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DeFi

Connect people and platforms: The identity-first path to decentralization | Opinion

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We have a people problem in web3. Unfortunately, despite the promise of decentralization and data ownership, platforms still aren’t talking to each other very well. As a result, ingrained issues like identity management, data sovereignty, and privacy continue to trouble our nascent sector.

A unified framework is, therefore, key to unlocking web3’s true potential—one that bridges the data divide and provides decentralized identity with strong privacy protections. This approach proposes a win-win for both sides of the stakeholder equation. Users benefit from cross-chain identity, data monetization, and a unified sense of self. Businesses, meanwhile, gain access to rich and verified user data while maintaining privacy and regulatory compliance. Better yet, this identity-first path to decentralization enables other new capabilities like on-chain reputation systems, chain-agnostic logins, and AI data utilization.

One thing’s becoming increasingly clear in the early days of web3—we must get identity right to get decentralized ecosystems right. Let’s explore how we can best connect people and platforms in this brave new world of the internet.

A win-win for users and businesses

Take a closer look and you’ll notice fragmented identities and disconnected data sovereignty hindering interoperability in both the internet new and old, leaving users with scattered information across the digital ether. This lack of integration limits trust-building and creates inefficiencies in industries—from advertising to AI—where cohesive data is essential.

These issues are all too familiar. Web2 social media giants and search conglomerates centralize identities but fail to connect them across platforms. The result? Siloed, static profiles owned by platforms and not people. Web3 promises a solution: decentralized, interoperable identities owned by individuals. However, putting this into practice is proving challenging.

While web3 improves upon its predecessor, true interoperability and seamless identity management remain elusive. Emerging protocols, however, are tackling this head-on. Projects like LayerZero, which aims for omnichain interoperability, and Gitcoin Passport, which focuses on open-source identity verification, are just two projects paving the way.

As a result, the identity and data layer is becoming a foundational piece of the web3 stack, and protocols and platforms can better offer digital identity management, on-chain reputation building, and data sovereignty.

As mentioned, this new reality benefits both users and businesses. Users can better connect with their online identities by owning, managing, and monetizing their personal data. At the same time, they can interact more safely and privately with dApps. CARV ID, backed by ERC-7231, exemplifies this by allowing web3 gamers to aggregate and manage on-chain wallets and off-chain accounts in one place. 

For businesses, identity and data layers provide access to verified and (most importantly) consenting user data, which improves targeting, decision-making, and remarketing.

Better data, better results

The benefits don’t stop there. Unified identity supports a range of applications that improve the experience for individuals and the ecosystem. On-chain reputation systems, for example, allow users to build and maintain credibility across various web platforms, while chain-agnostic logins enable games and applications to provide data access regardless of where they live. Moreover, truly interoperable decentralized identities facilitate secure account recovery—a crucial advancement for blockchain-based wallets that addresses a long-standing pain point.

Identity and data solutions also unlock other new possibilities. Privacy-preserving advertising becomes feasible when users can opt-in and choose to monetize their information on their terms. And, as AI becomes more prevalent and data-hungry, decentralized identities enable model training that provides personalized experiences while still protecting privacy.

Ultimately, better data gives better results. This identity-first path to decentralization encourages consistency across platforms and creates a more intuitive and empowering online experience for all.

Identity and the user-owned internet

Today, there’s no difference between identity and digital identity. Working, socializing, gaming, and evermore facets of modern life increasingly happen online. Therefore, who we are and how we express ourselves should be interconnected across web3. Likewise, our online contributions—especially when used by companies for data ingestion and private profit—should be rewarded.

In its annual web3 survey, Consensus found that 79% of respondents want more control over their identity on the internet. At the same time, 38% of respondents globally believe they are adequately compensated for the value and creativity they add to the Internet. 

