Social Media, Web3, Web2

Social media is deeply embedded in modern life and is well-positioned to benefit from the adoption of blockchain technology. With over 65% of the world population owning a social media account, the technology becomes increasingly relevant, especially to solve challenges in data privacy, ownership and security.

Working in this direction, layer-1 blockchain Ice Open Network (ION) has launched Online+, a decentralized application (DApp) built with ​​the ION Framework. The novel platform provides users with a familiar social media experience, but in a decentralized way.

In this interview, Alexandru Iulian Florea, founder and CEO of ION, joins Cointelegraph to explain how Online+ achieves this, explore the framework powering the platform, while also sharing insider tips to sail through the blockchain industry.

Cointelegraph: Could you introduce the “New Internet” you’re building, and briefly explain how Online+ demonstrates that vision in practice?

Alexandru Iulian Florea: The New Internet shouldn’t need an intro. It’s an original blockchain promise from the 2010s: digital sovereignty and human-centric design. Somewhere along the way, hype and “innovation for its own sake” took over, and we lost that thread. The result: Big Tech filled the gap, renting us back our own digital lives.

At ION, we went back to first principles and built what should have been there from the start: an actually scalable and usable infrastructure where people own their identity, data, interactions, money, and decide what to do with them. Simple as that on paper, a little more difficult to build — it’s taken us 3 years, but we’re there, because we approached the task from the perspective of the practical blockchain purists that we are.

Online+ is a tangible slice of the New Internet. We chose social because that’s where most people feel platform lock-in — we wanted to showcase the difference when you own your identity, content, connections and interactions.

Source: ION

CT: How does the ION Chain’s architecture translate into everyday benefits for non-crypto users and developers?

AIF: Dividing users (crypto or not) and developers misses the point: you build so people can use it, hassle-free. Most people don’t care what chain they’re on — they tap, it works — and that beats shiny tech any day.

We built ION Chain with that human lens: quietly powering everyday apps. In plain terms: millions of TPS, so no lag whether you’re posting or transferring; fees that don’t cost an arm and a leg — because few will pay a premium just to be “decentralized”; and full privacy without the “lose a key, lose your life” panic. It’s a stack for convenience, and convenience wins at scale.

For builders, it’s those same things that are the gift: predictable throughput and low latency, so you can design for millions without ripping up your back end every quarter, plus crosschain compatibility with over 20 top networks.

Net result is users get Web2-simple experiences with Web3 ownership while builders get stable, scalable rails and can focus on product, not firefighting infra.

CT: Can you walk us through how the ION DApp Framework’s modules work together so a DApp feels as simple as Web2?

AIF: The Framework, like everything ION, maps to everyday digital life: who you are, what you create and do, how you transact and how information moves online. That’s four modules — ION Identity, ION Vault, ION Connect, ION Liberty — working in sync and with the ION Chain engine underneath to address every aspect of our digital lives.

In Web2, you have a profile, you pay quickly, you chat, post, comment, access your content, and it’s smooth. The ION DApp Framework does the same  (why fix a model that isn’t broken?) but with decentralization under the hood. The end-user gets the convenience, but not at the cost of handing over their identity and data for some third party to do as they please with.

CT: How do you plan to make ION “so seamless it could run on a toaster” without compromising decentralization?

AIF: The “blockchain-powered toaster” started as a joke, but the point is serious: if this tech is simple enough to power everyday stuff, people get control back. With Online+ now live and running smoothly even on low-end devices, we’ve already proven that decentralization can work at scale, with toaster-level simplicity.

And the plan is well underway. The ION DApp Framework that powers Online+ is live, public and open-source for anyone to build on — whether it’s another social network, a restaurant app or even e-gov services.

I can’t wait to see what people build on ION — weird, wonderful or just beautifully ordinary — but the crucial part is this: users keep their identity, content and connections, even if a platform shuts down or they move on. That’s the ION promise: real performance on rails where no one can lock you in, turn you off or walk away with what’s yours.

CT: How does Online+ deliver user-owned identity, end-to-end encrypted messaging, integrated wallet actions and community-owned content without intermediaries or algorithmic control?

AIF: It’s all in the Framework. ION Identity gives you full ownership of your digital self. ION Vault keeps your data safe and accessible only by you. ION Connect enables direct, peer-to-peer interactions — no corporate or government oversight, no middlemen scraping your data. And ION Liberty keeps information flowing freely, letting people — not algorithms — curate what they see.

