Ayush Ranjan: Stepping Into a Challenging Path
While many people are busy choosing a safe career path, Ayush Ranjan is stepping into a challenging path. Starting from college in Electrical Engineering, his life journey then collided with the traditional boundaries of communication technology.
A New Vision for Video Calls
In the middle of a world that is still loyal to video call applications based on central servers, Ayush had a different idea: why rely on large servers when we can connect directly to each other?
This idea eventually gave birth to Huddle01, a Web3-based video call platform that throws away dependence on traditional servers. This idea came about when Ayush and his colleague, Susmit Lavania, participated in the ETHGlobal Hackathon.
Ironically, the event with the theme of decentralization actually held its meetings on Zoom, which is based on a central server. If you think about it, it’s like holding an electric motorbike race, but all the motorbikes use gasoline.
Ayush Ranjan: Sewing Web3 into the Real World
Building Huddle01 was no trivial matter. Ayush realized that simply making a video call application was not enough. On the other hand, Web3 offers more potential: wallet-based identities, NFT avatars, even meetings that can only be accessed with certain tokens.
Furthermore, Ayush also integrates decentralized storage like IPFS and streaming systems via Livepeer. It’s not just about video calls, it’s about putting the control of communication back in the hands of users.
However, their biggest challenge was keeping it easy to use. Not everyone wants to bother connecting a wallet just to have a casual chat. Ayush got around this by designing a simple interface, so even people new to crypto could join in.
On the other hand, he knew he couldn’t just expect people to understand Web3 right away. So, he slowly built a community, created education, and of course, relied on word of mouth.
To date, Huddle01 has hosted over 10,000 meetings with over 4,000 users, and has raised $4.5 million in funding from big names in the industry. In the real world, this is similar to a high school kid who not only managed to build a school radio network, but also got the entire city to listen to his broadcasts.
Making Decentralization Practical and Rewarding
Ayush didn’t stop there. In the meantime, he and his team launched what they call Huddle01 Media Nodes. The idea behind it is simple: anyone can donate their bandwidth to strengthen the network and get paid for it. If you’ve ever shared a hotspot with a friend and suddenly got paid for it, that’s more or less the concept they want to create.
On the other hand, this approach can cut costs by up to 95% compared to cloud-based services like AWS. Just imagine, if we usually have to pay a lot for a fast service, with this network, we can get the same speed, but at a much more pocket-friendly price.
Furthermore, Ayush believes that decentralization is not about cool terms, but the benefits must be felt. According to him, many Web3 platforms fail because they force everything to be decentralized, without considering the real needs of users. At Huddle01, there is a balance: when to fully decentralize, when to semi-decentralize for speed.
Sharing Thoughts and Overcoming Challenges
Ayush also actively shares his thoughts on LinkedIn, X, and various podcasts. Every now and then, he throws out a funny view on how ironic the digital world is today: everyone talks about privacy, but still likes to use applications that peek at their data from behind the scenes.
He often likens the journey of building Huddle01 to repairing a plane while flying. Sometimes it takes off smoothly, sometimes it has to be willing to free fall for a moment before finding its way back. Even so, from the way he tells it, Ayush’s enthusiasm never really dies.
If you think about it, the world really needs more people like Ayush Ranjan. People who dare to ask, “why does it have to be this way?” and then really look for the answer, even though the answer is much harder than just accepting the situation.