The blockchain community has developed a tarnished image lately. Admittedly, the broad picture of the space has been richly earned. People can only hear about another rug pull project or liquidity cascade so many times before the reputation of that environment precedes us and poisons the proverbial well. It is a problem, but not just for the blockchain industry. It is a concern for the entire human race.
The Dawn of the New Epoch
To put things bluntly, humans stand on the cusp of what certainly appears to be the next significant technological epoch. As digitization proceeds, the need for wise development grows. For good or ill, digitizing human lives will have an enormous impact on almost every aspect of our lives. It will affect everything we can imagine in ways we cannot yet anticipate.
Unfortunately, most people have yet to learn. They do not understand the paradigm shift we are about to witness. How could they, and who could blame them? Technological development has continued to accelerate since the turn of the 20th century. Humans rode into the century on a horse and cart and left it flying hypersonic jets. And now, we are about to begin taking those first tentative steps into the now-nascent metaverse. From the perspective of a social scientist, the implications are staggering. From the standpoint of the average person? Overwhelming!
Humans have reached the point in our development where the pace of technology outpaces evolution – and human behavioral norms as well – that we no longer have much time to adjust to new modes of doing everything, all the time. While humans have scarcely gotten accustomed to the internal combustion engine from a cultural development perspective, the light cycle of digitization has already left the showroom.
The Digital Age
In short, the technology that makes humans a more digitally oriented species is also the technology that will control our social and material destinies. What we devise and implement now will dictate how we interact with one another for generations to come and perhaps far longer. Blockchain technology will fundamentally alter a wide array of our social and financial interactions.
Decades from now, social scientists and historians will point to this decade as a major inflection point in human society. In much the same way that we study the period around 1980 – with the advent of commercial computing technology, and the period around 2000 – with the arrival of personal computing on a mass scale, so are humans taking a flying leap into an entirely new era of human existence, one that we can scarcely imagine.
A Portent
The purpose of this message is not to communicate excitement at the thought of things. It is no advance fanfare for some anticipated technological golden age. It is a warning and a call to action. We can shape the development and applications of this new technology and, all the while, secure our rights. Now is the time to set boundaries and constraints – in a way that frees humanity rather than constricts us.
We must develop and implement this technology in a way that guarantees us all absolute, perpetual digital privacy, security, and fundamental digital rights. We cannot wait for governments to get around to handling this. They possess neither the expertise to help nor awareness of how portentous this transition will be, through no fault of their own. In particular, decentralization technology has developed far too quickly for any timely policy response.
At any rate, the task falls to us. We, good faith actors in this space, bear the responsibility of history. Our undertaking is to educate new users and collaborate with other responsible actors. We stand at the threshold of this new technological age, simultaneously optimistic and apprehensive about what it can make possible. The sooner we begin to work together to ensure our digital rights and those of future generations, the sooner we will all be significantly better off.
Please join us on our Telegram channel. There, you will be the first to know about official project announcements and developments. You can also find us on Twitter, Discord, and our website. Please visit our whitepaper and previous articles here for a more in-depth discussion of our project. We are always available on our platforms to assist with your questions.
