision and automated finesse, all designed to provide a strong and reliable cloud infrastructure for our users. Next time, stay tuned for more updates on how we conduct these tests and how they help us improve the grid’s reliability. Join us as we strive for excellence and continue to advance in the world of decentralized technology.

The ThreeFold community consists of many different roles creating a whole ecosystem that contributes to the growth of the ThreeFold Grid and makes it more reliable and stable. Today, we’re spotlighting the farming community, the backbone of the ThreeFold Grid.

🔗Who are the farmers and what exactly do these farmers do?

Think of a ThreeFold Farmer as a digital pioneer who connects their capacity to the ThreeFold Grid, becoming a cloud service provider. They come from all corners of the globe, driven by a common goal: to contribute to the growth of ThreeFold’s decentralized cloud infrastructure. Currently, we boast approximately 950 farmers running an impressive ±2500 nodes. This translates to a whopping capacity of:

• Cores: 64,290
• RAM: 434.85 TB
• SSD: 8.46 PB
• HDD: 20 PB

The farming community keeps the digital gears turning. Whether they purchase a 3Node from the marketplace or build their nodes, they’re providing essential capacity to the ThreeFold Grid. In return for their contributions, they’re rewarded with ThreeFold Tokens (TFTs), the currency of the ThreeFold ecosystem.

Farmers are rewarded based on their uptime—the number of hours, minutes, and seconds their node has been online. This data is meticulously tracked by ThreeFold’s blockchain, TFChain, and used to determine their monthly rewards. However, we’re always evolving and we just passed a vote on the ThreeFold DAO where we decided that, in the future, farmers would be rewarded based on their utilization.

ThreeFold Farmers not only provide capacity but also take the opportunity of ThreeFold being an open-source project to develop scripts and tools like a Python script for minting, a telegram for liquidity pool USDC/TFT, and Telegram channels for their local community where English is not their primary language so that they can get help when they need it, and much more.

The ThreeFold farming community is an integral part of our decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). A farmer’s participation in the DAO discussions and proposals is pivotal as we chart the course for the grid’s evolution, from our current version 3.14 release and beyond. Together, we’re actively building the grid’s future, thanks to our dedicated farmers’ collaborative efforts. Join us, share your ideas, and let’s shape the future of the ThreeFold Grid together.

🔗The Future of the Farming Community

🔗The TF Cooperative

ThreeFold is transitioning the management of TF Grid to a cooperative, empowering all of us to work toward our common goals more effectively. This shift represents a step towards a more collaborative and inclusive future for the TFGrid. As we enter the commercialization phase of the project, a cooperative model also brings a trusted form of decentralized governance and will enable us to bring more reliability to the grid.

The formation of the ThreeFold Cooperative (TF COOP) brings several planned changes for farmers and their interaction with the TFGrid:

• Democratic Governance: TF COOP introduces a system where farmers can vote on decisions based on their TFT holdings (1 TFT = 1 vote), giving them a voice in the cooperative’s direction.
• Farming Rewards: Farmers will continue to earn rewards based on the quality of their nodes and network uptime. This encourages high standards and benefits both farmers and users.
• Compliance: Farmers must follow KYC/AML (Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering) rules for transparency and accountability.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Larger farmers may sign formal contracts with DMCC or TF COOP, providing stability and predictability.
• Capacity Resale and Utilization Rewards: TF COOP will resell capacity and distribute profits. Farmers receive 50% of the revenue from their node utilization.
• Node Information and Transparency: Farmers can benefit from tracking more node data in the explorer, helping potential users select quality nodes.
• Governance Involvement: Farmers, as cooperative members, can impact management and operations, aligning their interests with the TFGrid’s success.

🔗Farming Pool

Farming Pools are a new feature planned for version 4.0 that helps improve trust and quality in our network. Farmers join these pools and agree to standards like uptime and response time. They can set their prices for services like storage and computing power. By staking tokens, farmers commit to these standards and risk losing some of their stakes if they don’t meet their promises. This keeps the network reliable and fair while allowing farmers more control over their services.

These pools can also act as hubs for supporting farmers with training and help them understand if their nodes are working well. Sales of preconfigured hardware is an additional optional function of the pools, while all pools operate as a business that takes a margin on the farming rewards of the farmers belonging to the pool. Beyond support, the added value for the farmers is that pools ensure a level of service and quality that can attract users and bring additional revenues to the farmers, including the potential of active marketing of the pool’s capacity.

