Jan Camenisch, Chief Technology Officer at DFINITY, wants the world to stop writing off data sovereignty. Speaking at the World Crypto Summit 2025 (WCS25), he argued that the Internet Computer offers a realistic path to bringing it back—and making it more accessible than ever.
Camenisch didn’t lean on buzzwords or big promises. His focus was straightforward: show how decentralisation can solve everyday issues around control, affordability and security in digital systems.
The Internet Computer, according to him, avoids one of the most common and costly forms of cyber crime—insider attacks. These are breaches that happen when someone inside a company misuses their access. It’s not uncommon, and it’s something that many cloud platforms quietly struggle with. Because the Internet Computer runs entirely on decentralised nodes, there’s no central operator who can be bribed, tricked or make a mistake. No admin passwords floating around, no backdoors, no shadow access.
Cost was his second point. He said people assume sovereign infrastructure is out of reach unless you’re a large government or tech conglomerate. But on the Internet Computer, a small business or regional authority can run its own decentralised cloud using a handful of machines. No need to rely on the usual set of hyperscale providers. It’s a big claim, though the practicality of that will depend on how easy the tools are to use and whether people trust them.
Then there’s AI, which Camenisch says has the potential to genuinely empower users—not just extract value from them. With AI models running natively on the Internet Computer, developers can build apps that don’t constantly phone home to a central server. It gives users more control over their own data, especially as concerns grow around AI tools that collect and analyse everything in the background.
This argument—that the tools to take back control already exist—runs counter to a lot of current thinking. Most people see data sovereignty as a lost cause, especially in the face of centralised AI development and entrenched cloud monopolies. Camenisch’s message was that giving up on it too early would be a mistake.
To make his case more than just a pitch, though, the Internet Computer will need to prove it can scale while staying usable. There’s still a lot of scepticism in the industry around whether blockchain-based infrastructure can match the performance and reliability of traditional tech stacks. Even with technical improvements, adoption tends to hinge on clear use cases, smooth developer experience and some trust-building with regulators and businesses.
Still, Camenisch’s point landed with some in the audience: there are alternatives, and the debate around data sovereignty isn’t closed. The Internet Computer might not be the only way forward, but it’s pushing the idea that users and smaller entities don’t have to surrender their data by default.
Those curious can explore further at internetcomputer.org.
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