The most beautiful thing about mankind isn’t our ability to understand the world as it is, it is to imagine the world as it isn’t and shape it. The denizens of the deepest parts of The Rabbit Hole, the areas furthest from common understanding, are dreamers. They can imagine a world where you are in control of your data instead of monopolistic companies, where identity theft is practically impossible, and where your data isn’t monetized and weaponized against you. They can imagine a world where you can contribute to common efforts, at whatever cadence you want, and receive fair rather than predatory compensation by doing so. They can imagine a world where honesty is rewarded, where merit and reputation carry more weight than money on deciding things that matter, and where the best amongst us are elevated and empowered to maximize their potential. They can imagine a world where those harming us are held accountable, where violence is only required as a response to violence, and where there is always a pathway to redemption for those willing. They can imagine a world where coordination seems easy, where the actions of humanity are in alignment with our values, and where we are free to act together to shape the world of our dreams without asking permission to do so.
I can cite specific teams, projects, and people who are imagining all these things and shaping the world in small and large ways to bring their imagination to life. There is technology behind all of these things. It is developing right here, right now, even in the bear market when sentiment is at its lowest. They are making it real as much as they are able to in a largely cynical and uncaring world where every incentive is aligned to enshrine the status quo. In the face of active hatred from the willfully ignorant, in the face of oppression, threats, and violence by the government, the best amongst us are doing these things anyway. They are dreamers.
The institutions all want us to have to ask permission. They want that so they can say no, and they would say no to any meaningful change. But we would prefer an ever improving world to an ossified one; to live in an optimistic world of potential instead of a monopoly board established decades or centuries before we were even players. So, asking for permission simply won’t do.
For the first time in a long time, meaningful change may be possible without a violent revolution. This technology can be bootstrapped one user at a time without coercion and it cannot be bottled and stolen by Nestle, seized by a court order or an unelected bureaucrat, or shut down without also killing the internet. It can only be locally suppressed through violence by a government against its citizens. But censorship is a blade that is dulled by its every use. In the game we are playing every country can choose to defect from a strategy of oppression and reap economic rewards for doing so.
So, to those of you sticking it out right now while it feels like society has turned against you, while seeing legitimacy under attack while scams proliferate, after seeing a Tornado Cash dev get locked up without charges for over a year, and after seeing the SEC work with SBF but sue Coinbase, you are heroes too. The impacts of what we are building today will be realized over many generations, but society grows great when people plant trees they will never live to sit in the shade of. To the dreamers, thank you for dreaming of forests… and planting trees.
7/2/23
This post was featured on the Green Pill podcast if your preferred way of sharing this with someone is to watch it with them rather than tell them to read it later.