According to Hongfei Da, the founder of the blockchain platform Neo , most of today's Internet landscape is controlled by countless technological oligarchs such as Facebook, Tencent and Alibaba.

At the Unitize blockchain conference, Hongfei said that these companies had divided the Internet into several fragments by creating their own data silos.

He expressed concern over how these companies intentionally use these data silos to impede competition while abusing user privacy for commercial and political purposes.

Hongfei says laying the foundation for a more user-centric and decentralized Internet infrastructure is the best way to reduce these problems.

Five attributes of next generation Internet

Explaining the important features of the new Internet infrastructure, Hongfei said it should be modular so that "everyone can build a part of it, and then each part can be integrated to create a larger application."

In addition, he said he should be opt-in and promote interoperability. These features would allow users to freely choose which apps they want to use and which rules they want to obey when doing business. 

He stressed that interoperability is a crucial aspect of the next generation Internet that will help Internet applications communicate with each other.

Hongfei also said that for free innovation to happen on the new Internet, it must remain unauthorized and adaptable.

In conclusion, the founder of Neo said that such an Internet will create business opportunities for innovators to build a better infrastructure for privacy and governance and to create applications for adoption by businesses.