Many of us use the Internet for several hours everyday, traveling from one website to the next, sending emails, posting pictures, and transferring money. But most of us do not know what actually happens to our data as we sign in and out of different sites and platforms. Which can be a big problem in case of mass data breaches, fraud and stolen identities.

Blockstack is a new decentralized Internet and developer platform for secure, server-less apps. Blockstack’s system would let you control your own personal data - for example, by revoking a site’s access to it. It eliminates the middlemen and puts the power of the web back into user's own hands. Blockstack’s vision is made possible by an identity system built to be independent of any one company, including the startup itself. It uses the digital ledger, or blockchain, underpinning the digital currency Bitcoin to track usernames and associated encryption keys that allow a person to control his or her data and identity. A collective of thousands of computers around the globe maintains the blockchain, and no one entity controls it.

Decentralization is a property of a system that is not beneficial per se. Rather, it is the derivative properties of decentralization that are beneficial - properties like innovation, inclusion, independence, and information security. Blockstack is the ‘new’ Internet designed to replace current services like DNS, PKI and cloud storage. It puts you back in the driver’s seat of your own data and online traffic.