In ‘Silicon Valley’ Richard Wants to Build a Decentralized Internet, Perhaps on Ethereum

In the first Season 4 episode of “Silicon Valley,” Richard drops a bomb: he wants to leverage the super video compression algorithm of Pied Piper to build a fully decentralized Internet powered by billions of cell phones.

“We put a man on the moon using the computing power of a handheld calculator,” Richard enthusiastically says to the infamous rogue venture capitalist Russ Hannerman, featured in the previous seasons. “There’s literally millions of times more computing power in my phone, and that’s just sitting in my pocket doing nothing. So then I thought there’s, what, billions of phones all over the world with the same computing power just sitting in peoples’ pockets.”

“What if we use all those phones to build a massive network? We use my compression algorithm to make everything small, efficient, move things around. And if we could do it, we could build a completely decentralized version of our current internet with no firewalls, no tolls, no government regulation, no spying. Information would be totally free in every sense of the word.”
“If we could do it, we could build a completely decentralized version of our current internet with no firewalls, no tolls, no government regulation, no spine,” concludes Richard. “Information would be totally free in every sense of the word.”

A Decider story titled “‘Silicon Valley’s Dream of a New Internet Isn’t That Crazy” notes that Richard could be thinking of a mesh network – a purely P2P network of end-user phones and devices, each communicating with its nearest neighbors, which propagate traffic to their neighbors ans so on, without a central server. Since load speed is one of the main challenges for an operational mesh network with performance similar to today’s internet, it seems likely that a breakthrough data compression technique could help.

Season 4 starts with Richard posing as Uber driver and trying to impress a venture capitalist with the Pied Piper video chat app. At the end of Episode 1, Richard wants to leave his colleagues at Pied Piper with a permanent license to use his compression algorithm in their video chat app, which will need a new name since Richard wants to keep the brand, and focus on revolutionizing the internet. All seems to indicate that Richard’s quest to build a new decentralized internet, perhaps with funding from Hannerman, could be prominently featured in the rest of Season 4.

“Need a TL;DR version?,” concludes Decider. “Richard’s idea for a new internet is entirely possible, and Richard could absolutely be the one to build it. Always trust Silicon Valley to do its research, even it we’re all too distracted by Jared’s latest disturbing story to notice.”

It seems safe to assume that “Silicon Valley” producers have done their research indeed, and are familiar with the many ongoing projects to decentralize the internet. Mashable notes that Richard could have in mind something like Maidsafe’s SAFE Network or Storj, a blockchain-based distributed storage networks that recently announced a migration from the Counterparty platform to Ethereum.

In fact, more and more new projects to decentralize the internet are based on a blockchain. Crypto-powered security and privacy options are obvious reasons, but the availability of P2P payments in blockchain systems is another important factor. Somebody must pay for the new internet, and blockchain technology has built-in payments.

“Is Silicon Valley Season 4 About Ethereum?,” wonders Sam Cassatt, Chief Strategy Officer of Ethereun-focused blockchain company ConsenSys.

Image from HBO/Wikimedia Commons.