These two ideas—identity control and fair compensation—are intrinsically linked. When people gain true ownership of their identity and can decide for themselves how to share or monetize their data, they’ll naturally be more fairly compensated for their digital contributions. This alignment is core to creating a user-owned internet that values individuals over corporations.

It’s simple: Future-forward protocols and platforms put people first. If we can connect people with platforms that prioritize privacy, scalability, and interoperability, we have a much better shot at shifting the digital status quo. Whether you’re a user, developer, or business leader, the time to engage with and shape this future is now. Let’s seize it and build an internet that is truly for people, by people.

Tổng hợp và chỉnh sửa: ThS Phạm Mạnh Cường
Theo Crypto News

Bitcoin

Bitcoin adoption and psychedelic use seeding a new world | Opinion

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The fact that psychedelic use is skyrocketing in the age of Bitcoin (BTC) is no coincidence. It is indicative of the fact that the world sits on the precipice of a new Renaissance and Enlightenment.  

The world has finally discovered sound money in the form of Bitcoin and is using psychedelics more than ever before, which could transform the way we live in fundamental ways. For instance, as Bitcoin allows people a more leisurely lifestyle than their fiat ones, they will begin to explore what builds civilizations, including psychedelics. New ideas will flourish widely. 

The effects on the world of Bitcoin and sound money

When a monetary unit called the aureus stabilized Rome from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, it was made of gold. All sorts of innovation followed, including using the arch, changing construction forevermore, etc. Once the government took the money system off the gold standard and debased the currency by decreasing the amount of gold being used, the empire began to fade.  

Bitcoin can be the basis of the new monetary system. Instead of all these central banks printing a never-ending supply of fiat currency and then first giving it to their buddies at the big banks, the world has an objective supply of truth with a limited supply of 21 million open and accessible to everyone on planet Earth. 

According to Gresham’s Law, which says the capital flows towards the better money, all of the world’s currency markets will move into Bitcoin. That is because Bitcoin is better than fiat currencies.

People flourish in sound money systems. It provides a fair playing field. The unit of account is not depreciating due to government manipulation. A sound money increases trade, savings, and prosperity. Individuals plan for the future rather than dread the coming bill cycles. Architectural, literary, art, science, and engineering achievements follow. 

Additionally, sound money helps family and communities grow stronger, as the individual members can spend more time together, and are able to pursue the arts, sciences, engineering, and literature or whatever pursuits they may love. It underpins the stability needed so people can experiment in all sorts of ways. 

On a Bitcoin standard, psychedelics help build future civilization

Psychedelics have been studied, and scientists believe they could have benefits for PTSD, anxiety, and more. People in business, too, apparently feel their positive effects. Silicon Valley founders praise the micro-dosing of LSD. 

According to research, psilocybin, found in mushrooms, helped us develop and create our socio-cognitive world. Psilocybin, for instance, might have helped social bonding mechanisms like laughter, music, storytelling, and religion. Psilocybin might have created a “systematic bias on the selective environment that favored selection for prosociality in our lineage.”

Well-known researchers such as Terence McKenna underscore the importance of psychedelics in the evolution of mankind. “Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third-story window,” said Terence McKenna back in 1987. 

“Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” 

The historical record backs this up. Just this past March, archeological excavations hint that Roman subjects at the northern reaches of the ancient empire consumed a hallucinogenic and poisonous plant named black henbane. Greek philosopher Plutarch described the effects as “not so properly called drunkenness” but more like “alienation of mind or madness.” 

In addition, strands of hair from 3,000 years ago show the first direct evidence of drug use in Bronze Age Europe, according to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. The hair, from a cave on the Spanish island in the Mediterranean called Menorca, has psychoactive alkaloids in it, which are found in some plants and create altered states. 

Psychedelics played a considerable role in the development of human civilization and opened up new avenues of knowledge and understanding. They are already playing an increasingly large role in use cases, including spiritual, medicinal, and cultural purposes.  

