Most people think of smart tech as humans connecting through devices, or (ro)bots connecting devices together. They think of cybersecurity as protecting smart networks, smart devices, and smart data from unauthorized access or criminal use.

The Internet and the web are completely broken at the seams. So the truth is that not much is really smart or secure because we’ve overlooked the core fundamentals.

Think of this analogy: Web2 (legacy) and Web3 (blockchain) systems are a series of bricks held together by knots. The knots don’t do a very good job of holding the bricks together, and so everything breaks.

Web4 systems are legos that snap together without the need for knots, so they are resilient and they can scale.

So if you need help with your digital infrastructure or smart system, or you need very serious cybersecurity enhancements, feel free to reach out!

It provides tangible examples of smart development in the transition from Web2 to Web3 to Web4 across various business and civic contexts.

It also highlights the dire need for truly functional, cybersecure Internet/web infrastructures that must look far beyond the limitations of AI and the blockchain.

The paper is an applied thesis (meaning it is based on real work done in the real world) now being considered by several universities for Ph.D. co-curricula programs.

As individually owned digital identities are a critical element in building smarter, highly secure cybersystems, I recently completed an 8-year project working on a forensic identity management system.

This included explorations on how to reference digital identities in large-scale web operations, how to integrate IDs with AI systems, and the various ways global cyber systems overlook or exploit the uses of Pii (personally identifiable information) in the private and public domains, as well as the nuances of multimodal biometric authentication through numerous onboarding mechanisms.

The project findings and development culminated in this 256- page paper on how real identity-based technology helps transform economies.

For me and the small group of developers with whom I work, “smart” means open and interoperable, while “cybersecure” means safe and precise.

Smart and cybersecure should therefore translate to distributive, scalable and profitable microservices without third parties.

WHAT MAKES ME MORE THAN AN “EXPERT”

I have been developing real cybersecure, smart system solutions at the intersection of technology, finance and the environment for 28 years, having worked on over 125 special projects across 5 continents.

I’ve helped build systems for governments (U.S., Australia, the EU), institutions (JP Morgan Chase, Guggenheim, Oppenheimer, The World Bank), multinational businesses (Orange, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Thomson Reuters, Deloitte) and dozens of startups (early to later stage).

I’ve received some accolades for my work (like a Forrester Groundswell Award), but more importantly, I’ve learned the many intricacies of web systems from the inside out, and how to build better, smarter digital systems.

These initiatives have been some of the first smart cities, smart grids, smart farms, distributed ledgers/blockchains, currency/payment systems, AI systems, data systems, counterintelligence systems, alternative healthcare systems, and at the center of it all, human identity systems.

This work has led up to my co-invention of Web4 Security (W4S), forensic cryptography, distributed digital rights management and the Smart Ecologies framework, which are in use today and “trade secreted”.

I am a contributor to the development of ONCE/WODA (Write Once Deploy Anywhere) which is the first open source interoperating system and interactive development environment created by Cerulean Circle for enterprises of any size.

I am also the co-Founder of RAIR Technologies, Inc. which has built DevDapp, the first AI-enablement framework and incentivization layer for Web3 developers.

Perhaps the greatest need in AI development today, I am currently working on a Web4 universal, high-performance computation graph framework (like a supercharged MLIR) that eliminates framework fragmentation and manual optimization overhead. The effort aims to refocus over 80% of engineering time on innovation with critical infrastructure in tow.