Protocol Berg v2: Manu Alzuru - Redesigning Governance

of extremes in politics. Take it away, Manu. Thank you. Um, yeah, first of all, I wanted to say thank you to the team that put this event together. Uh, it's one of those places where I definitely want to come.

Uh, definitely want to go. Um, so yeah, curating amazing people, curating good space. Really, really good job. Um, yeah. So, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the things that I've been noticing when it comes to um decentralization, the dichconomy of extreme politics, and some ideas around trust networks.

So um be before we get started uh first we're going to do uh let's say a reminder of these different terms what are what what do they really mean? So first decentralization chat GTP says the process of distributing power decision making and control away from centralized authorities whether is governments corporations to a distributed network of individuals or entities. Trust. What is trust? Trust involves a willingness to rely on the actions, words or decisions of another party, whether it's an individual or an organization with the expectation that they will behave in a reliable way that they will actually do what they're saying that they're going to be doing that you can actually let's say um rely on their word and or the or on the contract that you guys have uh created together.

Um governance. So governance are just like the different systems, rules and structures that define how decisions are made, how power is distributed and how resources are allocated within a society or organization. Now that we remember what is uh decentralization, it's important also to remember that decentralization also has an spectrum. It's not like a term that you can just define and put completely in a box. It has so many different let's say uh spectrums actually.

So we have like the technical decentralization, we have the monetary decentralization, uh governance decentralization, social community decentralization, cultural decentralization. Um so yeah in terms of technical decentralization the idea is that we can rely on this open source code that exists out there that everyone can see that everyone can verify and that we can trust that this network not a centralized let's say authority but like this distributed network of nodes that they actually are going to be running the code that we are all seeing. Um, and that yeah, basically that the they're not that the code is not going to judge you based on your race, based on your uh let's say gender or whatever any [ __ ] Um, so yeah, basically that is kind of like open to anyone. Um then we have the monetary decentralization which basically refers to the distribution of the financial uh power and control away from basically decentralized authorities that will be printing this new money or creating like this new currency. Um but yeah also it's important to understand that the monetary decentralization sometimes is very linked with the governance decentralization because actually the people that are behind the governance are the ones most of the time regulating what is the monetary policy within these different networks or these different states or these different things that we're potentially creating.

We also have um the social and the community decentralization that is basically focuses on distributing power um over the over this network and we can see it for example in Ethereum like all of these different nodes from all over the world coming and they um and they're creating like their events and they're creating like their own communities around the Ethereum ecosystem um for example that's an example and Then um basically that they're able like to create these meaningful opportunities for the network. Um and then we have the culture of decentralization which is basically that um we can have anyone um coming and expressing themselves of in the network whether it's with art or with any other form um let's say any other media that reflects let's say some form of knowledge or some form of expression. Um but yeah, rather than having let's say a centralized authority dictating how is the content created or how is let's say um let's say the different themes that are being that are being curated in a specific media channel. Then you can have let's say any not not necessarily a centralized authority doing that but anyone being able to access it uh access it and and do it on their own. Um I start I joined I joined let's say the web three movement before it even was called web three I guess.

Um and the promise was that we're going to break free from the institutional to the distributed networks because a lot of us are tired of the different type of institutions whether it's like nation states or uh church or whatever form of institution that is trying let's say uh to create things in a very opaque way close way centralized top down license it sometimes and that we We're going to pass from that BS to distributed, transparent, inclusive, decentralized, account, accountable, and bottom up. Um, but sadly, I personally don't believe that we're there. I think that we're still more on the institutional side. Um, and that's a little bit sad for a lot for a lot a lot of the people. And I I know a lot of friends that have left the space because they feel they don't feel represented anymore.

They feel like the values, the punk values that initially brought us in are not really there anymore. Um but yeah, that's why I guess a lot of us are coming back to to Berlin um to this to this event to hopefully move away from there to the distributed side. So what do we do in um to for creating let's say a truly decentralized system we need to take a holistic approach so what does that mean it means that remember all the different type of let's say spectrums that I talked about we need to think about all of them because when a project is telling you this project is decentralized they're not telling you the full story they're not telling telling you like the monetary policy. They're not telling you the governance. They're not telling you like how the the the culture is being created.

They're not telling you how, let's say, the messages are being spread. They're not telling you all any of that. They're just telling you it's decentralized. And many of us go and applaud like seals. Um, and we're like, "Yeah, it's decentralized.

Cool." Um but yeah the future of decentralization lies in ensuring that all aspects technical economic governance social and any other that we think is valuable they are actually decentralized holistically decentralized and equally accessible for all of us. Okay, so now let's talk a little bit about the dichconomy of extreme politics. And I'm going to bring it up why they're important later on. Um, here you have a QR code.

It tells a little bit about my my story and um what I lived uh back in Venezuela, but to tell you a little bit about it, uh I'm originally from Venezuela. Um and yeah, basically the government there decided to take away from my family. Um we used to own land. My dad used to have uh radio stations. Um so yeah the they took the land from my family uh just because my dad used the radio station and on top of that my dad uh was very public about being against uh the government back at home.