Decentralization is built in from the start, not something we slap on later. The ION team is just the stewards of Online+, not gatekeepers. Our job is to keep the platform running, not to police opinions or hold user data hostage. We can’t “kick” someone out because we disagree with them — that’s the community’s call, not ours. And even then, they still keep their data, content and connections. That’s the deal. You choose your circles, your feeds, your level of noise, quiet, privacy, publicity. It’s your space and your terms.

CT: What are the key milestones you achieved in terms of users, creators and partners, and how does building in public shape your roadmap and reliability standards?

AIF: In our first community phase — the mobile mining app — we onboarded over 40 million verified users, and organically too. That still blows my mind. The same community pushed for our token to be listed on OKX, and when it happened, the demand briefly crashed their system. That’s the kind of energy you can’t buy.

Those same people, along with 3,000+ creators and nearly 200 partner projects, joined us in shaping Online+ with their ideas, feedback and moral support. We’ve hit nearly a million onchain addresses since launch last month, purely through community pull.

That’s the shiny side of things. But building in front of 40 million people is also brutal. When everything’s public, every delay feels longer, mistakes are magnified and bugs hit X within seconds, reliability and transparency are the default survival mode. Daily communication, ship only when ready, own up to failure. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. That’s how products should be built — with, not for, the people who use them.

CT: What is the ION DApp Builder, who is it for, and how close does it bring us to mainstream no-code decentralized applications?

AIF: The DApp Builder is the cherry on the ION cake — the interface of the ION DApp Framework that will let anyone, no tech skills needed, build user-friendly decentralized apps from scratch. Think Webflow: you drag, drop, add your content, and it’s live. The difference is, it’s fully decentralized under the hood. You’re not building on rented land, and no one can shut you down, take a cut, or change the Terms and Conditions overnight.

What you build and earn stays yours. The ION DApp Framework is already live and open-source, but this interface is the real game-changer — it democratizes creation. We can’t single-handedly bring the internet's 5.5 billion onchain; no single project can. That’s why our goal is simpler and bigger: to give people the tools to start a quiet, grassroots revolution in digital sovereignty. And that’s coming in 2026.

CT: How do you approach trust, accountability and long-term stewardship when rumors or FUD surface?

AIF: My team and I are a practical, self-aware bunch. We’ve all failed (who hasn’t?) and learned that the only way failure doesn’t define you is by being transparent about it. Our names, faces and track records are out there. If something isn’t clear, ask. We show the work, explain the trade-offs, own the misses and ship again. Not much room left for “shock horror” moments.

Still, rumor, FUD, hype — they’re inevitable. When you build something ambitious in public, you stand where the eggs get thrown. There’s safety in anonymity, but I’ve been building since sixteen — winning, losing, learning — and I’ve never needed that safety net. I believe in the greater purpose behind what I build. With that mindset, and by staying out in the open, you become a bit like teflon — the noise eventually slides off. That’s accountability. That’s why people keep showing up to build with ION.

CT: What guardrails around privacy, key management and data portability ensure that people truly own their identity and data across the ION ecosystem?

AIF: The ION DApp Framework is built so there’s no user data for us to hold, lose or control. Nothing sits in one central place. Your data lives on your device and in ION Vault, protected by quantum-resistant encryption — the chain only sees hashed proofs. Identity is self-sovereign: you decide what to share, with whom and for how long. With zero-knowledge proofs, you can verify who you are, or that you’re “over 18” or “KYC-verified,” without handing over documents.

Lose a device — MPC and 2FA recovery get you back in, without any custodian holding a master key. Delete an app or move to another one — your identity and data stay yours, your graph and connections come with you. In a nutshell, privacy isn’t a setting with ION; it’s the default. And there are no hostage situations where leaving an app means losing your digital life.

CT: Looking ahead, what milestones would signal that ION has crossed from a crypto-native platform to the default fabric for user-owned applications at internet scale?

AIF: Technically, we’ll know ION’s gone mainstream when hundreds of millions — then billions — use ION-powered apps without any drama. But we’ve never been about ION taking over the world, or people proudly saying, “I’m on ION.” The real success is the opposite — ION disappearing into the background and quietly running under the hood of everyday apps to meet the everyday needs of everyday people. Nobody needs to know it’s there; they just use it and reap the benefits. Like TCP/IP, WiFi or car engines — invisible, reliable, essential.

The bigger milestone, though, is cultural. When digital sovereignty becomes normal and handing over your data to third parties — whether governments or corporations — becomes a weird, antiquated thing, that’s when we’ll know we’ve made it. This isn’t about “going mainstream.” It’s about powering a global paradigm shift where the internet finally works for its users.

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