When you think about crypto or web3 or [insert fabulous marketing term here], you think about tokens. Tokens have been the foundation of each evolution and cycle of crypto, serving as the floorboards for everything to build on top of. But in this process, we’ve yet to take a breath and ask ourselves whether our attention — and intention — is going to the right place. In web2, the framing was ‘if the product is free, you (human!) are the product.’ Sure, there is grander access and opportunity ...

When you think about crypto or web3 or [insert fabulous marketing term here], you think about tokens. Tokens have been the foundation of each evolution and cycle of crypto, serving as the floorboards for everything to build on top of. But in this process, we’ve yet to take a breath and ask ourselves whether our attention — and intention — is going to the right place. In web2, the framing was ‘if the product is free, you (human!) are the product.’ Sure, there is grander access and opportunity ...

We are entering the age of living online. An increasing number of people have employment that exists only online. We have meaningful relationships that are primarily or even only online. It should not be surprising that a growing number of us -- especially we who are most intensely online -- are embracing the concept of ‘owning’ online things. A belief in the value of NFTs is a logical extension of the vitality of online experience and existence. As with the ‘real world,’ the things we own en...

We are entering the age of living online. An increasing number of people have employment that exists only online. We have meaningful relationships that are primarily or even only online. It should not be surprising that a growing number of us -- especially we who are most intensely online -- are embracing the concept of ‘owning’ online things. A belief in the value of NFTs is a logical extension of the vitality of online experience and existence. As with the ‘real world,’ the things we own en...

a glick x tal x flynn x dicker jointYou’re inspired. You’ve read a bunch of articles, blog posts, and essays and suddenly see that blinding flash of realization. You’ve formulated an idea that feels new and important and worth writing down and sharing with others. You start pulling together key thoughts, quotes and citations. You organize them into an outline. You write. You edit. You publish. In the old days (of last month), you’d be posting this work to a simple blog post or a newsletter. I...

a glick x tal x flynn x dicker jointYou’re inspired. You’ve read a bunch of articles, blog posts, and essays and suddenly see that blinding flash of realization. You’ve formulated an idea that feels new and important and worth writing down and sharing with others. You start pulling together key thoughts, quotes and citations. You organize them into an outline. You write. You edit. You publish. In the old days (of last month), you’d be posting this work to a simple blog post or a newsletter. I...

*a flynn x glick x tal x dicker joint *In the morning, you’re picking crops on the farm. By afternoon, you enter the arena to do battle. This isn’t a remake of the movie Gladiator. It’s one Anon’s day in the world of crypto games. As DeFi, NFTs and other blockchain-based technologies compete for mindshare, the entire crypto world is not only borrowing heavily from game mechanics but increasingly becoming a single massive integrated game itself. This is the inevitable result of user sovereignt...

*a flynn x glick x tal x dicker joint *In the morning, you’re picking crops on the farm. By afternoon, you enter the arena to do battle. This isn’t a remake of the movie Gladiator. It’s one Anon’s day in the world of crypto games. As DeFi, NFTs and other blockchain-based technologies compete for mindshare, the entire crypto world is not only borrowing heavily from game mechanics but increasingly becoming a single massive integrated game itself. This is the inevitable result of user sovereignt...

Implicit in the name ‘Web3’ is the expectation of replacement. In technology, versions are successors. When the new model comes out, we upgrade and the older one is replaced and forgotten. Is this what we mean when we refer to Web3? Will it replace the set of principles, technologies and behaviors that we’ve come to know as Web2? (Is this even the way that phases of the Internet works?) Many blockchain enthusiasts seem to suggest as much. As the term Web2 has become closely associated with ce...

Implicit in the name ‘Web3’ is the expectation of replacement. In technology, versions are successors. When the new model comes out, we upgrade and the older one is replaced and forgotten. Is this what we mean when we refer to Web3? Will it replace the set of principles, technologies and behaviors that we’ve come to know as Web2? (Is this even the way that phases of the Internet works?) Many blockchain enthusiasts seem to suggest as much. As the term Web2 has become closely associated with ce...

press play before you begin … “There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn.” -- Ken Kesey “Seeing the same homies in different cities” -- Alex ZhangCrypto people talk a lot about cities. We like to talk about how blockchains are like cities. About how tokens an...

