It’s 2025 — and the internet is broken.
Consumers are growing increasingly aware about the importance of privacy, but feel let down by tech giants. A recent Thales survey found 19% of adults have had their personal information compromised over the past 12 months.
Meta was fined a staggering $1.3 billion in 2023 for violating regulations by how it processed customer data. Meanwhile, Web2 firms have been accused of listening in on conversations through smartphones and then serving up targeted ads.
It’s also a tough time to be a creator. The sudden news that TikTok was facing a ban in the U.S. worried influencers, with some estimates suggesting they would lose $300 million in a single month. Another alarming message hit home, too: brands don’t have ownership or control of the communities they build on centralized sites.
Innovative entrepreneurs and developers are brimming with ideas on how to make the internet a better place, but face limitations. Coding and marketing is expensive, with app stores charging eye-watering commissions on purchases and downloads.
All of these glaring issues are despite the fact that most of us now depend on online platforms more than ever before. DataReportal forecasts that 5.35 billion people now use the internet, and spend 47 hours a week surfing the web. Surely we all deserve better experiences than what we’re getting now?
That’s where Ice Open Network comes in. This Web3 infrastructure is designed to offer an internet that’s fit for the 21st century, and bring billions of people on-chain for the first time. While the digital assets space has attracted criticism for being too complicated, ION’s infrastructure has been built with the end user in mind — blending the real-world benefits of blockchain with the usability of Web2 applications.
Privacy-First Design
Consumers are fed up with having excessive amounts of personal information being collected without their consent — especially when it’s monetized. The ION Framework’s four key modules each play an essential role in putting users first.
ION Identity allows individuals to have full control over their data — including what is shared, who can access it, and how long it remains in the public domain. Quantum-resistant encryption is used to keep information safe, with data securely stored on the user’s own device at all times. This is complemented by ION Vault, a decentralized form of storage that sees files split into multiple shards and distributed across the network.
In a refreshing departure from the status quo, ION Connect unlocks truly decentralized digital interaction — and eliminates the countless, unresolved pain points that exist through the likes of X, Facebook or WhatsApp. Whereas many Web2 platforms expose their users to the risk of data breaches by relying on vast servers, and often impose inconsistent moderation policies, ION Connect prides itself on empowering users and delivering true censorship resistance. The final element of the framework is ION Liberty, which combines the speed of centralized systems with the transparency of decentralized networks.
Empowering Creators
For too long, content creators have had to contend with paltry payouts from major video-sharing sites. Accounts with tens of thousands of followers often only receive a few dollars per video, while the multibillion-dollar platforms they use generate astronomical profits. This leaves influencers with little choice but to monetize their work through different ways, such as affiliate ads or brand partnerships.
ION changes all of this by rewarding creators fairly, and in proportion to how much traction their posts receive. Not only does this incentivize vloggers, writers and photographers to upload quality content, but it also encourages creatives to produce material that the community will be interested in.
Online+ — ION’s upcoming decentralized social media app, built using the four core components of the ION Framework — aptly showcases this approach, giving its users full ownership of the content they produce, and the freedom to reap all the rewards it brings. Importantly, Online+ offers a glimpse of the kind of powerful, user-driven dApps developers can create on ION — and, eventually, what anyone will be able to build as ION evolves.
Building a Thriving Ecosystem
ION boasts a welcoming, innovative environment — and encourages developers who share its vision to get involved. In the not-too-distant future, a cutting-edge dApp Builder will enable anyone to create their very own decentralized applications, using a suite of pre-designed templates and widgets that have undergone extensive quality testing.
This has the potential to be revolutionary for entrepreneurs who crave the freedom to create dApps that will change the world. Tech enthusiasts with no coding background can get involved — offering an exciting opportunity for those who want to experiment and follow their passions. It also opens the door to Web2 developers who are fascinated by Web3 but lack blockchain experience. Why? Because they’ll finally have the opportunity to innovate and reach new audiences without facing excessively high barriers to entry.
By demystifying the process of building dApps, ION believes adoption and demand for Web3 services will grow rapidly. Just think of how WordPress transformed blogs, how Kindle allowed authors to publish their own books, and how SoundCloud meant any aspiring artist could share their music with the world. The big idea that will push dApps into the mainstream may currently be the figment of someone’s imagination — and thanks to ION, it can be launched with ease.
ION is proud to take a human-centric approach to Web3. Scalable infrastructure means this network can offer fast and inexpensive transactions to all, even as its user base grows in the months and years to come. Irrespective of whether someone is the 10th, 1,000th, 1,000,000th or 1,000,000,000th customer, this platform is both futureproof and built to last.
Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.