>100 subscribers
Every revolution starts with a choice: create the future—or let someone else sell it back to you.
In 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sold hundreds of thousands of copies in months—a short, plain-spoken pamphlet that convinced ordinary people they could govern themselves.
Today, we’re at an inflection point on the open internet—just like Paine’s readers in 1776—where every creator must choose: build freedom yourself or let others profit from your work.
If you feel unseen on today’s social networks…
If you believe your creativity deserves more than likes…
If you think your attention should be valued—not harvested…
You’re not alone.
This is an invitation to help build what comes next.
There comes a moment when the excuses run out—when you see the system for what it is and can’t unsee it.
That moment is now.
You’ve been giving away the two things only you can produce: your work (creativity) and your focus (attention).
The platforms have been cashing the checks.
This isn’t a glitch. It’s the business model—built to take what you make and sell it to someone else.
The question isn’t whether this will change.
The question is whether you will be part of changing it.
Your creativity has value.
Your attention has value.
And yet you’ve been giving both away for free.
They called it exposure.
They called it the algorithm.
They told you to be grateful for the scraps.
You create and they own the audience.
You post and they take the profit.
You build and they sell what you built to the highest bidder.
One day your reach is there; the next it’s gone.
A policy change, a ban, or a hack—and your identity vanishes.
Every time, they tell you to start over.
Because in their world, you are the product.
It doesn’t have to stay this way.
There is a place where you own your identity, your work, and your audience outright—where no one can erase you or hide you.
That place is on-chain.
It’s not the future. It’s here. And you are early enough to matter.
Instagram. TikTok. YouTube. X.
Gatekeepers holding your work hostage while they sell your attention.
The old platforms don’t give you an audience—they rent you one.
They own the feed, the rules, and the rewards.
They decide who sees your work and profits from your attention.
That’s not a partnership. That’s a monopoly.
On-chain flips the script:
You own your work
You own your audience
You set the terms
Your creativity and attention become assets, not raw material for someone else’s ad engine.
We have it in our power to begin the web over again.
Bring your work on-chain.
Find your people.
Keep your value.
The next revolution will be minted, not mediated.
Forget the jargon.
On-chain means your identity, your work, and your community live on a public network you control—not a private company’s database.
It’s the difference between renting and owning.
Web2 | Web3 |
|---|---|
You rent space on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube | You own your identity, work, and audience |
Platforms decide who sees you | Your audience travels with you |
Ads are the only real business model | You build your own economy |
Why it matters
Ownership – You control your content and identity.
Portability – Your audience moves with you across apps.
Monetization – Build your own economy without middlemen.
Examples
Farcaster: Your profile and followers live on-chain, accessible across apps. If one app dies, your network stays yours.
Base app (Coinbase): Post, mint, and use mini-apps without leaving your feed. Your identity and audience remain yours.
Today in Web2
Your creativity is their product.
Your attention is their profit.
Your audience is their asset.
Tomorrow On-Chain
Your creativity is your equity.
Your attention is your currency.
Your audience is your community—and your community is portable.
Your identity is yours forever.
Revolutions aren’t proven in theory. They’re proven in lives changed.
On Farcaster and Base, those lives are everywhere:
A musician drops a track and wakes up to mints from every time zone—royalties already in their wallet.
An artist posts one image and collectors from LA to Lisbon mint within hours.
Two builders meet in a thread, ship a mini-app in 48 hours, and see usage before forming a company.
A mom covers medical costs through tips and rewards.
Friends fund a trip, a tool, or a new creative venture.
Multiply these stories by a thousand and you see what happens when ownership meets community.
These aren’t marketing slogans.
They’re receipts.
In 2025, Emily Yang (pplpleasr) and her studio Shibuya.film won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Innovation in Emerging Media Programming for their interactive anime White Rabbit.
Viewers didn’t just watch—they funded new episodes and voted on the story’s direction using on-chain tools.
The Emmy jury recognized this community-driven, blockchain-based storytelling as a breakthrough in how art, technology, and audience participation can merge.
When the Television Academy celebrates blockchain-powered storytelling, the revolution isn’t coming—it’s already here.
Your identity is not a username.
It is not a profile picture.
It is not a row in someone else’s database.
It is the sum of your work, ideas, and community, and it should belong to you forever.
That is the promise of on-chain.
That is the revolution we are living through.
We will not wait for permission.
We will not ask for fairness.
We will build the future in public—for all to see and all to join.
Come on-chain. Claim your identity.
The world you want is already being built.
It only needs one more builder—you.
Share Dialog
Jonathan Colton
It's a testament to how engaging pure resource management can be without high-fidelity graphics. https://cookie-clicker2.com/
Ownership is freedom — this truly captures the spirit of the web. https://plantsvs-brainrots.io
Revolutionary ideas start small but spread fast when they speak truth https://slopeonline.online/
😍👏I enjoyed reading this article.
Yes it is the way, but I find it hard to get traction as an artist on here, and I have been here 18 months, the traders etc do well.
I wrote this a month before basecamp. The New Common Sense is a call to action for creators. Your creativity (and attention) has value on-chain.
Watched episode 1 of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution and liking it so far. I’ve been waiting forever for this one, the period of history I find most interesting. First episode really focused on Massachusetts so giving me all the feels. I grew up in a town about 30 minutes from Boston that was founded 51 years before the Declaration of Independence. We always celebrated Patriots Day and had all of these revolutionary battlefields close by. While in law school on Beacon Hill, I worked in the courthouse in the law library which was also the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society. One of my favorite exhibits we assisted with was about the Boston Massacre, which was exhibited close by at the Old State House (site of the massacre). I always appreciated that John Adams defended the British soldiers out of respect for the rule of law and the concept that everyone should have defense counsel, a right later enshrined in the bill of rights. Evacuation Day — the day the British left — is still a holiday in the City of Boston. (Yes, coincidentally also St Patrick’s Day) Grateful to have all this context as I watch this. https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-revolution
Thank you for sharing this Prof! I am a big fan of enlightenment thinking and American Revolutionary ethos. I went to college and grad school in Philadelphia at the university founded by Ben Franklin. You may have noticed that I've written: https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/the-new-common-sense https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/when-a-new-truth-emerges We are digital revolutionaries.
I’m re-reading the original Common Sense right now!
It really holds up!
@nounishprof, you just received 1,004 claps from ＠black1004 on this content! Want to join the fun? Explore content, swipe right to clap, and earn $HUNT based on your own clapping activity. Your daily clap allowance: 100 👏 Install the Clap Mini App to get +50 free daily allowance 👇
Base Camp is 3 days away. This summer, I wrote The New Common Sense—an on-chain manifesto for creators and builders. It calls on us to think like revolutionaries as we shape Web3. Let’s meet at Basecamp to exchange ideas. https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/the-new-common-sense?referrer=0xe19753f803790D5A524D1fD710D8a6D821a8Bb55
The New Common Sense "When you give people ownership, connection, and a chance to build together, they change their own lives and each other’s."
Your identity should always belong to you; the on-chain revolution is already underway, and it invites you to join it. Read this great article by @jonathancolton https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/the-new-common-sense
Thank you for sharing my friend. Revolutionary ideas need distribution.
Absolutely — self-sovereign identity is the future, and blockchain is making it possible in real time. 🚀