JONATHAN MACDONALD: We're returning
to the original concepts that the internet could
have been used for.
There was a glimmer of infinite potential and true freedom.
The irony was is that the web became more centralized,
so we have huge power with a few centralized suppliers.
The full circle is to have the full power on anyone's device
of the original internet.
And then enable everyone to have the freedom
to use it as they wish, that's what we're building here.
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NARRATOR: The New Reality, a look
at the future of consumer technology.
With your host, Poppy Crum.
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There are different ways we can
think about trust and the challenges
that we have to solve with regard
to trust with technology.
There's trust in how our data will be used
and whether it will be used for us to benefit us.
The privacy of the data but moreover,
the agency of how the data is used.
So building the pipeline where I have agency
over what is being done, what is being shared,
how it's being used, that's all about trust.
Its transparency is at the core of what we have to enable.
And that's why a distributed ledger
systems can be very powerful and very useful
in the future of how our personal data is stored for us
and how we assure that it's immutable.
NARRATOR: Minima is merging distributed ledger technology
with mobile devices to create a decentralized network
for information transfer.
HUGO FEILER: Minima is the next generation of blockchain.
When blockchain was first invented over a decade ago,
it was built on laptops, and computers, and desktops.
And now, we're building it on mobile.
PADDY CERRI: You know, I'm a coder,
you know deep down that's what I do.
The idea of having a pop at writing a better Bitcoin
became something that I wanted to do.
The truth is that I have certain issues with the current batch
of coins that are out there and I
have tried to come up with a version that
fixes the issues that I see.
In the web as we know today, when the service is free,
then you're the product.
And we feel that there is more potential for people
to be than just a product.
There was a very clear direction
of travel towards this idea that there are the miners, stakers,
validators.
You know, the people who are actually sort of somehow
financially motivated to run the network versus those of us
who simply want a network to use.
We have the tools in our hands that mobile technology already
can enable an infinite amount of creative potential
in people.
And we don't need to rely necessarily
on being the product of someone else's service.
Where we can be the creator of the services and the products
that we wish to use and share with others.
The real reason for blockchain is
to be able to verify transactions
online in a distributed way, not relying on any third parties.
The ability to run a full blockchain
on mobile means every person on the network
is an equal contributor to the network.
So it means that it's far more distributed
than it would be with current centralized blockchain
solutions.
Ultimately, we believe that the best outcome for society
is by the empowerment of individual people
to achieve their full potential and empowering people
to be in charge of their own experiences,
their own information, their own communications,
their own transactions, rather than
being part of a large machine that controls what you can do
and what you can say.
But it requires a network of connected people
that is scalable and secure so that people can safely share
and interact and communicate.
But that can only come from having multitudes
of people part of the network.
We've all got to run this piece of software.
And the truth is we've all got to run
the same software in the same way with the same settings.
So as soon as you start to think like that,
certain things become apparent.
And in fact, the only device that I
can expect people to have is a mobile phone,
which means that if you're going to write a cryptocurrency that
is truly global, that is truly enabling and empowering
every single user to be an equal member of the network,
it has to be mobile native.
So Minima from the ground up has been
written to run in full on a mobile phone.
HUGO FEILER: I mean, in many ways
the only reason you should have a blockchain
is for its decentralization.
Otherwise, you might as well be using a SQL database
with a centralized server.
The whole reason for a blockchain
is to be able to distribute the verification and the processing
of transactions.
This is different to a wallet.
This is different to the current applications
that you have out there that are effectively
windows into the huge system of computers that
are running up in the cloud.
This is not that, you're actually
running the complete total final version
of the protocol on your phone.
PADDY CERRI: Instead of having a 500 gigabyte
database that everybody has to store
with all the information which is important,
you need to have all the data so that you
can check all the data, so you can do all the clever things
that we do when we're on the blockchain.
Why don't we flip this on its head
and say, well, the truth is why can't you just look
after the data that matters to you
and why can't I look after the data that matters to me?
