> problems nobody has Depends on whether one sees the enclosure of social and digital Commons as a problem. Folks like Bruce Schneier [0] and Cory Doctorow [1]

> problems nobody has Depends on whether one sees the enclosure of social and digital Commons as a problem. Folks like Bruce Schneier [0] and Cory Doctorow [1] have been ringing alarm bells for years on "digital feudalism": despite FOSS and federated alternatives, 99% of us choose to pledge fealty over our digital lives to a small handful of centralized firms. These aren't always bad trades: tech giants tend to be very good at what they do, and I don't begrudge any consumer their individual choices. But the centralization of power, the "dark patterns" of user manipulation, the social externalities of engagement algorithms, the risk of one's digital identity vanishing for no reason at all: I don't think these are "problems nobody has". Insert the obvious caveats on techno-utopianism and con-artists: we should have healthy skepticism towards crypto-tokens and the "web3" buzzword-du-jour. But as we look back at the successes and failures of "web1", the notable absence of any form of user-sovereign (a) identity, or (b) value transfer, is a tragically glaring omission (if forgivable: they are non-trivial problems!). This vacuum opened up the space for private capture, from Google SSO to Venmo. It remains to be seen whether any of the players in "web3" can deliver the goods on actually out-competing Metcalfe monopolies [2]. But I'm glad the effort is being made (and not just as get-rich-quick schemes: there are a surprising number of left-anarchists and mutualists working in the DAO space). [0] http://en.collaboratory.de/w/Power_in_the_Age_of_the_Feudal_Internet http://en.collaboratory.de/w/Power_in_the_Age_of_the_Feudal_... [1] https://locusmag.com/2021/01/cory-doctorow-neofeudalism-and-the-digital-manor/ https://locusmag.com/2021/01/cory-doctorow-neofeudalism-and-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law