Digital sovereignty needs a constitution before it can catch fire

Digital sovereignty is the buzzword of the moment, but like a power brick covered in hieroglyphics, the concept needs decoding before it can deliver on its promise. The idea is simple: create digital services and products that guarantee user rights, data protection, and operational independence from foreign interference. The execution? Far more complex.

The Type Approval Problem

Think about the last time you flipped over a power adapter. You probably saw a maze of logos - CE marks, UL certifications, country-specific approval symbols. This type approval system exists for a reason: it tells you the device won't kill you, won't jam your Wi-Fi, and won't burn your house down. It's a guarantee backed by testing labs and national standards.

Software has never had an equivalent. Sure, we have industry compliance standards and life-critical system certifications, but nothing that says "this service will protect your data from state interference" or "this cloud provider won't lock you out based on geopolitical whims."

That's changing. Organizations, nation-states, and entire blocs are recognizing that invisible design flaws in digital services pose real dangers. When you use a service that stores your data in a jurisdiction with no legal protection against state interference, you have no privacy. When your identity is managed by entities beyond your legal reach, you have no recourse.

Europe Shows the Way

The European Union is leading the charge, but not through top-down mandates. The Matrix protocol offers a compelling example. This open messaging standard has evolved from a FOSS project into the preferred underpinning for digital sovereignty initiatives across the EU. It's not a guarantee of goodness, but it provides a foundation for building sovereign digital services.

The European Payment Initiative (EPI) demonstrates another path. This isn't an EU project but a collaboration between European payment service providers who want to reduce dependence on Visa and Mastercard. Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian PSPs recently signed on, creating a Europe-based transactional hub that lets customers in 17 countries use their existing payment providers interoperably.

Here's the crucial insight: digital sovereignty doesn't need to map onto political boundaries. Norway isn't in the EU, but it can participate in European digital sovereignty initiatives as long as it has compatible regulatory and legal regimes. This suggests a model where alignment with digital sovereignty principles could grant access to markets and sectors, regardless of political affiliation.

The Missing Constitution

The fundamental challenge is defining what "aligned" means in practice. What rights are guaranteed to users? Not just what organizations promise, but what promises can actually be kept no matter what happens. This requires operating in regimes without overweening laws or exemptions to individual rights.

One could even call such a definition a constitution.

The beauty is that nobody needs permission to start this process. Find fellow travelers and talk. A rough consensus will do for starters, alongside honesty and commitment. If the concept's good and the timing is right, it will catch fire - in the right way.

The Market Opportunity

Consider the practical implications. A savvy organization can already build IT infrastructure with some degree of digital sovereignty, but what about consumers? How would anyone begin to find AWS or Azure-free services online? Add a compliance mark, and the impossible becomes possible.

No changes in law, no international treaties, just a single recognizable symbol that says "this will not catch fire and burn you." Armed with that, anyone can join forces. You could build a Linux distro. You could align your existing Swiss-based secure email service or your German datacenter company.

The Path Forward

The key insight is that digital sovereignty needs to define itself before it can succeed. It needs a constitution, a set of principles that can be recognized, tested, and certified. It needs a flag that people can rally to.

You can't rally to the flag if there is no flag. If there is, nobody can stop you.

Digital sovereignty is more than a buzzword - it's a necessary evolution in how we think about digital services and products. But like any movement, it needs definition before it can deliver on its promise. The question isn't whether digital sovereignty will happen, but whether it will happen in a way that actually protects users or becomes another layer of bureaucratic complexity.

The answer depends on whether we can agree on what the flag looks like before we start waving it.