“What if we could enforce human rights through new means—through math, through technology, through something that agencies don’t control? That’s the power of encryption.”
—Ed Snowden, Token2049, 2024
"Citizen Z proposes a future that aligns with Zama's and which we are enabling with our FHE products and services. The greatest barrier to an open data economy is the lack of security and sovereignty protections over that data. FHE neutralizes this barrier, allowing for superior AI, superior asset ownership, superior healthcare, and superior transacting.' -Rand Hindi, CEO of Zama
“Users today have limited control over their digital lives, and this will only worsen with the growing adoption of centralized AI-based platforms. Through the usage of Blockchains and FHE, Fhenix aims to restore that control, aligning with Citizen Z’s vision of digital sovereignty, where individuals own and have freedom over their data.” -Guy Itzhaki, Cofounder of Fhenix
"Zooming out across the span of human history, the digital world is still in its infancy. In the future, as we reflect, digital sovereignty will be recognized as a cornerstone for building a sustainable and secure digital landscape. Inco is dedicated to providing the confidentiality essential to the adoption of blockchains, the value layer of the internet, in line with Mind Networks vision of a Citizen Z" -Remi Gai, Founder of Inco
Thesis
As the world steps into a new era defined by the convergence of decentralized ledgers (blockchains) and decentralized intelligence (DAI, DAGI), humanity will soon push the upper bounds of individual sovereignty and potential. Blockchains have delivered the infrastructure to decouple the state from money, facilitating global (and potentially extra-global) value transfer and the decentralized coordination of monetary networks. AI systems empower every human connected to the internet with all known intelligence, soon providing multi-disciplinary assistants capable of handling domestic, professional, and creative tasks.
In this era, data sovereignty is paramount, AI must be decentralized, and human rights must be encoded into technology. The current internet is ill-equipped to serve these needs, and a transformative change is necessary.
Citizen Z represents a vision of a new type of digital citizen, one empowered by an internet where individual rights are fundamental, data sovereignty is codified, and AI technology is democratized.
HTTPZ: The next-generation internet, where encryption is sovereignty
We are living through the extraordinary dawn of decentralized infrastructure. Mature decentralized networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Uniswap, Arweave, and Filecoin have shown us the future of the web by codifying core concepts like information connectivity, privacy security, technological neutrality, and digital rights.
Decentralization has been a keystone principle of the public Internet since its inception more than 30 years ago. The Internet underwent a significant evolution from HTTP to HTTPS during that time. HTTP, as the foundational protocol of the early web, was simple and efficient. However, as a plaintext protocol, it raised concerns about data transmission security and privacy. With the adoption of HTTPS as the default standard, driven by companies like Google, security and privacy concerns have been more prominent.
In 2024, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France for alleged illegal activities on the platform. Although he was eventually released, Telegram quickly amended its terms of service. This exposed the core issue facing today’s internet: servers’ ability to decrypt user data.
Telegram’s regular chats are encrypted on the client side but must be decrypted on the server side for message processing, meaning the server has access to the data. As a result, law enforcement or hackers can compel Telegram to hand over user communications for censorship, attack, or surveillance.
As Snowden noted at Token2049, “If you don’t resist interference at the protocol level, you will eventually face interference.”
To solve this problem once and for all, ZAMA has introduced the HTTPZ protocol, based on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). FHE ensures end-to-end encryption and allows data to be computed while remaining encrypted, eliminating the risk of data exposure. HTTPZ is the proclamation of an internet with end-to-end encryption for all data.
This is not just another technological innovation but rather a paradigm shift based on first principles. If citizens are to enjoy the sovereignty that current encryption methods are capable of providing, who would deliver this technology to the market? The answer must be decentralized projects and protocols. In any other alternative, centralization defeats the very purpose and upends the highest good. HTTPZ represents a new philosophy of data and individuality, elevating privacy protection and digital sovereignty to unprecedented heights.
Key features of HTTPZ
- End-to-end Encryption: Ensures data security throughout the entire communication process.
- Support for Fully Homomorphic Encryption: Enables data processing in an encrypted state without the need for decryption.
- Zero Trust Security: Provides comprehensive protection throughout the data lifecycle, eliminating the need for third-party trust.
If HTTPS brought us the internet and the digital age, it is the development of HTTPZ that will bring us into the Intelligence Age. From messaging to AI applications, user data is protected by encryption at every level, guaranteeing privacy and digital sovereignty. This extends beyond messaging to include data, communications, transactions, social networks, AI, gaming, and all aspects of digital life.
As AI and Web3 continue to develop as driving forces of productivity, more Network States and Digital Organizations are emerging, bringing challenges around sovereignty, efficiency, and privacy. With full encryption at the protocol level, HTTPZ not only establishes a foundation for a future Internet but also provides the infrastructure for the future of organizational structures, guaranteeing true digital sovereignty for every citizen.
