In the Global Economy, the Open Internet Model Is Dying: How Should the IT Industry Adapt?
I spent more than a decade in the banking sector, including serving as chairman of the board at Otkritie Broker and as a bank vice president. I saw how global systems operated at full speed. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing severe turbulence and a growing sense that the era of globalization the world had known for decades was beginning to fade.
Author: Konstantin Tserazov, economist and former senior vice president of Otkritie Bank
Now, in 2026, we are watching the conflict in the Middle East threaten internet cables running along the seabed of the Persian Gulf, along with the data centers operated by countries in the region. Those risks are also risks for the global financial market as a whole. Many companies worldwide rely on US cloud services, but the infrastructure supporting those services also includes data centers located in Middle Eastern countries.
It has become clear that every country needs a contingency plan to guarantee uninterrupted operation of critical digital infrastructure, especially payment services and financial systems. That means key components such as power generation, data centers and cloud services increasingly need to be placed within national infrastructure. The internet itself must also become sovereign.
This is not about abandoning global cooperation with partners. The issue is different: countries need to become resilient so that their digital infrastructure remains independent and protected from outside influence. That is why building and maintaining such infrastructure has become one of the primary challenges facing the IT sector in every country.
Russia has already made substantial progress in this direction in the financial sector through projects such as the Sistema bystrykh platezhey (Fast Payments System), the Sistema peredachi finansovykh soobshcheniy (Financial Messaging System) and the MIR National Payment System.
A Large-Scale Digital Ruble Rollout Is Approaching
The central nervous system of any stable economy is finance. Payments and transactions must reach recipients without delays or failures because trust in financial markets depends on that reliability. Meanwhile, fragmentation of the global financial system increasingly requires a shift away from universal standards toward closed gateway structures. As a result, the IT sector needs to focus on building systems for direct settlements between partner countries using national digital currencies, strengthening financial sovereignty in the process.
The concept of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, is already being tested in practice across many countries. Trials have been underway for more than a decade. The most important factor when launching such a product is guaranteeing users that the infrastructure supporting the digital currency will not fail and that its reliability will never come into question. This is a strategically critical issue. Russia is already preparing for a large-scale rollout of the digital ruble. Major banks must connect to the platform starting September 1, 2026, and large retailers are expected to join as well.
For the IT industry, this transition creates a concrete engineering challenge. Developers need to build gateway systems for direct settlements between the digital ruble, the yuan and the dirham. They also need to support smart contracts capable of executing transactions automatically. At the same time, the sector must integrate tokenized assets and expand the market for Digital Financial Assets (DFA), a segment with the potential to eventually rival the trading volume of traditional bond markets.
DFA is not simply about placing conventional bonds into digital wrappers. The concept also creates opportunities to digitize a wide range of obligations and rights across the economy. Fintech companies building bridges between traditional exchange markets and digital systems are effectively becoming instruments of financial sovereignty. Developers capable of working with distributed ledger technologies and CBDCs are likely to remain in high demand for years to come.
AI 2.0: Sovereign Models Replace Global Clouds
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is also forcing companies to reconsider where the infrastructure powering their operations is actually located. If businesses do not control that infrastructure themselves, significant risks emerge. That is precisely why corporate neural networks are becoming increasingly popular and why AI 2.0 is evolving into a broader trend. Demand for domestically developed AI models and infrastructure housed inside national corporate sectors is pushing developers to adapt AI 2.0 technologies for local data centers.
The priority is now shifting toward independent neural-network stacks that do not rely on updates or licensing agreements from foreign tech giants. Global Big Tech companies are gradually losing their position as the dominant suppliers of AI solutions. Governments and corporations no longer want sensitive data stored on external servers, and the concept of sovereign AI is rapidly gaining momentum.
Powering massive AI models is becoming increasingly difficult. Their operation also creates risks of data leakage. At the same time, smaller language models are rapidly catching up with larger systems in terms of task quality while running locally. For Russia and its partner countries, this creates an opportunity to deploy neural-network stacks inside domestic data centers, train them on local datasets and optimize models for available hardware resources.
Demand is also growing for data processing that happens as close as possible to end users rather than in distant centralized clouds. That trend is understandable because local infrastructure removes dependence on foreign updates and reduces the risk of suddenly losing access to critical systems. IT specialists increasingly need to build independent stacks spanning hardware all the way to fine-tuned AI models tailored for specific industries. Companies that achieve this will protect their data and proceed with operating even if the outside world effectively “pulls the plug.” In finance, this is becoming less of an option and more of a necessity.
Blockchain for Real Economies Inside Regional Blocs
In an era of fragmented global internet infrastructure, blockchain technology is evolving into a tool for tokenizing real-world assets inside regional economic blocs. Blockchain has already moved beyond speculative trading and entered the real economy. Tokenization of oil, grain, logistics infrastructure, supply-chain processes and financial obligations is increasingly becoming a way to conduct trade while bypassing unreasonable external restrictions. In these new conditions, the IT sector cannot ignore blockchain technology because constant geopolitical unpredictability is making transparent logistics and foreign trade operations critically important.
This trend is especially visible across BRICS economies and partner countries linked to the bloc. Smart contracts reduce logistics costs. Every shipping container can effectively become a token tied to ownership rights, creating full transaction transparency. For the IT industry, however, implementing that level of transparency is a major challenge. Domestic blockchains for sensitive national data, along with liquidity bridges connecting partner economies, require sophisticated solutions capable of withstanding any changes in the external environment. I have personally seen how tokenization improves asset liquidity and how it is becoming a stabilizing force for financial services and, by extension, the broader economy.
The Open Web Model Is Fading Away
The open internet is becoming too risky. In many ways, the world has been living inside an illusion for decades. I have always believed that data, especially financial data, should never be entrusted to external servers or third-party AI systems when there is no certainty about how information is stored, who controls access to it or where it could eventually leak. The current conflict in the Middle East also demonstrates how vulnerable hardware and internet cables can become if they are not under reliable control.
I believe the future lies in building distributed ecosystems within countries and among trusted partner nations that can continue operating even if disconnected from major global communications hubs. In effect, such ecosystems could make the internet itself more resilient because reliability and security for both businesses and governments would be ensured locally. Russia is continuing to move in that direction.
What Needs to Be Done Right Now?
Restructuring the IT industry means changing priorities. Countries should stop chasing the largest global cloud services and start building their own infrastructure. Investment needs to flow into specialists capable of developing independent technology stacks. Open-source models should be supported, but deployed on domestic hardware. External developer libraries remain useful and innovative, but what happens if access to them is suddenly cut off, whether accidentally or intentionally? What guarantees exist that this will never happen? And what would happen to a country’s financial system and broader economy if its IT infrastructure remained dependent on external libraries? The answer, frankly, would not be positive. Countries therefore need to build digital bridges with partners while retaining the ability to raise or lower those bridges instantly if necessary.
A strategic approach is essential today, and the players that recognized this earlier are already gaining advantages. Others risk being left with code that stops working during a real crisis and with data steadily leaking to global competitors.
The open internet model is not dying because of anyone’s malicious intent. It is fading because the world has returned to reality – borders, national interests, risks and security threats. Under these new conditions, the IT industry must become a foundation of sovereignty. Not a branch on a global tree, but a separate and resilient garden capable of bearing fruit even during a storm. This path is more difficult and more expensive at the outset, but it offers greater resilience over the long term.
