David Vorick: On Skynet and Trusted Setups

Today, half of the internet is built on top of Amazon S3. Although the cloud has allowed Internet applications to scale, centralized infrastructure means less control over one's own data. And when it goes down, so does half of the internet.

Sia CEO David Vorick is back on the podcast to talk about a new product recently released by their team: Skynet. Skynet builds on Sia and enables web applications to be developed and deployed over a decentralized data storage infrastructure. David also shares his thoughts on Trusted Setups, why he thinks they're "busted," and how the crypto industry can create better and more secure Zero-Knowledge primitives.

Topics covered in this episode:

- What is Skynet and how it builds on Sia
- Skynet compared to IPFS/Filecoin
- The need for a decdentralized data marketplace
- An example of how the Sia network works
- What are trusted setups and how they are used
- Threat models in trusted setups and what can happen when they break
- The alternative to trusted setups and solutions for the future

Episode links: 

- [Sia Website](https://sia.tech/)
- [Sia Blog](https://blog.sia.tech/)
- [Decentralization & Cutting-Edge Cryptography - Starkware Sessions Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naw0HajYDxI)
- [David Vorick on Twitter](https://twitter.com/davidvorick)
- [Sia on Twitter](https://twitter.com/SiaTechHQ)
- [Epicenter Virtual Meetup on May 29](https://epicenter.rocks/virtualmeetup)

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: [epicenter.tv/B005](https://epicenter.tv/B005)