Readers may wish to begin reading at the first post of this series:
This piece overall is designed to move the audience from zero to a basic understanding of the nature of this emerging technology, how pervasive it will be, and what value one might derive by moving early into a mode of nurturing support and engagement.
With that in mind, this is not so much an invitation for the techno-illiterate to hurry up and install an Ethereum browser wallet and download some crypto, as it is an encouragement for anyone actively working on and in the mileau of our systemic technical challenges to sit up and take notice.
This is not a piece directed solely at technologists, but rather anyone focused on healthcare systems, finance, social equity and equality, freedom in contrast to authoritarianism, agriculture, environmental concern… The list goes on and on, you get the picture.
Essentially, if your work or interest involves moving information or control authority (think personal data, finance, etc.) between one party and another across the Internet, this is a subject which concerns you.
As this technology matures, anyone regularly using the Internet, one way or another will “control their own keys.” This will be as ubiquitous (and as easy) as access to clean water ought to be today. In that regard, this piece is also for those aforementioned “techno illiterate” who may wish to better understand what is coming down the pipeline.
This matters to us because Web 3 is going to fundamentally change the way data is housed, managed and transmitted through protocols across the Internet, and these changes will necessitate (and facilitate) changes in our behavior (how we do business, politics, finance, and more.)
This technology will likely affect not only the processes of our information communications infrastructure, but also the physical infrastructure itself. This will have implications for energy use (likely not in the way you’re thinking), as well as real estate (distributed systems can take better advantage of what used to be considered “edge” devices — in the decentralized net, everything is the center.)
Through the birth of the radio, and flight, the last century saw human beings move from meaningfully disparate geographic centralization of cultures, to a global humanity. This is not vastly unlike leaving Africa, or the dawn of agriculture.
The Internet (now only about 50 years old) is that zygotic global culture growing a central nervous system. Web 3 is a major milestone in the development of that organ, and we are faced with a profound opportunity, as a species, to conduct a conscious birth of Homo-universus.
Whether we do is largely implicit on the degree to which we can embrace the moniker of “wisdom,” implied in our current title of Homo sapiens.
Next we’ll consider the evolutionary tension inherent in our context: