Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron Says Blockchain Technology Will Reshape the Internet

Blockchain technology is more than just finance—it's about reshaping the internet itself, according to Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron.

Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, envisions a future internet powered by blockchain technology, shifting the paradigm of online interaction and data ownership.

In an interview on TheStreet Roundtable, Boiron explained how blockchain technology can be used to create a "trustless internet," eliminating the need to trust corporations to store and manage one’s data.

“We often say at Polygon that we're building the trustless internet, and that's really our mission,” Boiron said. “The internet typically is one where you trust somebody. You want to use social media on the internet? What are you doing? You're trusting a team that builds a social media application to actually store your data and allow you to access it whenever you want.”

According to Boiron, blockchain technology changes that equation by returning control of data to the individual.

“What you can do on the trustless internet, meaning on a blockchain, is actually create and store that data yourself,” Boiron continued. “Now, this doesn't mean you're storing it on your computer, you're actually storing it on a blockchain that is accessible at any point in time, where you don't have to trust that it will be kept available by one company.”

The key difference, he explained, is that users can move their data anywhere they want, without being locked into a single platform.

“Instead, what you know is that it is always going to be available, so you can access that data anytime,” he said. “You can move it somewhere else if you want to move it somewhere else, which is fantastic. But you can also actually release just pieces of information and data that you want.”

And unlike today’s centralized platforms that monetize user data without consent, blockchain enables people to take back control.

“By the way, you could also sell that data if you wanted, instead of somebody else selling that data and earning money for you,” Boiron added.

Blockchain’s real-world utility

Boiron challenged the idea that blockchain is only useful for payments, instead framing it as a foundational technology that can reshape industries.

“The best way to frame this is to think about what the internet was intended to do,” he explained. “The original internet is for information. You want to be able to share information, read information, write information. When you think of a blockchain, what you're trying to do is the same thing, but with something that has value inherent in it.”

Bitcoin, he noted, is often treated like digital gold, but its functionality is limited.

“The only thing you can do with that value is transfer it to somebody else. Well, that's not useful. What if you wanted to lend somebody money without an intermediary? What if you wanted to exchange two different tokens of value? You can do that.”

Beyond finance, blockchain can be used to verify content authenticity, preventing the spread of AI-generated misinformation.

“The way that I'm going to do that is to say, real pieces of information are actually stored on the blockchain,” Boiron said. “So anything that is not stored on the blockchain might actually not be original content.”

He also highlighted blockchain’s potential in agriculture, providing more precise tracking of farm equipment than traditional GPS.

“Typically, you’d need to rely on a satellite that is often completely wrong and off by six feet or so,” Boiron said. “But with a blockchain, what you can do is actually incentivize people to run devices that allow you to get much closer and give information that is accurate as to one foot.”