The Institute of Emerging Technologies of South Africa (IETSA) has teamed up with ThreeFold to distribute the ThreeFold Decentralised Internet throughout South Africa.
The partnership will also offer education in blockchain protocols as well as decentralised and digital technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Extended Reality.
The autonomous and decentralised ThreeFold-powered internet infrastructure will be deployed across IETSA facilities with the purpose of creating an affordable, local and sovereign internet capacity to benefit South African communities, training institutions and organisations.
IETSA aims to empower vulnerable groups of youth, women and persons with disabilities with the most sought after digital resources and skills to participate in the fast and explosive emerging technologies global economy and unlock new market opportunities.
Threefold taps into the combined processing power of computers worldwide including servers, desktops and laptops to create an open-source, peer-to-peer, carbon-negative internet for the deployment of any current and future technology.
The Threefold Grid leverages blockchain technology and cloud storage services to generate a network that has achieved over 86 petabytes (86 million gigabytes) across more than 60,000 CPU cores in 78 countries.
The network solves the security and autonomy issues of the internet, uses less energy and is more affordable than any comparable alternative while allowing the infrastructure to scale to anywhere electricity and the network exists.
Threefold co-founder, Chris Hutton said the company is proud to support IETSA and their efforts to make the decentralised internet more accessible in underserved South African communities.
On a personal note, Hutton added, “…as a fellow South African, this partnering with IETSA to bring the power of Threefold to our country is a special milestone as we embark in unlocking the full potential of the internet economy in our beautiful country and continent.”
In the past 6 months, IETSA has also been working closely with the South African Ministry of Communication and Digital Technologies and the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) to develop a curriculum for some emerging technology qualifications.
The IETSA Education program will resume on 18 July 2022 in commemoration of Mandela Day as a tribute to Nelson Mandela’s quote saying, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
IETSA founder and CEO, Mpho Machaka is of the view that,
“This will empower all South Africans, for a global stage to participate in the worldwide data and digital economies through skills development and practical real-world programs that bring about innovative, decentralised solutions across many industries.”
ThreeFold and IETSA training programs will target the corporates, SMEs and public sector workspaces for their skilling to create Centers of Excellence across South Africa and eventually the rest of Africa with the overall objective of providing “access for all”.