On the 2nd of November, at WebSummit in Lisbon, Juan Benet, the CEO & founder of Protocol Labs, spoke candidly about the technology sector’s future challenges. However, Juan Benet’s main topic was Web3 and its scaling infrastructure and computational power.
From the Filecoin stand, Juan indicated that the latest technological progression iteration focused on access, verifiability, and anonymity. Juan said that over the last 80 years, the scale of computing’s impact couldn’t be overstated. Moreover, he said that over a decade, these improvements have conspired to give them effectively these superpowers that their ancestors would have thought magical.
Juan warned of a technologically-driven Orwellian type of future, despite the potential for social impact. He said that over the next five to 10 years, they have this opportunity to lock in rights and the network to build better protocols. He added protocols that ensure secure and private communication for everybody to take and disseminate information freely.
About Web2, he indicated that the current application stack of Web2 remains in a very precarious condition, where the phones, personal computers, and internet protocols are pretty stable. Juan added that all of it is built upon an unstable foundation of terms of service, license agreements, contracts, and very inconsistent corporations.
Juan said that At any point in time, they could change their mind, take away any kind of system, and change the perspective that has been granted. About Web3, he said that it is trying to build an underlying foundational structure for the internet out of strong cryptography and economic incentives. He indicated cryptography and economic incentives as something much harder to subvert back.
Regarding the present infrastructure capabilities of Web3 with Web2, Juan spoke exclusively to Decrypt that Web3 is 2-3 years away from achieving the capabilities of Web2. On asked Juan whether these solutions would likely be provided by startup companies currently in nascent development, he replied that he thinks startups will have a large impact on the growth.
