Smile! You are in the Middle Ages.
image: midjourney
Brief
How the fear of getting burned at the Digital Inquisition's bonfire shapes the default attitude in Web3;
The monopoly of financial speculation over all Web3 debates;
The quiet revolution happening beneath the smoke of Bitcoin's highs and lows;
It's official: We're living in the Digital Middle Ages. Noticed that?
Big nations (once empires) are splitting from the inside by the small digital ghettos, while Big Techs (once the Church) become so powerful they invade countries and steer public thought their way, exempt from any law or rule. Kind of a "divine right" granted by the People - of course.
The People, by the way, dance between hell and Calvary when it comes to going backwards. With them, Earth turned flat, the plague virus became a Chinese microchip, politics turned into football, football into religion, religion into politics, and prophets became digital influencers - Fancy that!
At the mere sign of demonic (communist, capitalist, gayist, macho, proletarian, or bourgeois) intervention, a hashtag rises to the courts of the Holy Inquisition, gathering guys in the digital square to burn another heretic at the cancellation bonfires.
Amidst the weird smell of burning flesh, it's natural to fear disagreeing, challenging the status quo. A typically medieval fear, now reheated under a fancy name:
FOHO - The Fear of Having an Opinion
There are people unafraid to talk nonsense, of course! Massive blunders, in fact, are essential to fill up the day. But you can't challenge the crowd - a Medieval thing, too.
The fear we're discussing here is precisely that of breaking this rule.
When I first got into Web3, like you, I noticed some loose ends...
"If NFT Art is important,
how can a creator burn 500 NFTs in a single day
just to temporarily raise the collection's floor price?" 😳
But when I discussed this with people, I heard:
"There's a lot wrong,
but I keep quiet because if I burn my bridges in the market, I'm out of the game."
A peculiar welcome card in the land of #Freedom.
Sounded strange at first, but makes total sense. The 3rd Web revolution mainly happens in digital squares, under the watchful eyes of the public Inquisition. Speak out of turn, and you're canceled or shadow banned - everyone ignores you until the algorithm decides you no longer exist, another typically medieval sentence, by the way.
The effect on Web3 is similar to other Web niches: Shallow debate, everyone online saying the same thing, influencers repeating rhetoric to farm engagement, and a little devil poking our head:
"Wait... Am I dumb, or is everyone going crazy?"
Maybe both are right. But in this album full of repeated stickers, we feel Web3 is just about financial speculation, dodging the state, or getting rich overnight. Isn't it?
The cool part is, that's just a feeling.
Enlightenment 2.0
If we're in the Digital Middle Ages today, Enlightenment is just around the corner.
What an amazing time to be alive! 🤩
Initially, I thought the movement we call Web3 on Twitter was the way to see the Light.
I guess I was wrong.
In a thriving market, huge profits poked at greed, and financial speculation kidnapped the debate. By forcibly removing creators' royalties, for example, Web3 acted like the dog biting the hand that feeds it.
No lunch the next day.
The last Bear Market wasn't just a winter in crypto investments, but also a massive wave of great creators pulling the plug by not seeing their work minimally rewarded.
Some tried to argue, but many chose to ignore it.
And in the era of Fear Of Having an Opinion, these few dare not challenge the many.
It's just the Web3 market telling the artists that they're not worth much. Just like in Web2
Tough lessons, but important.
Marching forward.
A Quiet Revolution
Lucky for the world, Creators are brave folks. Beneath the froth on networks, another revolution is happening in smaller, plural, albeit silent currents:
There's the Web2 Dev who, despite ideology, joined forces with the construction entrepreneur to tokenize the real estate sector;
The cool gang selling concert tickets as NFTs;
Artists developing methodologies for creating, producing, distributing, and remunerating culture in entirely shared ways;
Public servants developing tokenized tools that make services accessible to the common citizen, previously only available to big companies;
Tons of kids creating metaverses, games, skins, and on-chain integrations on their laptops in the wee hours;
The Brazilian Health System and Central Bank tokenizing vaccination cards and creating CBDCs - Oh, the irony...
3,000 patent applications involving blockchain "popping up" among small and large inventors and companies;
Decentralized networks slowly emerging like Lens and Jack Dorsey's Blue Sky. Plus, the giant Meta - owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - building its new network - Threads - on an open protocol, allowing post interactions with users from other networks;
There are these and many, many more. ♥️
Such creators don't feature in the rankings of Blur, Opensea, or Magic Eden - at least not yet. But among them are born the new ways for us to buy, sell, relate, learn, and have fun in the future. The digital revolution is happening here.
Be Revolutionary!
Honestly, much of what we call Web3 today is like that old photo of the ex-girlfriend (poor thing). No more juice from that story, but we refuse to throw it away, so it doesn't seem like the dream is over. It's romantic, but a busy heart isn't open to new love.
Are people making money with speculative markets? Cool!
But what else?
There's nothing new in pointing out government and financial system errors on social media to act smart. Our challenge here is to find solutions that REALLY work!
That really ENTERTAIN.
That really CONNECT PEOPLE.
That really MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE.
Respect those who create.
Among the pumps and dumps of Bitcoin, the social media court is too busy trying to be right to notice the sea of opportunities opening before us. And amid the tension of mandatory engagement, it's easy to get loosed from what really matters. But the Revolutionarys, on the other hand, ignore the froth, find something worth fighting for, and invest their energy in THESE goals.
Sustaining stances that break the status quo DOES have its costs. It remains to be seen who really cares about you, to decide which circles are worth leaving.
The 3rd Digital Revolution is happening,
but it's more than what the Web3 Sommeliers are preaching out there.
Happy 2024!
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