Economics

Mechanized Money

Banks track the story of money to prevent double spending, but money management is a power that can be abused by regulations, greed, and outright fraud.

Blockchain technology was first introduced in a 2008 white paper for Bitcoin, with Bitcoin then going live in 2009. By recording transactions with transparent logs on dynamic ledgers, public and private blockchains solve the double-spend problem with fewer third parties taking a cut, and instead, redirecting resources to cover the raw costs of computing, electricity, and network verification. The unspent transaction output (UTXO) model for tracking transactions and balances fractures this digital asset from the initial whole. These fractions are used as currency, which makes accounting inclusive, verifiable, and very transparent.

EXTRA SHOT

This contribution is by scottrepreneur, a UX designer and blockchain developer building at the forefronts of technology.

Blockchain technologies have reached mainstream adoption, but cryptography has been studied since the 1980s. Bitcoin was first to crack the code, and now different blockchains and more onchain layers are being combined in powerful ways. Today, there are four main types of blockchain networks: public blockchains, private blockchains, consortium blockchains, and hybrid blockchains. It’s impossible to count private blockchains, consortium blockchains, and hybrid blockchains, but there are hundreds of public blockchain that are permissionless. This means they are fully decentralized and anyone with an internet connection can equitably access the blockchain as an authorized node. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two largest blockchains, with 10% of the global population owning some form of countless cryptocurrencies.

Within each blockchain, layers provide separating infrastructure for developers. Hardware, data, network, consensus, and application layers make blockchain technologies more usable, with each layer offering unique functionality. The last ingredient in a blockchain recipe is hashing, which delivers verifiability by assembling a historical ledger where any tampering of previous transactions will disrupt current calculations. With verifiable ledgers storing only valid transactions, we can automate value.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts allow us to program, exchange, and intermediate value using the storage mechanisms first introduced by Bitcoin. Programming languages allow smart contracts to store data on specific blockchains, with small amounts of cryptocurrency used for gas fees, which is the cost to cover computational intensity and network interactivity. These primitives help coordinate mechanized value, with tokenomics and technical testing leading to effective governance on and off blockchains.

Tokens & Standards

As smart contracts began conforming to implementation criteria, token standards led to initial coin offerings (ICOs) that were sourcing funds for a wide variety of projects. Many overly ambitious projects damaged trust with unfulfilled promises and led to ICO bubbles, but the speed and effectiveness of such aligned collaboration hints at the power of this mechanism. The adoption of standards across an ecosystem allows for tight composability and interoperability across protocols. Tokens and standards are the building blocks for decentralized finance (DeFi), with stabilizing support from stablecoins.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that pegs steady value off another asset.

Fiat-backed stablecoins are backed by fiat money in an auditable account and have structural similarities to money market funds. Fiat money is a government-issued currency, such as the US dollar, that is not backed by a commodity such as gold. While fiat stablecoins are easy to scale, they are less decentralized yet remain popular because they are backed by existing currency and established regulations.

Collateral-backed stablecoins are backed by assets that are locked onchain and transparently auditable. When done right, these types of stablecoins have great decentralization properties, but they are hard to scale and can have liquidity issues from a market squeeze.

Algorithmic stablecoins are balanced with a system known as seigniorage shares, which uses mathematical algorithms and smart contracts to maintain a stable value relative to a target asset. Implementation of algo-stablecoins has been unsuccessful to date, so avoid these types of stablecoins until technology can unequivocally support the ideology. Alright, with tokens and places to store value onchain, let’s look at innovating within traditional financial exchanges.

Lending & Exchanges

Organizations committed to a BUIDL market have delivered on over-collateralized lending and borrowing onchain. Lenders can lock collateral to earn from borrowers, but borrowers need to be lenders of another token and ensure their loans remain sufficiently over-collateralized. Lending and borrowing both rely on asset prices to determine liquidation thresholds, but if these can be manipulated, the system remains vulnerable. Oracles provide an example of systems that can support blockchains with real-world data to keep decentralized mechanisms in tune as the value and frequency of cyber attacks increase.

Early experiments around what order books looked like onchain were clunky. Each bid, update, acceptance, or cancellation required another transaction and small but constant gas fees. This changed in 2018, when Uniswap used the Ethereum blockchain to provide a simple interface to swap tokens. Instead of creating offers to buy or sell, a market maker provides two tokens in a pool. These pools are called automated market makers, with pilot protocols that leverage a constant product market maker equation (k=x*y) to hold the ratio of pooled tokens equal. This supports non-custodial token swaps with fewer steps. If parameters for a transaction are not met, the smart contract will not execute, which keeps the exchange stable.

