Kim Dotcom, from MegaUpload (Mega Limited) controversy and fame, just announced that he intends to build his own private internet–with emphasis on the private.

The web mogul says plans for “MegaNet” will make the communication infrastructure secure and distributed by using the unused bandwidth and computing power of smartphones and computers running nodes on the network in a similar fashion to the way Bitcoin uses a distributed ledger for security.

Last week at SydStart, Dotcom spoke about his plans and the extent of the vision for MegaNet. Business Insider reported on his statements:

“If you install the Meganet app on your smartphone in the future, what you allow MegaNet to do is to use your smartphone when it is idle, to use the processing power of your smartphone,” Dotcom said.

“Now if you have a hundred million smartphones that have the MegaNet app installed we will have more online storage capacity, bandwidth and calculating power than the top 10 largest websites in the world combined, and that is the power of MegaNet.”

Secure, private communications based on a blockchain

In June of this year, Dotcom announced he had raised $40 million for a privacy-focused suite of tools, presumably including MegaNet. Business Insider also reported that he intended to raise $100 million more for the project. This would extend Dotcom’s already persistent efforts to create secure email and spy-proof messaging for everyday people.

I have successfully raised $40m for Mega. Giving 20 million users 50GB of free & encrypted cloud storage. I will raise $100m for #MegaNet.

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 10, 2015

To make this app possible, Dotcom has claimed that he has come up with his own version of the blockchain, the same technology used by Bitcoin to provide a secure, globally distributed ledger for transactions.

Using the Bitcoin blockchain and blockchain-based technology in general has seen proof of concept for several years already. Earlier this year, Internet of Things startup Filament raised $5 million to build a secure industrial internet service with blockchain-based communication technology. IBM has also begun researching blockchain-based technologies as a transport protocol (which is what the Internet does).

Dotcom says his intent is to produce a highly secure, distributed network where messages are encrypted and verified by all devices on the network using their computing power to move and protect messages.

Since the MegaNet blockchain can move its own data across a distributed network, Dotcom said, it does not use IP addresses. This would make it more difficult to intercept and identify senders and recipients, also it means that “ you can’t hack the server [and] you can’t execute denial of service attacks on gaming services or websites.”

He also says that this will make it difficult for governments–particularly spy agencies such as the NSA (National Security Agency)–to spy on and steal data from people using the network.

Dotcom also added that current smartphone technology may not quite be up to the task of forming the ad hoc distributed network needed to run MegaNet. He said that he has a 10-year plan for the network so that the application development can follow enhancements to mobile devices.

Featured image credit: Robert O’Neill, Creative Commons