Digital Public Infrastructure

An Internet for energy

There is an urgent need to re-design our energy grid to take better advantage of all that digital has to offer. A recent paper describes how we can add a digital layer to existing infrastructure and use this digital energy grid to unlock greater efficiencies. But in order to realise this goal we will need a shift in our regulatory mindset.

Taking Stock

It has been over a year since we started to deploy DPI across the globe and it has not been easy. Despite global endorsements and multilateral commitments, actual deployment is hard. But looking back it is quite remarkable how much we have actually managed to achieve.

A DPI for Climate Change

Brazil has developed a rural environmental registry to encourage agriculturalists to follow sustainable land use policies and promote environmental preservation. If transformed into a DPI it can provide other countries a useful tool that, with some adaptation, they can use to meet their own environmental targets.

Tech Solutions for Use Limitation

The Account Aggregator system has implemented most data protection principles directly into code. With one exception - use limitation. A recent paper offers a technical solution to this problem through sharding and confidential multiparty compute.

A DPI for Non-Financial Data

India’s latest DPI focuses on leveraging non-financial data. By offering API-based access to a number of different data sources it will give lenders additional ways in which to evaluate the credit-worthiness of potential borrowers.

The Grand Bargain

There comes a point in time when citizens voluntarily opt to formalise their business - recognising that the benefits they will receive are worth the downside of coming within the tax net. Countries can leverage this notion to unlock much needed revenue by following a three-step process.

ON Courts

The traditional approach to the digital transformation of governance has been to build full-stack solutions that are narrowly geared to addressing specific problems. This is highly inefficient and unless we commit to designing them so that they use shared, re-useable building blocks we are simply not going to achieve the outcomes we need.

A Commitment to Reuse

The traditional approach to the digital transformation of governance has been to build full-stack solutions that are narrowly geared to addressing specific problems. This is highly inefficient and unless we commit to designing them so that they use shared, re-useable building blocks we are simply not going to achieve the outcomes we need.

DPI for Competition

The draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024 is so heavily influenced by European regulation that it feels like yet another example of premature imitation. Which is strange considering that we can so easily leverage our DPI to deliver much more nuanced outcomes.

Diversity Through AI

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to significantly enhance our digital public infrastructure by bringing variety to a DPI approach that has so far been optimised for standardisation.