US Billionaire Wants To Rebuild 'Foundation Of Internet' With Project Liberty

Frank McCourt, a billionaire real estate mogul from the US is investing a whopping $100 million to recreate the ¡®foundations of the internet¡¯, according to a report by Bloomberg.

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The project has been named ¡®Project Liberty¡¯ and the idea is to create a publicly accessible database of social connections of individuals, allowing them to move records of their relationships from one social media platform to another, instead of locking users into apps that currently dominate the market.

The creation of Project Liberty is the result of a fear of power possessed by the big tech -- companies like Facebook who have generated such a massive user base over the years, not just with Facebook, but even with Instagram.

The system will be based on blockchain to construct a new internet infrastructure dubbed Decentralised Social Networking Protocol. In case you remember, in cryptocurrencies, blockchain is used to store information about tokens in people¡¯s digital wallets. Apparently Decentralised Social Networking Protocol wishes to do the same but for social connections.

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As of now, Facebook has this advantage since it owns heaps of data on social media connections between its users, giving it a considerable edge over competitors. If all social media companies, however, had similar social media connection data, it would level the playing field for all and not have one platform (in this case, Facebook) to dominate the rest.

McCourt has appointed Brazton Woodham, co-founder of Sun Basket and former CTO of Fandango to build the protocol as well as pledged to put $75 million into an institute at Georgetown University in Washington DC and Science Po in Paris to research tech that serves the common good. Remaining $100 million are going towards encouraging entrepreneurs to build services that harness DSNP.

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The blockchain idea is similar to that of Bluesky, that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has been working on. Dorsey is of the belief that a blockchain-based social graph would reduce the stakes when private companies make user decisions.

However, Project Liberty has some issues it needs to take care of before it goes live. For instance, the current process is deeply rooted that would be difficult to eradicate and Project Liberty wants to start everything afresh on a flat playing field.

The eventual plan is to create its own consumer product based on DSNP that as per the press release would be an ¡°open, inclusive data economy where individuals own, control and derive greater social and economic value from their personal information.¡±