One of the exciting things about decentralized infrastructure and tools is that they allow us to ask important questions about traditional institutions that prioritize control and for whom winning the game equates to accumulation and extraction. Instead, we now have the opportunity to create ecosystems that empower individuals to participate in economic practices that are more ethical, sustainable, and community-oriented. Ethically designed cryptoeconomic primitives hold the potential to reshape the economy as a reflection of the collective decisions and efforts that individuals make each day in support of causes they are passionate about. By challenging the "control-first" approach of our social, industrial, and political institutions, we can explore new foundations for sustainable regenerative economies.
How can we change the way social and industrial institutions function today using the opportunities created by the combination of governance, programmable money, and solidarity economy on the blockchain?
Here's a tiny slice of questions in the context of our digital lives:
Who owns and controls my data?
How is my data being monetized?
Can I trust the information I find online?
What happens to my content if a platform I rely on shuts down or changes its terms of service?
How can I participate in the platforms and services I use?
In our search for similar critical questions for a regenerative future, we discovered the following in the 2013 book, "Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities." The book challenges the traditional notion of economics as a field reserved for experts. Instead, it suggests that the economy is a reflection of the collective decisions and actions of individuals daily. In this post, we invite our readers to contemplate these questions from the book and develop their responses.
What do we really need to live healthy lives both materially and psychically? How do we take other people and the planet into account when determining what's necessary for a healthy life? How do we survive well?
What do we do with what is left over after we've met our survival needs? How do we make decisions about this excess? How do we distribute surplus?
What types of relationships do we have with the people and environments that enable us to survive well? How much do we know about those who live in distant places and provide the inputs that we use to meet our needs? How do we encounter others as we seek to survive well?
What materials and energy do we use up in the process of surviving well? What do we consume?
How do we maintain, restore, and replenish the gifts of nature and intellect that all humans rely on? How do we care for our commons?
How do we store and use our surplus and savings so that people and the planet are supported and sustained? How do we invest for the future?
These are not new questions. The opportunities to significantly advance democratic ownership and governance were already possible before the advent of cryptocurrency. However, these opportunities are now particularly well-suited to leverage the unique capabilities of crypto.
Web3 is an opportunity to do what could have been done before but wasn’t done, which is already being squandered with what is being done. Nevertheless, I will argue, it is an opportunity we need.
Nathan Schneider
Web3 happens to be the latest tool to try to find answers. It offers affordances to empower individuals and communities to take a more active role in shaping their economic realities, creating more just, inclusive, and sustainable economic systems. Most social, political, and industrial institutions have emerged in the last 200 years. It's been a few tiny minutes on the clock in the grand existence of humankind. If we can't question their design, we are destined for a future constrained by the past. And along with it, the quality of our lives.