>>1020215
My understanding: It's an attempt to build an alternative Internet-like infrastructure. It can operate on top of the Internet but it itself sheds IPs, hostnames and trust authorities (IANA, ICANN, root certs) in favor of a distributed cryptographic system (Ethereum, right now, I believe).
This would have a number of implications. I'm not sure exactly what they're going for, but assuming my understanding is correct, the project COULD provide, e.g., total ownership of one's online identity so long as the key is secret, no potential for online censorship without violence or client-end blacklists, built-in cloud computing, built-in payment processor, making raw DDoS attacks against competent targets fruitless and more. The project has the potential to match or obsolete many digital monopolies and thus has been deemed by onlookers as DoA as its contributors will start dropping like flies if it looks like it has any promise, or maybe it'll just be banned after glowniggers distribute CP through it.