The early internet ushered a new type of power. One that had never been had before, outside of an exclusive few. It was built on openness and a decentralized system. Everyone potentially held equal power. If you wanted something to be out there, you had to put it out there. For the first time, people were collectively and individually responsible for the value network of the internet.
Anyone could start a blog and chronicle their ideas for others to enjoy. A hobbyist photographer could build a basic webpage to share photos for public enjoyment. The internet was a federated network of equally distributed access to the internet’s power. This power, in turn, constituted of people’s individual power to change, choose, or create whatever they wanted.
But with this power came an immense responsibility. Everyone had to be responsible for everything. If you wanted to write a blog, you had to set up a server as well. You had to learn SysAdmin, scripting, Linux shells, resource provisioning etc. Sure, you owned your stuff, but the responsibility was cumbersome.
Soon that started to change. Special platforms started to emerge that offered to help take over responsibilities for different aspects of the value network. The rise of centralized platforms and the confederation.
With this came forced tradeoffs: power for convenience, ownership for ease, and utility for flexibility. The collective power of the formerly independent value networks became aggregated in a few centralized corporations that grew even more powerful as more people ceded power and ownership for convenience.
Why build a server to host a public journal system to share your writings, when you could simply sign up for Twitter and Facebook? Why build a photosharing server and application when you could simply sign up for Instagram? Why maintain a personal yellow page and directory when you could simply sign up for Google? Why build your personal store and worry about administration, security, etc, when you could sign up to sell on Amazon? Why build…I’m sure you get it already.
Crypto holds the promise of fixing the madness of opaque corporations that has consolidated power over the years. The problem however is that it tries to do this by promoting openness and decentralization at the expense of convenience and utility. Forcing people to acquire new habits and disrupt normal processes.
It’s exceptionally difficult to promote the re-adoption of responsibility to people who are used to (and fine with) giving up power for more convenience. Humans have always found ways to give up precious commodity for relative convenience, because “precious” is always going to be subjective.
Privacy, for example, might not be a precious enough commodity to some people. As evidenced by the significant internet users who have no problem giving away their privacy in exchange for access to certain services that offer convenience.
The subject of responsibility is the bane of power.
I am a firm believer in responsibility and reward. That is, those who offer to bear responsibility on behalf of others are entitled to a fair reward. I believe reward is potentially proportional to the amount of responsibility one bears for others.
I believe that crypto provides an elegant mechanism to help handle the responsibilities of people without the tradeoff of control for convenience. Crypto allows me to provide services that improve the overall experience of people whilst also deriving maximum reward that doesn’t involve them giving up their power.
I am building in crypto because I believe it offers a true layer zero for everything to everything to come.
Sure, one can argue that you could just build on existing systems with a different philosophy and ideals. However, it is impossible to idealize your way through fundamentally flawed systems. Soon, it falls apart, and you with it.
I believe the new layer of true power has to start from zero. On a structure built for a specific type of future in mind —people empowerment.
