Web3 Watch: Decentralized Personal Data Privacy
Key takeaways from our fireside chat with Skynet Labs CEO David Vorick
Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse hosted a fireside chat last week, where he spoke to Skynet’s CEO David Vorick about personal data privacy. They discussed decentralization and how Web3 can make the Internet a much more secure, sovereign space. Their chat offers both general and technical talk on web browser security, decentralized messaging, how technology can move culture forward, and more.
“Messaging is the big unsolved problem of peer-to-peer. Back in the day, we had things like Pigeon which combined all these messaging protocols together into one. When Web2 started to cement, the giants took control of messaging services, and platforms like Facebook blocked users from accessing their messages outside of Facebook. So you have your Twitter DMs, your Telegram DMs, your Facebook DMs—everything is scattered. This is where decentralized applications come into play. In the world of Skynet, the user is the one with control.” — David Vorick, CEO of Skynet Labs
Messaging is such a powerful human concept, but many of the current technological infrastructures do not hold privacy and data protection close to their main ethos. For example, centralized Web2 platforms such as Facebook have siloed their messaging systems within their own frameworks, thus obstructing cross-platform exchanges. This also gives Facebook total control and surveillance over user messages and personal data, a maldistribution of power that’s made headlines in the last few years. So how can decentralized messaging usher in a more protected, more secure Internet?
Simply put, decentralized applications give the power back to the users. For example, if there’s a messaging platform in the world of Skynet, users can install an upgrade to their operating system that will force the messaging layer to operate with all other messaging layers, but in encrypted ways. What do we mean by this? Well, imagine being able to securely see your DMs across all platforms, i.e. you could browse all of your DMs across Gmail, Telegram, etc. This allows for a more sovereign, widely distributed model of messaging — unlike Facebook’s siloed messaging system. Other dApps like Subsocial are building decentralized pallets that allow users to launch their own private, censorship-resistant social networks, encrypted with security systems particular to each user.
“One of the biggest successes of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is that they both taught people that they can have their own keys, their own sovereign tools of the Internet. “ — Chris Tse, Founding Director of Cardstack
The crypto wallet ushered in a new mode of web security with the advent of private keys and seed phrases — two methods of ensuring personal privacy in Web3. Private keys essentially work as passwords, but they are comprised of many numbers in a cryptographic system rather than a short phrase or a random collection of symbols and letters. They are used to generate digital signatures that can verify blockchain addresses, transactions, and more. Likewise, a seed phrase is a series of random words created by a wallet that provides access to crypto assets. It’s much stronger than a typical password, as it rests entirely in the hands of users rather than browsers and public servers. The security tools surrounding blockchain technology work to place agency and privacy back in the hands of users, rather than centralized platforms.
“Throughout the history of web applications, you generally find that users adopt new technology because it does something new that was not easily done before. For example, YouTube achieved success because it operated as an early music streaming platform. […] While I’m not sure the right application for mainstream adoption of Web3 has come along yet, a problem that hasn’t been solved is media distribution.” — David Vorick, CEO of Skynet Labs
Despite all the forward-thinking security and privacy innovations offered by crypto and blockchain, big questions remain. What will it take to push Web3 into the mainstream? How can crypto and blockchain attract Web2 users to their decentralized world? Perhaps these questions can be answered by taking a general look at the history of technology. What drives users to adopt new tech? Well, simply put, the new tech has to achieve something novel that was not easily done before. Facebook, for example, became huge because it allowed people to satisfy the age-old human desire to keep up with the Joneses from the convenience of their computers.
So to understand what might drive mainstream adoption of Web3, we need to look at problems that have not yet been solved. Media distribution is the first that comes to mind. The arrival of YouTube’s user-oriented, cooperative vault of content in the early 2000s pointed to a more meaningful and rewarding mode of media distribution, but streaming giants reversed the course. If you want to watch a movie, for instance, you have to find where or if it’s streaming — the user is at the mercy of the choices of the platform. Since lopsided media distribution is such a universal issue, Web3 projects could drive more migration by creating new technology that offers a remedy.
Ultimately, Web3, with its private peer-to-peer messaging systems, secure data and identity management services, and decentralized conceptions of power, can bring about a better, more equitable Internet.
Watch the video of our fireside chat with Skynet Labs CEO David Vorick — or listen to the podcast!
Podcast:
To get all our latest updates, sign up for our newsletter on cardstack.com, star Cardstack on GitHub, and join our Discord channel or our Telegram group and announcement channel.