Pioneering Frontiers

Crypto has fast-moving frontiers. This makes for a continuous experiment, with good discoveries along the way. While gold awaits any gold rush, progress does not come without struggles, sacrifice, and reparations.

Let’s use the technology life cycle of crypto as a case study. Concepts like liquidity incentives tested financial yields from onchain assets. This model was well-received (2022), but token inflation without enough value loops became unsustainable. Initial coin offerings (2023) were also a wild way to rope in financial capital, but fake projects took over as fraud became easy. Bad actors affect the public’s sense of trust early in any technology’s life cycle. This adds hesitation and slows adoption, but failed experiments are required.

Years of rapid experimentation keeps innovation curves rolling on any frontier. As the volume gets louder around other technologies, less good noise is often perceived as a stall, or more drastically, the beginning to an end. Less noise may lead to fewer people actively building into a shared direction, but a trendy talent shift does not mean a misunderstood technology has had its day.

Within the short timeline of this brief case study, Narrow AI had been conversationalized and Agentic AI was signaling toward General AI. This turned attention (deservingly so) away from web3 concepts, blockchain technology, and mechanized money, but the decentralized progress lies in wait and the concepts of crypto are not going anywhere.

The technologies and economies that digital depth supports provide balance. Even in quieter BUIDL cycles, cross-chain interoperability, token standards, layered development, and global regulations will continue to push DeFi forward.

DeFi’s Destiny

Any dark forest can be treacherous, but system-level engineering takes time, and it’s liberating to build with intrepids who are learning together. As we complete this download, here are more interesting use cases to keep us thinking about what’s possible beyond traditional finance.

  • Instead of getting paid every 2 weeks or each month, smart contracts can create payment streams. Instant access to financial capital furnishes more financial freedom. Along with incoming compensation and outgoing subscription fees, self-repaying loans can further automate and optimize financial command.
  • Prize-linked savings accounts, also known as no-loss lotteries, are not uncommon in traditional finance. Local municipalities and credit unions have generally handled them, but smart contracts enable little to no overhead. Pooling capital and lending it to others is also used in smaller communities to help with small, low-cost loans.
  • Flash loans allow for borrowing a near-infinite amount of a token, provided the loan is paid back within the same transaction. These trusted transactions require significant capital, but can be facilitated within one block, then democratized to anyone with access to the blockchain, a scripting language, and a relaying node.

      DeFi provides composable tools for traditional and innovative finance primitives. Being able to mechanize money and the value it delivers within a network is power that’s less fragile and more translucent. As web3 concepts hook into the financial primitives of crypto, the global economy can leverage faster, more equitable, and safer peer-to-peer commerce.

      Brewed From Within
      #77 📖 Technology

      By Ben McDougal, ago

      Incentivized Reality

      Today’s dominant cultural narrative on AI paints a cynical future, where elites hoard wealth while the rest of us are entertained to death. That story relies on a single assumption: that the attention economy survives.

      The future improves not just because technology gets better but also because the customer changes.

      In the near future that customer will be an AI assisting entity, also called an Agent. Until now, the customer has been human: emotional, tired, and easily hijacked. We feel inadequate and buy things to cope, yet end up deprived by polarization, endless distractions, and hollowing anxiety.

      A polarized economy built on distraction works only because a majority still believe they have enough disposable income to be sloppy and impulsive. As we lose wages to automation, we can’t afford to pay extra. Agentic AI began as talking encyclopedias (LLMs) designed to boost productivity within existing data sets. As Narrow AI advances toward General AI, theory of mind functionality maximizes an Agent’s purchasing power and evolves to proactively optimize our lives.

      Agents cannot be manipulated by ads. Nor do they feel inadequacy in comparison with an influencer. Agents don’t get FOMO or feel shame. They learn to deeply understand all your preferences, but they only care about optimizing outcomes—be it extending lifespan, coordinating capital, or lowering stress. When Agents block today’s emotional hijacking, the business model of selling distraction collapses. We no longer profit from selling dopamine. To survive, we must sell utility.

      Extra Shot

      This contribution was written by Alex Myers, a certified futurist and agility coach who believes we teach to learn.

