IETSA, ThreeFold partner to expand decentralised internet in SA, offer education in blockchain and Web 3.0

The Institute of Emerging Technologies of South Africa (IETSA) is partnering with ThreeFold to expand the ThreeFold decentralised internet across South Africa and offer education in blockchain protocols, decentralised and digital technologies, including the Internet of things (IOT), artificial intelligence and extended reality.

IETSA will deploy an autonomous and decentralised ThreeFold-powered internet infrastructure across its facilities for the purpose of creating a local and sovereign internet capacity that benefits South African communities, training institutions, organisations and universities. Deploying ThreeFold-powered internet infrastructure will provide localised, sovereign and affordable internet capacity for IETSA projects with inclusive benefits to its target communities.

An exciting journey has begun to bring the concept of inclusive participation in emerging global technologies and digital and data economies. The Threefold architecture is unique in that it enables a decentralised foundational internet infrastructure empowering our communities with their digital sovereignty while providing access to many economic benefits and equality in the data economy.

Join IETSA today (www.ietsa.org.za) and be part of our pre-launch community as we embark on this groundbreaking journey. Whether you aspire to join the emerging technologies space, you are a seasoned emerging technologies professional seeking mentoring opportunities to give back to our society, or an organisation that seeks to enable its next generation of the digital workforce, IETSA has something in our offerings to explore.

Registration for the official launch taking place on 30 June 2022 is open. Join conversations with some thought leaders and experts in the field as they unpack topics on Web 3.0, metaverse and virtual reality. IETSA Education programmes will resume on 18 July 2022 (Mandela Day) and together we can change the world. In the past six months, IETSA has been working closely with MICT SETA in the curriculum development of some emerging technologies qualifications.

“Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world,” said Nelson Mandela.

“With this innovative partnership, IETSA and ThreeFold will help South Africans seeking to participate in the next generation of the digital and data economies with the well-defined inclusive benefits derived from emerging technologies, unearthed from the IETSA ethos ‘creating access to emerging technologies for all. 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 programmes that bring about innovative, decentralised solutions across many industries,” said Mpho Machaka, Founder and CEO of IETSA.“We will also enable low-cost access to the decentralised internet and expand local capacity for training institutions, SMEs, community training projects and universities, and enable continuous professional development programmes to be delivered to the marketplace,” added Machaka.

“It’s an exciting, innovative partnership and I support this initiative between IETSA and ThreeFold that will provide technology education for South Africans while expanding the decentralised internet infrastructure and capacity across the country,” said Thabo Mashegoane, Chairman of the Africa ICT Alliance (AfICTA).“ThreeFold is proud to support IETSA and their efforts to make the decentralised internet more accessible in underserved South African communities,” added ThreeFold co-founder Chris Hutton. “It is our mission to help educate and empower the next-generation workforce and inspire a new generation of digital professionals to lead the charge in the Web 3.0 decentralised era and beyond.”

From a more personal standpoint, Hutton commented: “As a Threefold co-founder, we are very proud that our technology has already been deployed in 74 countries to date, but 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.”ThreeFold and IETSA training programmes will be providing skills to the corporates, SMEs and public sector workspace. We will work together to create centres of excellence in South Africa as well as the rest of Africa, to empower a pool of talent from South Africa and across the continent to deliver projects in the global market through the ethos, of “ access to all”.