🔗Conclusion

The farming community plays a key role in the smooth operation and growth of the ThreeFold Grid. These farmers shape the grid’s future by offering the capacity for a more decentralized digital world. Their work goes beyond earning rewards, as they contribute nodes to a global network and share resources and tools that strengthen the community, which will be showcased in our upcoming blogs. Thanks to their efforts, the grid is thriving and paving the way for a fairer, more connected world.

🔗Get involved:

• Join our farmer’s chat to talk with the community

• Learn about expanding the grid or adding on top of it.

• Stay updated with news and community discussions.

• Farmers, or Cloud Service Providers, provide the infrastructural foundation of the ecosystem. Without the farmers, there is no ThreeFold.

• Network Bridgers, or Providers, bridge the new and the old. They ensure that ThreeFold can communicate with the existing Internet in a safe and secure manner – and provide bandwidth to our grid.

• Farming Pools exist to support farmers in being more effective, to improve uptime, and to deliver a service level to the community. This means more reliability for all.

• Node Suppliers build and sell nodes and provide an adequate level of service and support.

• Guardians protect the network, keep all relevant services up and running, validating the soundness of the technology being used.

• TF Dubai is the original company out of which the ThreeFold project began and is now developing commercial services on top of the grid. TF Dubai is a big sponsor of the grid and will continue to be. It wishes to hand off the day-to-day management to the ThreeFold cooperative, and the digital tools have been set up to do so, including the forum, websites, manuals, and web management tools.

• TF9, previously TF Tech, is a Belgium-based company playing a key role in the ecosystem. They have been developing the technology behind the TF Grid and are 100% committed to keeping it open-source. TF9 will be licensing the software to organizations who need commercial support and customizations.

• The ThreeFold Cooperative is our governance layer; it gives everyone in the ecosystem a voice and an environment from which to operate.

• OurWorld Digital Free Zone, which is in the process of being created in Zanzibar, allows the ecosystem to structure digital assets and some of our future digital projects.

But it does not stop there. More solution and technology providers will create and provide services and open-source technologies that can be used on top of or as part of the grid. DePIN partners are coming, to launch us into that space. And ThreeFold Chapters will come alive to promote and grow the ecosystem organically, with local context, driving maximum reach and adoption of our project.

It is easy to see that each of these roles plays a crucial element in the larger ThreeFold ecosystem, establishing a type of equilibrium and resilience that can be found in natural systems as well. All participants with their own unique purposes – self-organizing, interconnected, collaborating towards a common goal. Together, let us strive to emulate the harmony of natural systems as we move into this next phase of ThreeFold.

There are many ways to get involved:

• Join our main chat, talk to humans
• Learn about expanding the grid or deploying on top of it
• Buy and hold the token to provide fuel to the ecosystem
• Stay tuned for news, updates, and community calls
• Take part in the feedback about the next steps for ThreeFold

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” - Albert Einstein

🔗The Rise of Decentralized Solar Energy

Decentralized solar energy has transformed the landscape of power generation. Unlike the centralized model, where nuclear power plants are often miles away from the end-users and controlled by large corporations or government bodies, solar energy allows for energy production right where it’s needed—at home or within the community.

By installing solar panels on rooftops or creating local solar farms, individuals can capture the sun’s energy directly. This shift not only reduces our dependency on distant power plants and the complex grid systems but also mitigates the risks associated with them.

This localized energy production model enhances sustainability by tapping into an inexhaustible natural resource and encourages a more environmentally conscious and self-sufficient society. It signifies a move away from the centralized, traditional systems of energy production, returning power to the people and prioritizing the planet’s well-being.

🔗ThreeFold: Pioneering a Decentralized Digital Future

Parallel to the energy sector’s evolution, the digital world is also undergoing a transformation, led by innovative platforms like ThreeFold. Just as decentralized solar energy provides an alternative to the centralized power generation model, ThreeFold is reshaping the cloud computing landscape with its autonomous edge cloud.

ThreeFold’s model deviates from the norm, where cloud services are dominated by a few massive data centers. Instead, we depend on our global network of independent nodes set up by individuals and businesses to contribute their own computing and storage resources to the cloud. This approach democratizes access to cloud resources, bolstering data privacy, security, and resilience against potential outages or cyberattacks.

Beyond merely disrupting the existing model, ThreeFold aims to foster a more sustainable, efficient, and user-centric internet. Distributing decentralized infrastructure worldwide reduces the environmental footprint associated with large data centers and promotes fairer internet resource distribution.

Both the shift towards decentralized solar energy and ThreeFold’s revolutionary approach to cloud computing reflect a broader movement towards decentralization. This movement is not just about bringing alternatives to existing systems but about creating a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future for all.