Uh so yeah the government decided just to take our land and to take our stuff with the idea with the let's say the words that they were spelling out is that they were going against um colonialist my dad is originally from Spain so apparently my dad is a colonialist something that happened 350 400 years ago um so it's like okay sure my dad colonialist um but yeah my dad came to Venezuela so the government decided to all all away from him with this rethoric you know with this thing. Um and yeah what I realized there is that basically um the government use populist ideas with the intention of taking let's say taking more power taking more control over natural resources and so on and I have had the opportunity of living in other in other countries um and yeah this pattern isn't unique to Venezuela many socialists and communist many socialist all communist states follow the same path where elites hoard power wealth while using collectivist propaganda and silencing those against it. Instead of abolishing class distinction, they become the wealthiest class. Yes, capitalist societies offer some form of meritocracy where people with valuable ideas can escape poverty and gain some form of freedom. But in reality, most of the time capital flows very easily.

It follows let's say it follows money. Let's say capital is following capital. And another thing that is happening is that basically uh most of the entrepreneurs that are getting funding are the ones that are connected are the ones that which is normal. We understand they're the ones hustling to connect with others and so on. But yeah, it's let's say capitalistic uh societies are more meritocratic for sure.

uh and there's awfully there's uh obviously a few exceptions where people that don't might not have the connections might still be able to be get get funding and so on. Um similarly that in socialist societies those connected to power are the ones who benefit the ruling class brings in their friends their family and loyalist just like in capitalism but under a different narrative. in capitalism is the same but you know they're bringing their friends in and so on. social is the same same stuff in both system access to wealth isn't as open as it seem so like for the people isn't like no it's not really like that uh having lived years in the US France Germany and Spain and spend months in multiple countries with different governance model I see how both capitalism and socialism when taken to the extreme both both failed to empower the people the real issue is centralized control in any form because both Both of them end on the same stuff. And it's interesting that many blockchain leaders who claim to support decentralization are actually super hyper capitalist maxis.

They fear anything that has to do with social or collaborative as if automatically leads to authoritarian control due to our collective trauma. Um but real decentralization is about empowering the collective. It's about designing systems that prevent monopolization whether by corporation, governments or crypto wells. If blockchain just becomes another uh tool that is used for capital accumulation and what the [ __ ] is the point? The challenge isn't capitalism versus communism.

Both systems as they're played out end up concentrating power or through the state or through wealth. The real challenge is breaking free from centralized control in any form. We need new language, language, new models, new experiments that avoid the baggage of these past ideologies while embracing what actually works in both systems. We need to use what works here, what works there. We need like we need to come together and work and and make the best out of both.

Um so the future is in cap isn't capitalist or communist is decentralized resilient and radically collaborative human centric and not capital. If we don't reclaim the idea of collective power without control, we risk repeating in history just with different rulers. Same [ __ ] same monarchs, same stuff. So blockchain was meant to disrupt power structures, not to recreate it, not to recreate them in digital form. We need to keep fighting for freedom and the values that preserve life without discrimination based on class, religion, race, or any other [ __ ] No ideology should be justified for oppression.

True progress come from real empowerment and not control. So why do we need trust networks? The key to true decentralization and bridging this political divide I think is going to be helped by trust networks. So trust networks I think are the backbone of decentralized systems because they allow secure peer-to-peer interactions without requiring a centralized intermediary. So what does that mean?

I the way that I'm imagining it is that I have a network with all all of the people that I know and that I own that network and that I can share with this these individual part of my network if I want to some groups a specific groups that I can tell them you know what uh you can have my radio where where I am uh 100 kilometers or this person 3 mters radio uh and so on that I and decide who I trust to have this type of information, who I don't trust. But also, we need to remember that once you reveal an information, it's not possible to unreveal it. So, that's also like something that we need to work on when we're designing all of these apps that we need to remind the user like what is actually really happening. Um, and yeah, decentralized network whether based on blockchain or peer peer-to-peer protocols rely on trust to validate transactions. Why why I put that in bold is because we're thinking that we're designing um trustless systems.

But in all of these trustless systems that we're designing, we require trust. We require first the trust that there's going to be energy. If there's no energy, if there's no electricity, okay, sure. How do you do it in Venezuela where they're cutting electricity eight hours per day? You cannot really use this.

Um, so yeah, we need to remember that the technology that we're building relies on different trust. So trust to the code, trust, energetic uh trust, governance trust, monetary trust, like many forms of trust. Without trust, decentralization is merely a technotopian ideal that falls apart due to lack of security and coordination. So why trust networks matter in governance? Trust is fundamental for any governance model.

