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Mel Project: Is Web3 Truly Decentralised? - Eric Tung

Episode Summary

We were joined by Eric Tung, founder of Geph VPN and Mel Project, to discuss the true scale of Web3 decentralisation and how Mel Project aims to create a permissionless universal Internet layer.

Episode Notes

Web3’s decentralisation is currently limited to smart contracts as they can be verified on-chain. However, until scalability and UX become on par with that of Web2, the only realistic way for crypto to reach mass adoption is threw off-chain dApps. This creates the premise for a security bottleneck in the form of centralised APIs used for on-chain querying. Mel Project aims to expand on-chain security and decentralisation (consensus) to off-chain apps, basically achieving off-chain composability through trustless light clients. Earendil, the backbone of their ecosystem, designed to resist ISP-level censorship, is a decentralized anonymous communication and payment network that enables autonomous applications and true P2P protocols.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Eric’s background and founding Mel Project
• Why Ethereum came short
• Is Infura a security bottleneck?
• Liberating markets (and the Internet)
• Light clients and how Mel Project tackles them
• Use cases
• Smart contracts on Mel Project
• Scaling the ‘world computer’
• Mel Project’s consensus: Streamlet
• Why Mel Project chose an UTXO model
• Earendil & ISP-level censorship resistance
• Roadmap
• The Geph VPN
• Mel Project’s low volatility (stable) coin
• $SYM: PoS token
• Misc.

Episode links:

• Eric Tung on Twitter
• Mel Project on Twitter
• Geph VPN on Twitter
• Moxie Marlinspike's 'My first impressions on web3' article
• Streamlet BFT consensus model

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
• Chorus1: Chorus1 is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.