LifePost

This writing was largely inspired by seeing some of Ailton Krenak’s work on display in Mexico City and subsequently reading his book Ancestral Future, which has clearly moved me...

With all my travels over the past few years, I’ve seen how much of the world lives inside a bubble they inherited (myself included). Modern countries are insulated from the realities of how they get their food, and those that aren’t are gaslighted through poverty into believing that the nations exploiting them hold the answers and the life they’ve always dreamed of—forsaking the abundance they already live within. Abundance is natural and is by design self-sustaining, unlike the many fragile technologies that underpin our world.

And yes, I recognize the hypocrisy in typing this and posting it online. I’m as integrated into this world as anyone else. The point I’m making is best posed as a question: how much of our lives have come to serve technology, rather than using technology in service of ourselves—or better yet, the Earth and all life? Aren’t we supposed to be God’s shepherds? These days, most people seem preoccupied with money and how to get more of it—but do they care where their potatoes came from? Do they care how the chickens they consume were raised and slaughtered? How often do we sit down for a family meal? How often do we maintain deep, non-superficial relationships with our neighbors—or even with the animals in our neighborhoods that aren’t “ours”? Modern life moves so fast. When do any of us give ourselves the time to truly care?

This is tied with the concept of Krenak's necrocapitalism, where humans place themselves at the center of everything, ultimately forced into a state of consumption to recreate worlds. Always needing more to build the next thing that will supposedly “get us there,” we miss the truth that we’ve always been here. Our obsession with the virtual world exemplifies this: the illusion of limitless creation pulls us away from the tangible world. We become heroes on the internet, but spectators in real life. Social media exemplifies this, and doomscrolling—we continue down this spiral. Disconnected from the present, we buy into the narratives others place upon us, feeding a mass psychosis, crippling anxiety, and attention deficits. Some call it analysis paralysis; Chomsky called it manufactured consent. Perhaps it wasn’t entirely intentional, but our global interconnectivity leaves us vulnerable to accidentally creating, as Krenak references from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “a world with a single story.”

Determinism sounds quite dystopian, doesn’t it? Much of this stems from the competition baked into our education systems. But does it have to be so bleak? Whatever happened to just being—doing nothing? Productivity is not life.

Here I am, advocating for data privacy and blockchain technology, while also encouraging people to touch grass and forget about their day jobs. My writing suggests that individuals must prioritize themselves for the sake of the collective. So, which is it? This world is full of contradictions, and our language doesn’t always help. I know I don’t have the right answers—and I don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking a definitive solution exists. It really depends on how you look at it. The truth probably lies somewhere within the paradoxes—and perhaps, it’s not as complicated as we think.

Some of the ancient wisdom that still exists in our modern platitudes was passed down through generations without texts or so-called "knowledge." No preoccupation with forgetting, which I too succumb to. The world doesn’t need to be built for the future—it already exists. Krenak said, “Indigenous children are not educated, but guided.” Our children do not need to be indoctrinated to build our future—they are already inherently a part of it. From an early age, they learn “to put their hearts in the rhythm of the Earth”—something most of the world’s cultures have long forgotten. The way forward might not be something we can plan explicitly. Perhaps the future really does need to be ancestral.

Can we manufacture love?

The short answer is... maybe yes?

Okay, hear me out. Maybe true love and care can't be manufactured — not in the deepest sense — but what if people's time and capital that back and power the production of our goods and services were directed in service of the Earth, rather than just ourselves?

What if earned and excess capital was redirected toward planting trees, building water desalination plants, or researching materials that can replace petroleum-based products? And what if the participants with a net negative carbon footprint were the ones rewarded? Or better yet, what if the participants decided where the capital should go — and were rewarded collectively for their merits? Or even rewarded for not consuming. And perhaps the value of the service could be designed to extend beyond just humans, effectively hedging our society so life can persist in the event of failure.

Ideally, we would foster environments that perpetuate life — which means getting off the screens and becoming attentive to the present moment. Using technology to facilitate this may seem counterintuitive, but at this scale, it’s necessary. We either isolate and live in a bubble waiting for mass consumption to exterminate us, or we participate and try to do something. We need to support life, not be forced onto life support.

Perfection doesn’t exist, and life will find a way with or without us. But while we are here, we can try to participate. If we can bake care into our systems — so that we’re supported at every level — we give ourselves more chances to live. Mistakes are inevitable. So let’s be kinder to ourselves, and to the life around us, when they happen.

The world is in a pivotal moment of change. Our financial system, the backbone of modern social coordination, has devolved to serve itself rather than the true needs of the people. Promises of luxury and convenience have fueled unsustainable business practices and insulated consumers from the social and environmental consequences of such. We have sacrificed so much of our power that it feels impossible to reclaim, leaving us suspended in a comfortable complacency that may well culminate in the destruction of Earth itself...

It is not over though! These are complex problems indeed, and I believe part of the solution lies within blockchain networks—a streamlined accountability system that centers transparency and immutability. Through blockchain we are effectively building a digital twin of our world, empowering us to survey each other’s actions, and hold a mirror to our own. Designed to reward actors to validate and secure the network, users experience positive feedback through participation. Without an anchoring to the real world, however, we risk getting lost in our own fantasies of serving the system, with meme coins epitomizing the narcissistic culture that can be developed. They have their place of course; however, the use of Real World Assets (RWAs) onchain brings a needed practical implementation that can revolutionize humanity's coordination and foster awareness surrounding the consequences of our actions.

