When Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web about 30 years ago, he conceived it as a way for scientists to easily find information. It is now “the world’s most powerful medium for knowledge, communications and commerce.” Way to snowball, Tim.

Now - after revelations that NSA and GCHQ are carrying out mass surveillance across the globe - the man who changed the course of global communications is asking for an Internet that is open to all, free from government control.

Is Tim Berners-Lee a secret Internet punk? I like to think so.

Blockchains, the underlying technology behind bitcoin, could help with this dream.

A blockchain is a record of digital events, in blocks. Once data is embedded in the blockchain, it can’t be altered without being rejected or detected by the network.

By having multiple copies of the blockchain, it becomes even harder to make a change without it being detected, though not completely invulnerable to attacks.

Blockchains were, at first, the East 17 of technology. It was promoted by anti-establishment figures, like the now-defunct Silk Road operators, who were primarily seeking independence from central control. But now blockchains are becoming a part of the establishment, with plenty of use cases popping up across a range of industries.

Money is just one application of many. Lots of blockchain startups are cropping up with use cases that have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies.

A Fedex manager recently spoke at a blockchain conference about how much the company spends on insurance on its supply chain. “It would be nice if someone could leverage blockchain tech to prove that a package did actually make it to the final destination, with something other than an illegible signature.”

Given the decline in trust in governments and banks in recent years, assuring web users of true data integrity could be no bad thing. Open yet safe, secure yet accessible - it might just be what the Tim Berners-Lees of the world are looking for.

Image courtesy of CERN