I took part in this and noticed no difference compared to traditional DNS in terms of speed.

The more important question is who we trust though. Currently, the DNS information where we go on the web is spread across a number of national internet service providers. In some countries, they feed this info to the NSA. In others, they may not.

This new DNS system makes everybody use a single DNS endpoint, the same one across the world located in the US.

Is this better or worse? Depends on your isp and country.