This is known as a proof database.
And it's a bit like having a book where
you have your own page but you also have a copy of the spine.
And everyone else has their own page and a copy of the spine.
That's a new version of proof of work.
Every user is an equal on the network.
Every user will have the same power as everyone else
on the network.
So every user will be able to verify and help
construct the chain of the blockchain itself,
which means that everyone even just
with a small device like a mobile phone
will have equal access.
Minima takes up the space of a standard messaging
app on your phone.
And so what we're enthused about is that moving forward
as mobile technology becomes increasingly
sustainable in terms of how they are powered,
that means that essentially Minima
will follow that direction.
And so rather than having, for instance in Bitcoin's case,
10%, using 10% of the world's power, we
see Minima being a million times bigger than Bitcoin and a tenth
of its energy drain.
Every user mines their transaction on Minima.
You're not actually looking for blocks.
There's no financial reward for you to find a block.
The users mine their transaction
which is provable objectively to the rest of the network.
This is how we accept your transaction.
Your work is actually the price you pay to use the network.
The gap that we think should be closed,
and we will be closing by Minima is
the gap between what people have and what people need.
We believe that everyone should control the tools
in this network.
We believe that any developer should
be able to build on top of it using our layer 2
protocol called Maxima.
And we believe that the usage of the tools
should be in each individual's control.
Ultimately, mobile phones are the most personal devices.
The remote control to your life.
Why would you not want to use that remote control
to empower yourself and all of the people that you care about?
Our first benchmark is a million users on the network.
And the reason why that number makes
sense is because when it gets into the high hundreds
of thousands of nodes, individual nodes run
by individual people, the coercion required
to gain control of that network is unfathomable.
The largest network at the moment I think
is Horizen with 40,000 nodes.
And Bitcoin, Ethereum have 12,000. The rest of the cryptos
have sometimes three.
We think a million is the starting point.
Have you ever wondered what humanity's final form is?
The only thing that I'm 100% certain about
is that it must start with freedom.
When I look five or 10 years down the line,
I see two versions of the web.
The centralized web that we commonly use which is brilliant
and has changed the world and the Minima
version of how decentralization really can truly work.
When that level of collaboration and power comes,
then you have a free web and you have
the web that we know today.
And that's what we're creating here.
You know what we were waiting for?
We were waiting for the chipset technology
to get as good as it is.
We were waiting for the mobile technology
to be that powerful and that ubiquitous.
Now it is, now it can be free.
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STEVE RAPHAEL: Certainly when we look forward to the future,
we can see that blockchains and the like
are going to be important.
We believe that processing should
happen as close to the source of the data as possible
for it to be efficient and sustainable.
So it is exciting to me to look at any kind of blockchains that
will be relying on the vast power of the network
of mobile devices out there.
Any time that you can make a network more efficient
and you can make the cost of performing a transaction lower
and you can provide that kind of massive connectivity
and peer-to-peer, point-to-point connectivity,
you will see innovations happening.
So I can tell you that right now, we
are thinking about technology and features and the kind
of performance that's going to be needed in products that
are probably going to be coming to market in the 2026
timeframe.
I'm actually spending a lot of time with my team
looking at how to make the mobile phone far more secure,
as well as obviously bringing an ever increasing amount
of performance and capability to the phone through the Arm IP.
And going forward, it will be an incredibly important tool
in doing what we call bridging the digital divide.
We see in many emerging countries,
emerging markets that people don't have access
to the internet.
And the mobile phone has the potential
to bridge that gap, to connect those people,
and help them to live a richer and better life.
So going forward, we believe that data sovereignty
will be an important driver of the way
that software and operating systems and mobile phones
are architected.
And this will likely require hardware innovations
and changes going forward to enforce the policies that
will allow users to take control of their data
and remain in control of their data
and decide exactly who gets to see it.
And you'll see those innovations coming in our roadmap
over the coming years.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you in the next episode.
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