Digital sovereignty must define itself before it can succeed

Opinion If you've ever flipped over a power brick, you'll be familiar with the hieroglyphics of type approval. It's become less crazy over the years as things have got smaller and signage requirements softened, but at its peak tens of logos and acronyms of testing labs and national approvals covered the backside of PSUs in surrealist graffiti.

There was and is method to it. Type approval means that the device won't kill you, won't jam your airwaves, won't burst into flames, and other desirable negatives. If a business buys approved equipment, it won't invalidate its insurance, and many other legal protections and permissions flow. When the system stops working, which it does when individual consumers can buy cheap stuff directly from overseas, fiery death can follow.

There hasn't been an equivalent concept in software, at least not in general. Life-critical systems with ...