(2020-09-06) Pereira Retreating To Values

Jason Pereira: Retreating to values. In the past, my values were expressed through the technology I used. The fathom project was intertwined, from the start, with Ethereum, and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology more broadly. During one night of the retreat I was explaining why that choice made sense at the time. I had a vision for an educational system rooted in both individual agency and collaboration and interdependency. A positive-sum replacement for the zero-sum, competitive educational system we have today. Ethereum was a practical choice to implement such a system, but it also shared many of the same values.

But, as Bryan Cantrill talks about, values shift. When I look at the Ethereum community today, it's not entirely clear if the same values that drew me to it are still held. The prevailing narrative today is DeFi, decentralized finance, which thus far is proving to be as opaque and divorced from reality as it's centralized predecesor's worst forms. It, like the ICO craze, is a zero-sum game.

Ultimately what directs the values of Ethereum is less the underlying technology (though that definitely has a significant impact!) but the people who beleive in it, and who see something of it in the future, and build it. With HyperlinkAcademy, I think our values are expressed in a diversity of ways.

Our technology is pretty boring, but it works, and it let's us very quickly build features people care about. Our ~vibe~, as expressed through the images and words, communicates it as well.

Jul'2021: I asked for alternatives: I'm generally pretty excited by Agoric, and relatedly Spritely Project.... Also Hypercore protocol and the Beaker browser world perhaps? I don't think I'd strongly endorse any particular project/protocol tho, but there's definitely exciting metaverse things happening.