Mel Project: Is Web3 Truly Decentralised? - Eric Tung

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
• Chorus One: Chorus One 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.