Sergio Antelo is CTO of Mundo Crypto. We caught up with him in Spain to learn his perspective on Web 3, blockchain technology, and Ethereum’s The Merge, among other topics.
Fernando Quiros (CF): There’s a lot of talk about Web 3. What stage do you think we’re at?
Sergio Antelo (SA): Web 1.0 emerged back in 1991 and was “read only”. About 13 years passed until 2004 until Web 2.0 arrived, for reading and writing. Users could receive information, but at the same time they could also give information.
At the beginning, the web was a disorganized environment, and that gave rise to the concept of decentralization, but when web 2.0 arrived, there was strict control by entities that now regulate the world, such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, which basically They took control of the web. They began to influence and control us.
The concept of Web 3.0 emerged around 2013 or 2014 with the birth of Ethereum.
Many people say that they are experts in the field of cryptocurrencies, but how can they be if the greatest experts in this field have an eight-year track record?
I think we are in an incipient environment, an environment in which we are moving forward, that we are building. New developments appear every week, you have to be up to date.
FQ: An important change is coming with Ethereum, with The Merge. There are many speculations. What vision do you have about it?
SA: It is a famous concept that has been discussed in recent years, because Ethereum has been talking about version 2.0 and the change to Proof of Stake, for a year and something or two.
The problems that Ethereum has are, first of all, scalability. It is the main problem because its Proof of Work model allows only a few dozen transactions. Something that other protocols, such as Solana or Avalanche, are managing to solve.
Another problem that exists is safety and energy efficiency. The protocol it uses is PoW and it is a brutal energy expense compared to what PoS would be.
For me, what is coming is a very beneficial change. Because I think that Ethereum is the reference project, on a personal level. It is the project that has truly allowed the implementation of the blockchain and Web 3 in our lives.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency but Ethereum was the creation of the ecosystem that we have right now, which is not just an investment ecosystem. It’s an ecosystem where we have DeFi applications, we have NFTs, we have metaverse, we have algorithmic trading. All of this is made possible by the smart contracts that Ethereum introduced.
It’s going to be a very positive change because it’s going to basically allow for a change, but there are also a lot of misconceptions about The Merge.
There are people who think that scalability is going to be much higher than what we have today, but scalability is linked to the type of blockchain that is being used. And Ethereum is going to remain an L1 blockchain, so the scalability in the beginning is not going to change. Also at the security level it will remain the same.
Yes, it is true that at the level of energy efficiency it is going to be a huge step because currently the expenditure at the energy level in Bitcoin or Ethereum can reach the scale of countries. While with this leap that is going to take place, the nodes or computers will spend the same as a traditional laptop.
FQ: Let’s talk a bit about blockchain infrastructure. What is Mundo Crypto working with?
SA: We are currently working with an L1 layer, with the Ethereum blockchain technology, and in the future we want to take a leap and go to a multichain approach. Because logically, by enabling different blockchain networks for users, you bring us an ease of use in that digital ecosystem that we want to create in the future. Although that has to be controlled.
FQ: From Mundo Crypto you have highlighted the importance of education with responsibility. What role does technology play in all this?
SA: Technology plays a fundamental role. We are in the environment of cryptocurrencies, but cryptocurrencies would not exist if blockchain technology was not behind it.
The technology in the field of education that we promote is fundamental, because we are migrating from what was a traditional digital educational environment to what is now a virtual educational environment, which is the business model that we propose.
We have many departments at the technological level: the infrastructure department at the database level, the web department that allows us to show all the products, the support department both internally and externally, the blockchain development department that allows us to create all the smart contracts that will allow the creation of decentralized applications that will be in our metaverse. We even have a gaming department.
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