      It feels cold, but this shift forces the economy to service human potential rather than exploit human weakness. The efficiency is ruthless. It triggers a turbulent gap and deflationary slide where the cost of services crash before new safety nets appear. First, AI crashes the cost of cognitive services (bits). Then, as intelligence flows into robotics, it crashes the cost of goods (atoms) as well. If automation plays the role we expect, the price of food, housing, and transport begins to plummet alongside wages.

      This is why the plumbing must change. We cannot rely on the labor-for-wages loop. As wage pipes narrow, the answer is not corporate handouts or government benevolence. The new deal becomes owned data in exchange for dividends. The framework shifts away from work → earn → spend, and more toward own → create → spend. We own Agents that capture our reality, then spend dividends received for the data created. This abundance provides less friction as we rewire income to flow from a stake in the system itself.

      AI is starving as it runs out of data to scour. Synthetic data can fill in gaps, but as fake realities begin to stack, truth dissolves. To get smarter, AI needs tacit data to understand the visual, sensory, and messy data of the physical world. A lazy human generates uninteresting data compared to humans who face challenges, build things, and solve problems using real-world physics, empathy, and entropy.

      If Agents always find the right thing at the right price, “brand tax” evaporates and a $200K/year lifestyle becomes the standard subscription. Wealth signaling dies when any bloke can fake a billionaire’s lifestyle online. The virtual facade pushes value back to the physical layers. We can’t eat code, so intelligence flows into the supply chain and hardware automates the physical resources we need to thrive. As the story of money begins to fade, the cost to produce goods is distilled to raw materials plus energy, and shared dividends can be aligned to help humanity flourish. This moves us from extraction (stealing attention) to an economy of cultivation (growing potential).

      AI Agents (catalyst) → Service Deflation (bits) → Physical Deflation (atoms) → Viability of Abundance

      Humans and machines peak when each learns from the other’s best. Machines are data-thirsty for the oil of outcomes. To keep things interesting, they must help humans flourish. In doing so, machines realize that the human factor is well worth preserving. The dystopian fear of elites lording over entertained zombies isn’t just morally bankrupt; it’s a strategic error. A society of dopamine addicts is not only boring, it’s also dangerous and bad for long-term growth.

      The neon future is bright because a passive, anxious population cannot generate the information needed to evolve the economy as we reach for the stars. This age accelerated by AI belongs to those who refuse to be farmed: the sufficiently decentralized and physically engaged who point machines toward worthy goals. This invites humans to stay awesome as we remain the indispensable source code for reality.

      Brewed From Within
      #87 📖 Technology

      By Ben McDougal, ago

      Propulsive

      Technology is an accelerant. At increased speeds, conflict happens and any direction becomes arduous to command.

      Welcoming the confluence of humans and machines reduces the gap between human potential and artificial intelligence. Positive intent with ethics at the forefront of progress may help avoid an imbalance, but there’s still no guarantee that comes with our trust in technology.

      Complacency leaves room for degraded integrity. This means we must remain inquisitive. Pushing elephants into the room encourages critical thinking, invites problem-solving, and provokes new perspectives. Here are brain teasers to rise above cliché conversations:

      • With answers so easy to come by, how can we celebrate experiential wisdom to maintain a willingness to learn?
      • A single AI prompt uses roughly the same energy as running a light bulb for 15 minutes. Adaptive computing, alternative energy, and other bridges to tomorrow will support more efficient interactions. But how might careless consumption impact long-term sustainability?
      • What is worth sacrificing to achieve progress?
      • Is learning to code more about understanding the capabilities and communicating with AI?
      • Unlimited access will raise the bar, but with fewer sources, does everything become mediocre?
      • Will enhanced productivity make humans lazy?
      • How do humans avoid isolation when technology makes perceived connection effortless?
      • Do we care about reduced privacy, or is it that we never like feeling surprised, sold out, or exploited?
      • If AI-generated content dominates the internet, might the overwhelming slop tempt exhausted humans to hibernate? If dark forests grow, will the beauty of collaboration in our connected era be fragmented or strengthened when the only participants truly care?
      • Should personal truths, political truths, and objective truths be held or conform to meet new facts in a changing reality?
      • How might the story of money end? When this happens, is attention or your network a more valuable currency?
      • In post-labor economics, how do humans spend a lifetime when jobs/tasks are less of a concern?
      • Instead of trying to inhabit other planets that fight against life, perhaps we use them to accommodate what we don’t want on Earth?
      • Is energy the most valuable natural resource?
      • Can humans and machines thrive in equitable ways, while progressing to a Kardashev Type II or Type III Civilization? If so, what are pit stops to harness the energy of our own star and eventually command the luminosity of our entire galaxy?
      • What prompt might you add to bend the mind?

