The study compares initiatives for digital participation with the concept of „Trusted WEB 4.0“. Digital participation is only possible within a holistic concept.
1. Likely Scenario Without Trusted WEB 4.0 for the Future
Forecast for 2028: (based on EESC, European Parliament)
Without Trusted WEB 4.0 and EU-D-S, the one-click society will continue to consolidate:
- Complete dependence on gatekeepers: Users will become entirely dependent on platforms like Google, Meta, or Amazon. Every interaction will take place through centralized services that collect and monetize data.
- Loss of linguistic competence: AI-driven search functions and social media will further reduce the ability to formulate precise queries. Users will grow accustomed to not thinking for themselves but merely clicking.
- Artificially inflated digital market: Companies will have to spend increasing amounts of money to remain visible. Platforms will profit, while a genuine data economy fails to emerge.
- Loss of concentration and passive consumption: The flood of information snippets will lead to a decline in concentration. Genuine societal participation will be replaced by passive consumption.
- Dystopian AI dominance: AI systems will increasingly determine what information users receive—based on probability calculations, not relevance or truth.
Conclusion: The one-click society leads to a passive, manipulable population that completely surrenders its digital sovereignty to gatekeepers—with severe consequences for democracy, the economy, and individual freedom.
2. Development with Broad European Support for Trusted WEB 4.0
The greatest challenge in the EU-D-S lies in the acceptance of getmySense as a participation component. Social media programs have made users dependent on them and corrupted social behavior patterns. Particularly those who are less integrated hope to gain participation through social media—yet often, it only creates addiction.
Solution: Active participation through structured thinking
Unlike Google Search, Finder Technology considers the entire worldview. For a search query like „What kind of mouse is this?“, Google does not offer a category for a computer mouse.
Finder Technology (available since 2001), however, provides categories such as „small animals, computer accessories, comics, proper nouns/street names, veterinarians, pest control.“ Behind each category, a founder can establish themselves and receive the specific search query for further processing.
Advantages:
- Energy efficiency: An AI specialized in a specific field requires less energy and delivers more precise answers.
- Community and knowledge pool: An unmatched knowledge database in all languages is created.
- Active participation: Users must mentally structure what they want and then communicate it precisely.
- Cannot be copied by autocracies: A society based on active participation cannot be replicated by autocracies.
- New business models: Within each category, services can develop as micro-businesses.
Even the AI-powered Google Search from July 2026 assumes small animals: 
The AI is aware of the ambiguity—but instead of encouraging users to think, it requests a photo. This advances the dumbing-down process: Users no longer need to express themselves linguistically.
For getmySense to succeed, it is crucial to involve as many societal actors as possible in the EU-D-S.
3. 2026: Predicting the Impact
Search engines and social media programs fuel the expectation of being just one click away from any truth. This creates the illusion of qualified participation if as many information snippets as possible are absorbed. As a result, concentration wanes—and with it, the prerequisite for genuine societal participation.
The abundance of information snippets artificially inflates a digital market in which companies must spend a lot of money to reach their customers. The portals profit, but a genuine data economy does not emerge.
Example: Healthcare sector: Many people are excluded from the workforce due to illness. They could provide valuable data to the healthcare industry. With WAN anonymity, data compensation is possible without compromising anonymity. When the healthcare industry accesses data today, it accepts legal gray areas. Actively provided data from patients would be at least as valuable.
The EU-D-S offers the possibility for entirely new business models that enable active participation—and ideally, also compensate it. If everyone contributes to data creation, they receive as much for their data as they pay. €20 per user per month would already be enough to finance the EU-D-S. Recipients of basic income could earn €100–200 per month from home with good data and ideas.
4. Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus 2028: Citizens Understand the Potential
Carryover from previous years:
It is assumed that the EU-D-S will be founded in 2027. The GAP amount from 2026 of €45.7428 trillion will be reduced annually by a Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus starting in 2027.
Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus:
Growth is based on a spirit of optimism—which requires trust.
The Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus for 2028 is estimated at 10% of the EU GDP for 2028. With an estimated EU GDP of approximately €18.5 trillion, the bonus would amount to €1.85 trillion. This bonus would reduce the GAP amount by this value.
- Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus 2027: €900 billion
- Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus 2028: €1.85 trillion
Total Trusted WEB 4.0 Bonus: €2.75 trillion
Trusted WEB 4.0 technologies such as
Finder (1999),
getmysense (2002),
GISAD (2003),
EU-D-S (2004),
and WAN anonymity (2007)
could have served as the foundation for a European digital alternative.