Citizen Z: digital sovereignty in the HTTPZ era
In the HTTPZ era, the concept of digital citizenship will be redefined. We introduce Citizen Z, or Citizen Zero Trust, whose core philosophy is the protection of individual digital sovereignty through encryption.
The Citizen Z concept draws from Friedrich Hayek’s idea of the free market as well as Rees-Mogg and Davidson’s principles in 'The Sovereign Individual.' Hayek advocated for minimizing external control and maximizing individual freedom of choice. The Sovereign Individual further emphasizes the application of this freedom in what the authors call 'The Information Age' (very similar to the Intelligence Age).
Thus, we propose the core principles of Citizen Z:
- Universality: Everyone, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or belief, can become a Citizen Z and enjoy the same rights.
- Digital Sovereignty: Full ownership and control over personal digital assets like speech, data, and tokens.
- Voting Rights: Protected rights to freely express one’s will, vote, and participate in consensus-building.
- Ultimate Form: Citizen Z represents the social realization of the HTTPZ protocol.
The goal of Citizen Z is to enable personal autonomy in the Intelligence Age, empowering individuals to participate in public affairs and express their will without any external interference or intermediaries, truly democratizing digital society.
The path to digital sovereignty
Digital sovereignty means having absolute control over one’s speech, data, assets, and other digital properties. It is the basis for personal freedom of expression, information security, and economic independence, and it is the prerequisite for exercising voting rights to the networks where one participates.
With HTTPZ, the voting process is set to undergo revolutionary changes:
- Verification: Zero-knowledge proof to verify vote validity without revealing voter identity.
- Encrypted Tally: Homomorphic encryption for encrypted tallying and counting, ensuring fair voting.
- Tamper-Proof: Blockchain provides immutable voting records, ensuring transparency.
Voting rights are crucial as they allow individuals to safely express their views and participate in consensus formation. In the decentralized world we are entering, consensus is a ubiquitous process that needs to be faithfully achieved for millions of networks every day. Initially, voting rights were a privilege for a few, but today they are recognized as a fundamental human right.
With the rise of the Intelligence Age, new systemic risks arise—like vote manipulation or data tampering. HTTPZ addresses these issues by enabling encrypted voting through FHE, where the voting process is entirely encrypted, and calculation and validation occur without decryption, eliminating middlemen.
From community governance to government elections, from network consensus to organizational decisions, voting can be carried out in an encrypted, transparent, and tamper-proof manner.
We don't need to trust centralized committees or voting systems—everyone can freely and safely participate in collective decision-making and consensus-building.
In every aspect of digital life—data sharing, identity verification, financial transactions—HTTPZ will play an essential role in protecting the privacy, security, and sovereignty of every digital citizen, creating a world full of Citizen Z’s.
Reshaping the digital world: The future of digital sovereignty
Mind Network and ZAMA's Citizen Z initiative is laying the groundwork for HTTPZ, aiming to create a truly decentralized, zero-trust digital ecosystem.
Citizen Z's Digital Sovereignty:- Elimination of Middlemen: Participation rights, such as voting, require no third-party intermediaries.
- Trustless Security: System security is rooted in cryptography, not entities.
- Transparency: Fully verifiable processes, built on blockchain, immune to tampering.
- Sovereignty: Fundamental rights like property, data, and voting are entirely controlled by the individual.
These breakthroughs are not just technological innovations but represent a reshaping of the future digital world. In this future, assets, information, voting, identity, entertainment, work, and education will all exist as data, and FHE will ensure their safety and privacy.
We are standing at the threshold of a new world, one where FHE and HTTPZ will transform the way we interact with digital life and by extension, physical life. Citizen Z are individuals with complete sovereignty.Join the movement
In this AI-driven era, individuals are at the peak of productivity and information is wealth. We are striving to create a world where privacy, sovereignty, and autonomy are fundamental rights, not privileges.
Thus, we invite all who care about unleashing a new age of global citizens to join the HTTPZ revolution.
In the world of HTTPZ, digital sovereignty belongs to every Citizen Z, based on the foundation of zero trust.
About Mind Network
Mind Network is the first Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) layer for AI and Proof-of-Stake (POS) Networks. The layer accepts restaking tokens from ETH, BTC, and AI bluechips and operates as an FHE validation network, bringing consensus, data, and cryptoeconomic security to Decentralized AI, DePIN, EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Babylon AVS, and many critical POS networks.
Mind Network is backed by Binance Labs, Animoca, Cogitent, Hashkey, Big Brain, Chainlink, and has received an Ethereum Foundation Grant for their FHE research on Ethereum.
For more insights and updates on Mind Network’s innovations, visit their website and socials:
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