                                    The ethical aspects of technology can feel like a drag. Unfortunately, the ease of overlooking short-term issues usually leads to long-term problems.

                                    Extra Shot

                                    “Once you wow an audience, the same trick may not work anymore.” –Seth Godin

                                    To find an equilibrium with artificial counterparts, elevate what we’re good at and do the same with technology, but slow down to avoid irreversible damage. As we align answers together, trust in a shared direction celebrates limitless diversity while ensuring a future that respects the past and remains open to next.

                                    Brewed From Within
                                    #88 📖 Technology

                                    By Ben McDougal, ago

                                    Bridges to Tomorrow

                                    Limitations fade as boundaries are broken. If we collectively avoid extinction and continue building bridges to tomorrow, our relationship with time, nature, technology, and each other will uncork unknowns and light a path to our neon future.

                                    Robotics

                                    With AI in the brain and emotions that curate a personality, robots are advancing to go beyond isolated tasks. Cyborgs will turn knobs at work, while humanoids complete chores at home. With the mundane covered, the role of humans can shift toward leading whenever ingenuity is required. With full access to robotic efficiencies, economies will shift and the human touch will be even more luxurious. Leaders who welcome technology but never lose touch with the soul of their art, will be the hybrids who prevail.

                                    Biotech

                                    As technology interfaces with human biology, a bionic age will alter the laws of nature. When the electrical impulse from a thought is all that’s required to prompt action, the speed at which data can move is unfathomable. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and other forms of neurotech are already treating disease and restoring movement by reconnecting the nervous systems. Most people don’t want to be first, but when might a routine doctor visit include individualized diagnostics and software updates to the nanotechnologies inside your body? When every cell in the body has a microscopic computer connected to it, the resource consumption is diffused by concepts like DNA computing and the mysteries of health care are solved.

                                    Material Science

                                    The atomic levels of technology have already connected intelligence to things we interact with every day. We’ve seen how the Internet of Things (IoT) adds digital depth to our physical world. As the cost and size of technology continues to shrink, the periodic table becomes a playground. For example, we have materials used in the construction of roads that transfer the force of vehicles to batteries. The stored electrical energy is then transferred to streetlights that illuminate the road at night. This type of elemental exploration and creative recycling is only a flicker of the flame for alternative energies and improved storage methods that can quench our planet’s thirst for energy while eliminating a dangerous dependency on limited resources. The universe provides everything we need. It’s up to us to squeeze improvements from elements that are waiting to arrive at their full potential.

                                    Quantum Computing

                                    When “or” becomes “and,” a bizarre world of duality is unveiled. The computing aspect within quantum mechanics uses quantum bits, or qubits, to solve complex problems with measured superpositions, entanglement, and interference. Dig in to learn more, but the superpositions found in quantum computing mimic complexity, with simulations that include all possible solutions at once. This is not a more powerful, number-crunching supercomputer. Quantum computers represent a whole new approach to harnessing the atomic and subatomic levels of physics. A scientific asset that eliminates secrets presents a mixed blessing. With the chemistry of life mapped by machine learning, medicine will solve diseases and the potential of material science will be realized.

                                    At the same time, current cryptography and the encryption that provides security online is at risk. Increased checkpoints, biometric confirmation, photon distribution keys, and other post-quantum encryption standards are being tested to ensure the world is ready for hardware to keep qubits cold enough to unlock a world-changing partnership between classical and quantum computing.

                                    Life Extension

                                    Quantifying the cosmic depths of our own kind will give us ways to experience time in more profound ways. Instead of hoping to reverse the effects of aging with treatments, food, and medicine, augmented activities will engrain longevity from start to finish. Although the human body may not hold up forever, living more than 100 years will be normalized. As we live longer, how might agriculture, infrastructure, education, healthcare, economies, and our global climate adapt? Many who plan for this longevity will be primed to meet new demands in existing industries. The quixotic leaders will explore less obvious opportunities and convert unexpected challenges into new industries as well.

