Decentralizing Digital Communication: The Vision of Huddle01
Summary:
Huddle01 co-founder and CEO, Ayush Ranjan, discusses the challenges of centralized communication platforms and presents his company's decentralized Web3 alternative during an episode of The Agenda podcast. Huddle01 offers Web3-native tools, supports NFT avatars, and implements token-locked meetings. It routes traffic through a distributed set of servers to minimize latency issues common in traditional platforms like Google Meet or Zoom. The end goal of the company is to transition to a fully decentralized protocol, where individuals manage their nodes. The conversation also touches upon Huddle01's collaboration with the Lens Protocol to cater to creators, its handling of user privacy, and future plans for interplanetary communication.
From smoke signals and horse-run couriers, to letters and telegrams and now, digital communications, means of human interaction keep changing. Presently, people from anywhere worldwide can have a virtual gathering on platforms like Zoom and Twitter Space. However, our primary communication media are still centralized platforms. These platforms exploit user data for gains, experience service breakdowns, possess the power to suppress users' speech, and face challenges like significant delays. So, one may wonder, what could a decentralized Web3 version of meeting and communication platforms like Google Meet or Zoom look like? This question got answered when Ayush Ranjan, the co-founder and CEO of Huddle01, a Web3 meetings and communication platform, graced the 24th episode of The Agenda podcast hosted by Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond.
Centralized Communication's Issues:
Huddle01 provides a suite of native Web3 tools that aid meeting planning. It allows users to connect their wallets and use their Non-Fungible Token (NFT) display pictures as avatars. The platform also supports token-locked meetings and the storage of video recordings on the InterPlanetary File System. Yet, Ayush Ranjan emphasized that the company's key goal is to simplify communication and coordination through decentralization.
Ranjan identified a significant problem with apps like Zoom - their top-down formation approach. This limits every global call route through centralized servers. For example, he suggested that a call placed in India would have to pass through a central server in North Virginia. This means that all voice and video data packs run all the way from India to the U.S. and return at light speed via fiber-optic cables. Such a long travel distance results in latency, jitter, and buffering, causing those robotic voice breakdowns.
Ranjan narrated that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, remote schooling suffered hugely because of the severe latency faced, especially for his cousin attending Zoom-based classes. The experience made him realize how grave this issue is. That if a three-year education could go totally wasted due to poor infrastructure, then a need for change arises. This realization birthed Huddle01, which he claimed can enhance performance by routing traffic via a distributed set of servers rather than a single centralized point.
Between a decent product and decentralization, which is priority?
At present, Huddle01 is powered by Amazon Web Services, even though they aim to transition to a completely decentralized protocol. Such a protocol permits individuals to manage their nodes (and get paid for it), and will route call traffic. This is progressive decentralization, as described by Ranjan. They first solve the demand problem before the supply side of things rather than total tech decentralization on day one. By placing the user experience first, Huddle01 has already recorded 2 million call minutes, which guarantees demand for when the protocol goes live.
Catch more of Ayush Ranjan's discussion with The Agenda, which includes how Huddle01, in collaboration with the Lens Protocol, caters to creators, their user privacy handling, future plans for interplanetary communication, and more. You can find the full episode on Cointelegraph's Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Also, feel free to check out the full lineup of Cointelegraph's other shows!
This write-up only serves informational purposes and should not be perceived as legal or investment guidance. The viewpoints, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are the sole author's and do not necessarily mirror or represent Cointelegraph's views and opinions.
Published At
11/29/2023 1:20:00 PM
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