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A Yale professor and Goldman Sachs veteran are teaming up on an eccentric new blockchain-powered social network to try to make Facebook irrelevant

Aaron Holmes   

A Yale professor and Goldman Sachs veteran are teaming up on an eccentric new blockchain-powered social network to try to make Facebook irrelevant
Tech1 min read

David Gelernter

Johannes Simon / Getty

David Gelernter

  • The Yale professor who invented Mirror Worlds has embarked on a new venture: an eccentric new social network meant to threaten tech giants like Facebook and Google.
  • The new social network, called Revolution Populi, will operate on the blockchain and is slated to launch next year.
  • Gelernter and Revolution Populi CEO Rob Rosenthal, a 19-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, spoke to Business Insider about their gambit to challenge social media monopolies.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Yale professor David Gelernter thinks you should be fed up with Facebook.

The Mirror Worlds inventor and professor of computer science thinks the tech company, along with the likes of Amazon and Google, has too much power to be publicly accountable. He objects to its business model of selling users' personal information to advertisers. And he believes recent scandals show Facebook shouldn't be trusted to protect people's privacy.

Gelernter thinks there's a better way: he envisions a social media that's collectively owned by its users, where terms of use are determined democratically and privacy is guaranteed by blockchain-based encryption.

Gelernter has teamed up with Rob Rosenthal, a 19-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, to launch the new social media, dubbed "Revolution Populi."

It may seem far-fetched, but they're counting on the general public becoming so fed up with Facebook - but still craving a social media outlet - that Revolution Populi becomes a global movement. A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

"There has to be a different way, because that's not what the internet was built for. And we believe we've come up with a solution," Rosenthal said.

Gelernter and Rosenthal spoke to Business Insider about their vision for the future of social media. Here are some key takeaways.

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