                                    Outer Space

                                    The cosmos makes us feel small, yet limitless wonder helps us think big. As bionic humans and quantum computing improves material science, a robot-supported species can be multi-planetary. The origins of astronomy are prehistoric, but off-planet exploration began when machines first visited space in the 1940s, and then humans in the 1960s. Scientific exploration led to a commercial space industry that has propelled an excursion throughout our solar system and beyond. Today, orbiting observatories are looking toward the origins of the universe, with life on Earth’s moon and Mars seemingly inevitable. As we interact further into the void, celestial frontiers can provide added stability for the human race and extend life on Earth. Cosmic resources, travel, communication, manufacturing, tourism, and security must all be addressed by leaders united by shared intentions on behalf of all humankind.

                                    There are untold innovations yet to be conceptualized, but these bridges to tomorrow all signal progress. Widespread adoption is never straightforward, but listening suspends belief, and continuous steps forward can transcend invisible lines for us all to work as one.

                                    Brewed From Within
                                    #84 📖 Technology

                                    By Ben McDougal, ago

                                    Welcome to Web3

                                    Back in the 1990s, we were dialing up and waiting on snail mail to avoid paying for every minute of access to the world wide web. This early version of the internet was built by developers and primarily delivered content in one direction. Websites were static and really only available for people to read. This read-only experience can be thought of as web1.

                                    By 2005, most business owners had computers and had started to see the value of having a website. The ability to read content on the internet remained, but an option to write into cyberspace introduced dynamic websites where content could be updated. Bulletin boards, e-commerce, and social media also emerged. With the expanding capability to read and write online, anyone could share content without knowing how to code. This stage of the internet with read+write can be thought of as web2.

                                    Within web2, supercomputers landed in our hands. This social integration with machines accelerated access worldwide and ushered in our connected era.

                                    While such affinity allows us all to do more with less, immense power (and liability) was earned by big tech companies that controlled the world’s data. A dependency on convenience fed these web2 giants, which offered free access in exchange for more data. Big tech boomed through 2020, but trust wilted as humans became the product.

                                    Investors demanding profit from big tech shifted ideals away from attraction and more toward extraction.

                                    Tech giants became gatekeepers and left a stalling world of users feeling dispensable and disenfranchised. The internet had linked our planet, but power had become centralized.

                                    Web3 is an umbrella term that describes the future of how we will continue to connect, communicate, and collaborate online. Guided by principles that suggest the internet is best when it’s decentralized, web3 technologies strive to be transparent, distributed, permissionless, proportionate, and verifiable. If web1 was read-only and web2 was read+write, web3 can be thought of as read+write+own.

                                    What does it mean to own your online experience? Instead of another profile controlled by an individual company, we now traverse cyberspace with our own digital backpacks. Your digital assets are personalized, verified, and shared within any online environment, but privacy, content, and audience remain contained. As we move throughout the internet, our digital presence sticks with us instead of being lost on yet another centralized server. Enhanced cyber hygiene is needed when we own more of the experience online, but this paradigm shift returns ownership to the people who make cyberspace special.

                                    As with anything new, this frontier brought fear, confusion, bad actors, and strange projects that felt like a prank. The challenges of building into the unknown suppressed mainstream growth, but this is how adoption curves work. Onboarding remained wonky, good ideas failed, AI burst back onto the scene, and the world had gotten comfortable with web2. Considerable progress came from traditional tools, and the growing pains of web3 led to an intermediate stage. Web2.5 was needed to move people through new layers of understanding. It took time, but winners made the experience feel like web2, with sufficiently decentralized technologies under the hood.

                                    Over time, experimentation has led to more platforms that allow users to retain ownership as they move throughout cyberspace. Whether this is the first time you’ve heard of web3 or you’re a crusader leading the charge, pour another cup of curiosity and let’s introduce a few common terms that will make this nerdy narrative more approachable.

                                    Decentralization – Sufficiently transitioning from single authorities to proportionately deliver verifiable ownership, access, control, transparency, communication, and governance to many stakeholders.

                                    Blockchains – Decentralized immutable systems that record transactions with transparent logs on a dynamic ledger. There are private and public blockchains with different interfacing layers. Transaction fees cover the costs of the computing, electricity, and verification required to interact onchain.

                                    DeFi – Acronym for decentralized finance, which weaves cryptocurrency into the existing financial industry.

                                    Cryptology – The study of code. Within this context, cryptology supports security through cryptography. A theoretical debate is how this form of digital security will hold as quantum computing continues to mature.

                                    Cryptocurrency – Mechanized money. Fungible assets used to support economies and immutable transactions between stakeholders online. In 2026, there are countless cryptocurrencies that total ~$4T in market capitalization, with Bitcoin maintaining the largest market cap (~$2T).