As I said before, like trust is required for literally everything. Um and it's even more important in the centralized systems where not central authority ensures fairness or transparency. Trust networks enables transparent governance where individuals can verify decisions, valid validate validate participation and ensure that processes uh are inclusive and equitable. And yeah, the main idea is that these trust networks hopefully will help us move away from this dichconomy. Um why?

because I might trust uh David with his music taste while I might trust James when it comes to like governing monetary policy while I trust this other individual uh when it comes to let's say marketing or growth ideas and so on. So imagine that you can start creating like a like a graph of all the people that you trust and that you can start delegating trust in many different things that you want someone to make a decision that is actually let's say um some form of uh meritocratic that you earn their trust to be there and represent you because they have somehow earned it um to get there and then if you don't trust them anymore you move and you select another person that you trust and so Um so I think we need to start rethinking about the new governance models like how do we create these the these new networks where it's not capital centric where it's actually let's say meritocratic and so on. So the future of governance is decentralized but it requires constant questioning improving and refining to truly be inclusive transparent and sustainable. We need trust networks now. So, we need to start building this [ __ ] Uh, whoever wants to learn more about trust networks and different experiments that we made, uh, check this QR code, uh, here's YouTube like 25 minutes explaining a little bit more about trust networks, some slides, and if you want to get in touch with with me, just scan the QR code, send me a message, and on Sunday, uh, come to the cipher rave, um, and let's hang out.

That's it. Thank you, Manu. Thank you, Manu. Amazing. Okay, we got a couple of questions here.

Um, first one is, what's your hottest take about crypto right now? Go off. My hottest take. We're [ __ ] If we don't if we don't come together and start caring about each other, we're [ __ ] Got it. Okay, that's straightforward.

How can we prevent the chaos that this decentralization may naturally cause in web 3, either organizationally or as a community, while keeping the ecosystem permissionless transparent and decentralized? That's a good question. So until now like most of the leaders what they're suggesting is uh um benevolent dictatorship which I don't think is good necessarily I mean sometimes let's say projects to get to the let's say to the next level sure they might need some guidance and so on. Does it have to be dictatorship? I'm not so sure about that.

I think we can have better methods to do that. Um we can have let's say a co a committee we can have like different groups of people that we trust that are putting in check and balance the ones that are executing. What we need to do is we need to see what we have done already with nations and understand that we have check and balances between all of these different potential let's say departments. the one that is executing, the one that is uh dictating, the one that is let's say checking that the elections are going well, the ones that is creating let's say education and so on, right? So we have done this before like it's not that it's not that it's something completely new but you we just haven't created check and balances.

Uh most of it is just plutoaucratic uh check and balances. We haven't broken that pattern yet. Right. Right. Right.

I should note I think the questions that are out here okay now they look correct earlier they I wasn't sure um should we create and use new forms of money embodying trust relationship between people for example having our own denomination and express intents with which other denominations we're willing to accept. I mean, why not? Like, if you want to do it, sure. Like, you should be free to do whatever you want. And if other people want to accept your uh madeup new currency, sure, go for it.

I mean, at the end of the day, currency what it is is just uh let's say a belief that that you can use it as a medium of exchange, that it has some form of a store value and so like we know what money is, right? So, but in general, what really really is is just belief. So if you believe that the other person that is issuing this new currency and that currency has potential value and so on and they're going to give it back or whatever the promises, sure that you're it should be free to do that. I don't think uh I don't think uh we should say no, let's not do that. However, is that the best way of doing community currencies?

Not so sure about that. I think community currencies uh a community should be coming together, right, and creating it together. Um but here what they're proposing is each individual has their own currency. I think that's that's like creating a lot of fragmentation. Um what we need to create is more union.

I think um but again go for it. If somebody accepts your uh new token cool right how do you propose the decentralized culture exactly? you mentioned this and want and I want to know the steps for protocols to actually take and what to do and what not to do. H that's a good question. Um I think I think decentralizing culture like you can create like the the rails for people to navigate.

So you can create let's say different um guidelines or what is it that you you want to incentivize for your community and then hopefully there's the the culture remains for let's say the ideals and not just for the not just for the reward but the thing is that a lot of people we we still need to pay rent we still need money to eat and so on. So like a lot of people are not necessarily seeing it as like I'm being part of this thing for the culture. Most of them they're just seeing it for I'm going to get tokens that I can sell and I can pay for stuff. So that's like the main uh difference that um like the projects that really create really decentralized culture is because it goes beyond the monetary thing. It goes beyond the money.

Um, and yeah, that's the difficult part then, you know, like most of the people still need money. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Okay, I'm gonna take one last question here. Um, it's a bit of a big question, so I'll I'll see how you you tackle it, but your take on decentralized AI, why and how?

Good question. So, I think um we definitely need it. It definitely has to be decentralized. Each of us should own our own models, should own our own data that we put into the models. We should be hopefully run it running it ourselves as well.

But you know to get to that point it requires a lot of capital. Um so yeah a lot of capital and also like uh creating um new infrastructure that we still don't have necessarily. Um but yeah, ideally ideally, yeah, this is uh um something that a lot of people should should be caring for and should be working towards. It's like creating really decentralized networks that are owned by humans. And I emphasize humans is because most of the things that we're creating is they're owned by capital.

So if we're if if we're recreating let's say a decentralized network i.e. AI decentralized network where uh let's say the form of governance is just capital then we're going to end up doing the same stuff. So yeah I think that's the that's like the main thing that we need to um decipher somehow. Uh, we still haven't done it, but I think the ideas are there and the builders are there.

Like, it's time for us to make it. Cool.