Bitcoin psychedelics and the new world

In the coming years and decades, both use of Bitcoin and hallucinogen use will increase. Bitcoin will allow people to work and store their time-energy in a digital asset with relatively stable value (Bitcoin velocity declines over time), and begin to explore the beauty in the world. 

No more will we chase more work hours in the face of debasing fiat currencies and toil under palpable anxiety and unrest. The sound money system of today—brought to the world by Bitcoin—will allow people to experiment with psychedelics, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of love and freedom. 

Tổng hợp và chỉnh sửa: ThS Phạm Mạnh Cường
Theo Crypto News

Công nghệ

Pavel Durov’s arrest is not a free speech hill to die on | Opinion

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When word broke that the billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had been arrested in France over the last weekend in August, it became a flashpoint in the global battle over freedom of speech. But then the charges came, including that Telegram had protected users who shared pornographic images, among other crimes.

By the time the charges were announced; however, the internet’s staunchest defenders of free speech ideals had already taken to social media platforms, such as the X platform (former Twitter), to argue that Durov’s arrest was proof of a sinister plot by behind the scenes French and western elites.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former independent presidential candidate in the 2024 election, shared a similar sentiment:

Elon Musk called these “dangerous times” in a post on X.

French President Emanuel Macron, under fire that the action had been a political arrest, said it was run-of-the-mill law enforcement activities and not politically motivated. After the revelations in the charging document, it became clear that those who came quickly to Durov’s defense could be portrayed by a press corps ironically contemptuous as defenders of pedophilia.

The arrest 

Durov was arrested as part of an investigation by French authorities after allegations that the messaging service permitted crimes to occur on its platform. Durov said in April that governments have tried to collect information but that the app should remain neutral and not a geopolitical player.

Now, the self-professed libertarian has a cybersecurity gendarmerie unit, and France’s national anti-fraud police are grilling him while he sits in detention and awaits his first court appearance. 

And since Telegram stores data on its servers, unlike other privacy-focused messaging apps like Signal, which encrypts client-side, refusing to comply with data requests can open the service up to enforcement actions. 

The wider context

Defenders of free speech were already on edge, and perhaps rightfully so. European laws on the books could be seen as an attack on free speech rights, and this is precisely what defenders of free speech were lashing out against when they heard of Durov’s arrest.

For instance, one such law is the Digital Services Act, a primary threat to free speech worldwide. It has been designed to force social media companies to censor users who post content the authorities deem to be disinformation or too extreme. Laws like the DSA are slippery, but Durov’s is not the hill to die on. Yet, too many are lining up to do so. 

John Turley, Professor of Public Interest at George Washington University, told Fox News: “It is like arresting AT&T CEO, because the mob used the telephone to do its business.” The problem with Turley’s analogy is that AT&T is known for sharing information with the government in at least the Fairview program. Elon Musk, too, draws a line at illegal activity.

Durov is different because he is an “anything goes” tech tycoon. 

The real battlefield over free speech

Instead of helping in the fight against censorship, free speech defenders hurt it, showing they lack discernment and will throw their hat in the ring to defend the sexual exploitation of children, even if they did so by accident. The battle over free speech won’t be fought over the administrator of a platform censoring or not censoring information and being arrested or not arrested.

The battle over free speech will be fought—indeed, it is being fought already—over our freedom to access technology that preserves privacy without the need for a middleman. For instance, a platform like Signal encrypts messages on the client side, and the messenger service acts more as a relay, never having access to the encrypted messages sent across its network.

Telegram is a centralized service whose administrators have access to information that could aid serious criminal investigations. If they didn’t want that responsibility, they should have then designed better privacy-preserving tech. For whatever reason, they chose instead to mostly market their app as private rather than make it truly so. 

As for free speech defenders, their battle is elsewhere: defending decentralized tech that provides privacy without reliance on middlemen who can be strong-armed and compromised by governments.

Tổng hợp và chỉnh sửa: ThS Phạm Mạnh Cường
Theo Crypto News