Orchid CEO, Dr. Steven Waterhouse (Seven) started his session by comparing what the internet is supposed to be and what it has become. He mentions that the internet but design is meant to be a place where people can explore freely, however it has become a big risk for users. People are constantly being tracked where ever they go online.
In countries like the US, there is a lot of corporate surveillance from businesses like Facebook and Google. In Europe, there is more of a government like such as GDPR. In Asia, specifically China, has whats known as they great firewall which censors Chinese people from accessing most parts of the outside world.
Seven moves on to speaking about the current pandemic, Covid-19. He states that the virus that has spread around the world has also given an excuse for even greater surveillance.
Seven’s solution to censorship and surveillance is a decentralized VPN. Current VPN’s are centralized, non-transparent, unprotected, and non-incentivized. Orchid has solved this problem. For information on how it works check out his presentation.