This was the most fun I’ve ever had at a conference and one of the more memorable experiences I’ve had in general: one of those rare gatherings you nostalgically look back on. This talk took place at Urbit Assembly in November 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal; the connections and friendships that came out of that magical little week still stick with me.
The excellent folks over at Urbit invited me to speak, and this is one of two talks I gave. It’s based on a couple of my previous essays, one of which is The Vietnam Thesis, seen here on Substack and here on Twitter. It got a ton of positive feedback; the fellas love their warfare parallels in business, economics, and life (of which there are many, explored further in essays linked below).
Rather than discussing crypto as mere technological innovation, I approach it from the lens of the state and its jurisdiction over the financial system. Crypto is more than just “cool tech”, it’s a parallel financial network: which means it operates outside of the state’s purview, which is to say it decrements its soft power. Once framed on more functional terms, the hostility that powerful countries have displayed towards crypto (and the welcoming nature that some weaker ones have shown it) begins to make more sense. Their response is rational when you realize they have a lot to lose.
Terms:
DeFi (decentralized finance): the infrastructure that crypto runs on. It encompasses blockchains and applications that exist natively atop them.
Web3: Umbrella term for decentralized compute and financial infrastructure that enables open internet and financial system access (“open access”). Web3 can also refer to DeFi (though crypto people tend to not say web3).
Crypto: Digital assets that exist onchain, transactable within DeFi/web3. I use “crypto” and “DeFi” interchangeably.
This speech was originally published here on YouTube.
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