You heard about Bitcoin. It's the first crypto currency and still the biggest. The price increases will continue to melt faces in disbelief. In 2025 governments and corporations will start accumulating strategic Bitcoin reserves - mark my words.
But Bitcoin is a bit boring. You can't do anything with it except holding it as a store of value. I am not into blockchains and web3 for Bitcoin. I am excited about everyday use cases.
The cover image above represents what's going to happen in the next few years. Blockchain technology will permeate into every corner of the world, disrupt many industries and bureaucracies, and will make your life easier, just like the original internet did. Blockchains give us web3, the internet of value. Whatever Apple or Amazon host for you, it's not yours, but theirs. Same with your money on your bank account. Ask anyone who experienced a bank run in their lifetime.
I have spend a gigantic chunk of time, headspace and energy understanding this disruptive technology. Like many early adopters, I sometimes was ridiculed for playing with toys that can make you magic internet money. Now in my 5th year of studying this with a beginner's mindset, I start to realise that:
Crypto is not about money, it is about time.
A blockchain is, fundamentally, a clock. It records when transactions take place in a transparent and untamperable way. This is the key to its potential: in a world of declining trust, this blockchain clock can serve as a universal source of reality, for everything from financial transactions to election voting.
Every transaction in blockchains carries within it the answer: who did what, when and why. Time is the ultimate trustless key to our lives, and so, seen as clocks, are blockchains.
Vitalik Buterin and other co-founders created Ethereum to become a World Computer — a universal network consisting of thousands of computers on which anyone can build decentralized applications from anywhere. This is the trailer of the best crypto documentary I know.
Let's go back once more to the cover art above. What you see there is a simplified representation of the world economy with cubes of neurons in the middle; the neurons representing both smart onchain contracts and AI (I'll come back to AI later).
Most of the economy is dependent on middlemen and women. Let's be honest, we don't like too many of them, especially when they get too big to fail:
big banks
big tech
big media
big pharma
big agro-food
big government
Blockchains don't need middlemen
When I provide liquidity in a DeFi (Decentralised Finance) pool, I am the bank - and earn a bit.
When I build a channel (think a sub on Reddit) on Farcaster, I am the social network - and earn a bit.
If I provide my idle computing power to a decentralised hosting service, I am the SaaS - and earn a bit.
Notice the pattern?!
Do you know people who work in any of the above sectors? They'll get disrupted beyond their current imagination. Why? Let's bring in AI.
It's been 2 years since ChatGPT 3/4 created a new capital allocation and computing arms race. Here is the thing: these chat bots give me instant knowledge, but I still have to do any digital task, online action, work on-screen myself afterwards. Why can Claude not book me a flight directly?
A few weeks ago, I witnessed the birth of AI agents who can make autonomous transactions with their own crypto wallets. This wild! I consider the intersection of blockchain x AI as highly consequential because of their emerging symbiotic relationship:
AI creates abundance. Crypto creates scarcity.
I have seen an agent called aether commission digital art permissionlessly and then distribute the $100K!!! earnings between the artists, their owner/maker (lovely chap called Martin) and other stakeholders. Anyone with any ideas can create anything with AI = abundance.
Blockchain will make these digital assets scarce and thus valuable.
More importantly, AI agents are the true crypto natives because this is software speaking to software at the speed of light, literally, thanks to fibre optics.
Most importantly, AI agents can't go to your local bank and open a bank account. But they can create a crypto wallet and ask to get paid in Bitcoin. They already do, I have witnessed this in real time and the proof is on the blockchain. Don't trust me, verify. I'll show you how.
Blockchain for Beginners weekend seminar
Here is my invitation: forget most of what you think you know about blockchains and crypto. If you consider yourself a curious person with a zest for learning, you might like to join my seminar this coming weekend. The first cohort was a success and I am giving you a 25% discount: FAST25
If you like my work on the Psychedelic Map For Change, you might love this course structured via these eight systemic lenses.
I'll leave you with Christian's testimonial. The cohorts are small right now (you are still early:-) and there is plenty of time for bespoke deep dives and intensive Q&A.