press play before you begin … “There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn.” -- Ken Kesey “Seeing the same homies in different cities” -- Alex ZhangCrypto people talk a lot about cities. We like to talk about how blockchains are like cities. About how tokens an...

a glick x tal x flynn x darkstar jamAt the edge of the steppes was a bend in the great river. On one side lived herdsmen, on the other were forest people. The nomads valued the forest-dwellers axes and baskets. The forest-dwellers loved the herder’s hides and wool. As the two sides became more familiar with each other, they began to trade. Within a few years, there was a temporary camp in that bend of the river. It was a perfect place to meet. The two sides would do business, swap stories and...

a glick x tal x flynn x darkstar jamAt the edge of the steppes was a bend in the great river. On one side lived herdsmen, on the other were forest people. The nomads valued the forest-dwellers axes and baskets. The forest-dwellers loved the herder’s hides and wool. As the two sides became more familiar with each other, they began to trade. Within a few years, there was a temporary camp in that bend of the river. It was a perfect place to meet. The two sides would do business, swap stories and...

(this post includes a visual Edition of the article by Jack Butcher. all proceeds go to the Mint Fund) Long Term maximum value requires accepting — even embracing — loss of control. In the 20th Century, media became an industrial product. This process had started with print, initially in the United Kingdom, and led to the massive successes of the newspaper and publishing industries. This same approach was applied to film, leading to the Hollywood studio system, which consciously employed the ...

(this post includes a visual Edition of the article by Jack Butcher. all proceeds go to the Mint Fund) Long Term maximum value requires accepting — even embracing — loss of control. In the 20th Century, media became an industrial product. This process had started with print, initially in the United Kingdom, and led to the massive successes of the newspaper and publishing industries. This same approach was applied to film, leading to the Hollywood studio system, which consciously employed the ...

press “play” before you begin… It’s not very helpful to make direct comparisons between the evolution of technologies. Other than broad similarities in the way new inventions evolve and are adopted, the unique way a technology interacts with a culture at a particular moment in history is so specific that such comparisons likely miss more than they predict. But there is something resonant in analogies between the dissemination of the ‘original’ Internet (in, say, the 1990s), the social compone...

press “play” before you begin… It’s not very helpful to make direct comparisons between the evolution of technologies. Other than broad similarities in the way new inventions evolve and are adopted, the unique way a technology interacts with a culture at a particular moment in history is so specific that such comparisons likely miss more than they predict. But there is something resonant in analogies between the dissemination of the ‘original’ Internet (in, say, the 1990s), the social compone...

a Tal x Glick x Dicker collab Web2 communities were built on intrinsic incentives. Web3 communities will take the intrinsic mechanisms of Web2 and meld them with extrinsic incentives,We have in the past discussed how the blockchain concept of a ‘decentralized autonomous organization’ (DAO) might apply to groups of people who want to make stuff. We called this theoretical format a ‘Creator DAO.’ In this paradigm, a team or community interested in making something would implement a smart contra...

a Tal x Glick x Dicker collab Web2 communities were built on intrinsic incentives. Web3 communities will take the intrinsic mechanisms of Web2 and meld them with extrinsic incentives,We have in the past discussed how the blockchain concept of a ‘decentralized autonomous organization’ (DAO) might apply to groups of people who want to make stuff. We called this theoretical format a ‘Creator DAO.’ In this paradigm, a team or community interested in making something would implement a smart contra...

by Javier Grixo“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” - Steve JobsWe do these t...

by Javier Grixo“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” - Steve JobsWe do these t...

a glick x tal x darkstar jamIf you walk the streets of any American neighborhood or town more than, say, 100 years-old, you’ll see ghosts. Not the ghosts of previous inhabitants, although that’s also possible. But the ghosts of the civic and religious organizations that were once the core organizing principle of American communal life. You can see them in the fading signs for men’s fraternities and women’s leagues that no longer meet, the labor halls renovated for restaurants and condos, and ...

a glick x tal x darkstar jamIf you walk the streets of any American neighborhood or town more than, say, 100 years-old, you’ll see ghosts. Not the ghosts of previous inhabitants, although that’s also possible. But the ghosts of the civic and religious organizations that were once the core organizing principle of American communal life. You can see them in the fading signs for men’s fraternities and women’s leagues that no longer meet, the labor halls renovated for restaurants and condos, and ...