Evidently we are in need of such implementation: the collective remains largely misinformed about the technologies available to us and their capabilities. Furthermore, the fragmentation of personal and global data across various incompatible systems makes it difficult for both agencies and individuals to conceptualize and manage assets. Fortunately, the last five years have seen the creation of a network of modular blockchains with permissionless access to each other's data, establishing the frame for practical data (RWAs) to be housed. Theoretically, everything can be tokenized: metals, wood, eggs, the deeds to our homes and titles to our cars.

However, in order to have secure, actionable, and non-redundant data of these resources, we need ample communication between networks. This interoperability may be embedded in the design (as with Cosmos, Polkadot, Saga, etc.), or networks may rely on oracles (Chainlink, Pyth, etc.) to import or export their data. With this level of communication, everything that exists onchain can and will have access to liquidity, effectively supporting a more flexible and resilient market. It is important to note that the real power lies in concentrated, communal capital. For instance, AAVE is demonstrative of how capital can be of service to anyone that needs it—a principle that can eventually be extended to physical resources or real estate. Conceptually and onchain, people will be able to access what they need, when they need it. This is, in essence, blockchain's practical value and revolutionary potential.

But how do we collectively decide on meaningful actions? The aptly named Network State merges various social ideas with technology to create an engine for targeted change. There remains a lot to discover, but the concept promises the necessary structure for dedicated individuals to collaborate and self-govern without centralized authority. I don't believe the manifestation of the Network State need be as parochial as the "One Commandment" principle Balaji suggests, but certainly that is a place to start. Timothy May alluded in the 90s that our society is in fact already populated with such network states, and now they have the chance to take proper shape to better coordinate and manage themselves at scale.

In the end, we have blockchain providing the foundational structure for information, decentralized resource-sharing protocols like AAVE serving as the building blocks, and network states empowering communities to make their own decisions. Together, these elements form the framework for a new societal model—one that works from the bottom up, iteratively improving upon our existing systems of social coordination.

Blockchain technology has often struggled to be seen as practical. For those outside the tech and finance sectors, understanding its vast potential and real-world applications can be challenging. However, the emergence of Real World Assets (RWAs) on the blockchain paves the way for a more practical internet and a sustainable economy, addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges.

At its core, we value blockchain technology for its transparency, immutability, trustlessness, and permissionlessness.

• A transparent network ensures that its structure and data are accessible to the community, allowing anyone interested to view the information.
• An immutable network guarantees that its data cannot be altered or manipulated, preserving the integrity of the information.
• A trustless network eliminates the need for intermediaries, enabling participants to interact directly with one another.
• A permissionless network allows anyone to participate without needing authorization, like from a government.

So, what does this mean for us?

Blockchain networks and their data can be viewed as highly structured timelines that represent various assets. While many people associate blockchain primarily with cryptocurrencies, its potential extends far beyond, especially with proper accounting practices.

Tim Berners-Lee, the original founder of the World Wide Web, envisioned a future iteration of the internet in 2001, which he termed the Semantic Web. Decentralized blockchain networks are laying the foundational data infrastructure for this Semantic Web—a more meaningful web. The users ultimately decide and are responsible for what will be posted on the blockchain via a digital signature, something that is crucial for maintaining the integrity of data and countering the notion of a "dead internet." This type of network signifies a shift in how we coordinate, placing trust inherently in the network's constituents rather than explicitly in its individual parts.

Many of today’s challenges stem from the long-term consequences of our collective actions that don't have an obvious immediate effect. To break this cycle, we can collect meaningful data on a product's life, or even life on Earth with a robust implementation of RWAs. Supply chains can be elucidated and revealed to the general public, enabling more accurate forecasts and better informed decision-making. This brings us to the concept of creating a digital twin—a notion originally employed by NASA in a rudimentary form to predict failures in their oxygen tanks. Knowing how something could fail can help us coordinate and incentivize positive actions on a larger scale. For example, the carbon footprint for the global distribution of rice could be calculated to determine (with the help of AI) the best transportation routes to mitigate our contribution to various forms of pollution. This serves the fight to end world hunger and protect our environment with shutting down our own system.

Great things take time, and the starting point for such an endeavor is finance, our current abstraction for nearly all the assets in the world. Stablecoins were the first iteration of real-world assets (RWAs) on the blockchain, predating the popularization of the term. Now, platforms like Ondo Finance and Centrifuge are leading the way in tokenizing stocks and commodities. Other protocols leverage these assets to enhance their services; for instance, MakerDAO (now known as Sky) has utilized a basket of RWAs as collateral to support the value of its stablecoin, DAI. At the core of this ecosystem, Chainlink serves as a critical infrastructure provider facilitating the instantiation and maintenance of RWAs, positioning itself as a conduit for managing potentially trillions of dollars on-chain.

The potential for tokenization is endless, as virtually every asset can be represented digitally. In the coming years, we can anticipate the onboarding of commodities, real estate, credit, artwork, and even intellectual property, all with incentives to encourage participation. With robust data and participation, combined with the assistance of AI, we can make our digital twin, our very own personal assistant, to make better decisions on every level of the human experience.