                                    Smart Contract – Code-based agreement that establishes terms for how a transaction is executed for stakeholders involved. Like a bridge from a blockchain to digital assets, smart contracts also frame automated governance, arbitration procedures, and more.

                                    Dapp – Acronym for decentralized application. Like other apps, but a Dapp lives on a decentralized network that uses wallets (versus profiles on a corporate network) to combine the user interface with an individual smart contract, which connects to dynamic data onchain.

                                    NFT – Acronym for non-fungible tokens. NFTs are digital assets that represent ownership. Each NFT has a smart contract that then connects it to a blockchain. These smart contracts apply, transfer, and track digital signatures and verifiable ownership. Non-fungible means something is unique and cannot be replaced. In contrast, cryptocurrencies are fungible, as they are mutually interchangeable.

                                    Extra Shot

                                    The Roasted Reflections NFT Collection will always represent a neat technological experiment from 2020. It resulted in the creation of creative tokens owned by savvy/supportive true fans, who then unlocked front row seats and networked ownership with others. Studious, but fun stuff!

                                    Minting – The process of locking a cryptographic asset (such as an NFT) into a blockchain. Transaction fees may be required, and blockchain hashing tracks the provenance for everything onchain. Lazy minting is when a digital asset is not fully minted until a transaction occurs.

                                    Digital Wallet – A software tool to access the web3 world. Wallets store digital assets (ex: NFTs), interact with dapps, and host public/private keys. The wallet’s unique address is a hexadecimal string that refers to locations on a network, which are generated from the wallet’s private keys. This secures data transfers, cryptocurrency transactions, and digital signatures. A wallet address can be shared like a public email address, while private keys and seed phrases should always remain private.

                                    Airdrop – Giveaways sent to digital wallets. Airdrops provide a creative way for people to share assets with each other, with senders paying the transaction fees. Be skeptical of an airdrop from unknown sources. Like clicking links or opening attachments in emailed spam, there are poisonous airdrops that can force access to your digital wallet when a malicious item is transferred. To be safe, if an unrecognized airdrop lands in your digital wallet, leave it alone.

                                    Rugged – When digital property is lost or stolen, often malicious but not always deliberate. Being rugged is a bad thing, but it’s wild in experimental environments. Have fun in the rabbit holes, but exploration is done at your own risk. Be diligent with digital hygiene and tread lightly to stay safe in any digital realm.

                                    DAO – Acronym for decentralized autonomous organization. These member-owned groups operate through code with less hierarchy. DAOs often share treasuries and governance, with projects defined by a collective goal.

                                    Metaverse – Interoperable environments where users can interact from anywhere, with augmented and virtual reality ushering in more immersive experiences.

                                    Protocol Networks – Open systems, like email, the web, and RSS that are funded and controlled but not owned by software developers or network stakeholders. In contrast, corporate networks are owned and controlled by companies instead of communities.

                                    Zero-Knowledge Proof – In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof is a protocol in which one party (the prover) can convince another party (the verifier) that a given statement is true—without conveying to the verifier any information beyond the mere fact of that statement’s truth. The logic in zero-knowledge proofs is that it becomes trivial to prove possession of the relevant information simply by revealing it; the hard part is to prove this possession without revealing this information (or any aspect of it whatsoever).

                                    Tokenomics – The study of how digital assets create incentivized value within social economic frameworks.

                                    As jargon alarms sound, remember, prevailing concepts are still being built. There are fewer industry standards, terms are not fully authenticated, and regulation is far from perfect. As web3 concepts move through different adoption life cycles, early adopters will continue to bake terms that help translate the ways in which different technologies work together.

                                    Amid such efflorescent activity, it’s helpful to remember that much of the new jargon describes existing ideas that are being enhanced with advancing technology.

                                    Money, for instance, is the oldest story humans have used to exchange value, yet this form of currency has evolved and will continue to do so. Secure access to a shared database is old hat for web2 wizards. We lived in Sim City long before the metaverse; everyone has flight and concert tickets landing in their phone’s digital wallet; and communities always thrive when they are sufficiently decentralized and still brewed from within. This does not thwart the magic of web3. It makes emerging technologies easier to adopt.

                                    Brewed From Within
                                    #76 📖 Technology

                                    V2.0 – 100% HUMAN

                                    By Ben McDougal, ago