---
title: "Next"
description: "A global movement together building an open-source, community-driven, decentralized Internet – from the ground up." # quotation marks to allow colons where used
date: 2018-09-14T21:00:00-05:00
updated: 2021-02-20T14:40:00-06:00
draft: false
extra:
  author: Your name here
  imgPath: images/threefold_globe.png
---

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## ThreeFold Goes **Commercial**

After more than five years of building and expanding the open-source ThreeFold Grid, it's now time to go commercial. This includes the introduction of a Cooperative model, ThreeFold Cloud services, and some shifts with TFT.

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### TFGrid 4.x Will Be a Distributed Cloud Platform

We have always differentiated ourselves from a crypto project. Our belief is in utilizing a token as a utility for creating and using IT (Internet) capacity. Starting with TFGrid 4.x, we are implementing changes that will further set us apart.

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#### ThreeFold Cooperative

We will use a cooperative as our decentralization mechanism. These are well proven governance structures. Every farmer and buyer of IT Capacity from the TFGrid will be part of this cooperative.

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#### Farming Pools

A 100% owned subsidiary of the Cooperative in a chosen jurisdiction (probably BVI) will allow the creation of Farming Pools and allow people to buy/sell their TFT in controlled ways in line with governance, as will be defined per Farming Pool.

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### TF Grid 3.x Goes Fully Decentralized

ThreeFold DMCC has been instrumental in supporting the expansion of the TF Grid over the last years. It is thanks to the generous funding and support of many contributors that the grid has been able to achieve its current state. ThreeFold DMCC will in the future limit its effort on TF Grid 3.x and focus completely on TF Grid 4.x. For this reason, TF Grid 3.x must move to become fully decentralized.

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#### Guardians

We need to find at least nine guardians who will take on several responsibilities including: running validator nodes, verifying minting, deciding on upgrades to the code base, and finding and managing contributors.

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#### Minting & Farming Updates

The minting rules are becoming more strict thanks to a recently-passed Grid Enhancement Proposal. Only 3Nodes which have enough uptime and are usable for deployments will receive rewards. Starting January 2024, new 3Nodes added to TF Grid 3.x will have a lockup of two years or until 30% utilization on their nodes on generated TFT.

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### ThreeFold Cloud Will Build Commercial Offerings

ThreeFold Cloud will build and commercialize services, reserving and purchasing the capacity it requires  on TFGrid 3.x and TFGrid 4.x using TFT.

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#### First Offerings

Two wonderful metaverse projects and a digital education platform will be hosted on our grid (3 & 4). In addition, some exciting products for developers and web publishers will be launched. Each product will have service levels attached and customers will get support from a capable support team.

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#### No TFT? No Problem

While we believe in TFT and see it as an essential component in the ecosystem, anyone will now be able to use ThreeFold and its services with fiat currencies (e.g. USD, EUR), with conversions happening automatically in the background.

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### ThreeFold Tier S<br>Data Center Concept

A substantial number of new data centers, ranging from hundreds to thousands, are anticipated for deployment in emerging markets. There's a strong sentiment in these markets favoring a leapfrogging approach, moving beyond the conventional Tier 3 data center model, which is increasingly seen as inadequate.

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#### AI Changes the Game

The advent of AI has significantly altered the landscape and requirements for data center construction. In response to these evolving needs, ThreeFold has innovated a more sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective alternative for data center development. This new concept not only aligns with future demands, but also holds the promise of achieving carbon negativity, potentially removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than it contributes.

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#### The Grid Expands

We are having serious conversations to deploy a lot of capacity over the next few years. The aim is that these data centers would be 100% sustainable and hyper-reliable. Our goal is to ensure that the capacity provided by these data centers is partially made available globally as an extension to the open-source TFGrid 4.X. This will introduce a substantial amount of capacity into the market. 

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