BBW23 – Day 1 – Web3 for Global Empowerment

[Music] I'll start by uh letting everyone do their own personal intros a quick on who you are and uh what brings you here I'll start with Jack so my name is Jack debach as you heard I'm the leader of the polygon Boston Guild uh what I do is I bring the Boston Community together and try and educate and Empower people to found their own projects build something amazing and learn more about this technology and give people opportunity to do so thank you Jack uh hey everyone great to see you uh my name is Vince I uh previously served so I've actually been uh building communities in the blockchain space for about six years now I built uh one of Sanford's largest uh crypto clubs back in 2017 I then served as a head of community a co-founder and CEO of a project called Pi network uh it's a mobile first uh crypto uh that's scaled to over 3 million daily active users while I was CEO and is still has now gone on to be uh I think they're about 45 million people uh worldwide that that use an application currently building Nomad which is the world's first professional Network built on trust uh and leverages a decentralized trust protocol that I learned from uh my company hi great to be here my name is Gregory molar I'm co-founder of stay busy which is a digital business card networking Tool uh that we are in the final phases of finishing off and over the last year uh my brother and I saw the opportunity to be the ones that brought blockchain and leading Tech into the city that we're from Fall River and so uh since last November we have been also focused on that cool uh what's up everybody um I'm Bill Ramos I launched the project last year called dungeon miners uh which is a nft based uh blockchain game um working on the second one in my off time uh to hopefully do some more cool Innovative things I'm just a tinker developer I like to build some cool stuff and I think that blockchain gives us a unique place and some unique Technologies to leverage uh to do some really cool things um so yeah before you go on also 5 days ago had a baby I can't believe you're here oh hey I'm like very impressed that you're here with like no sleep so give it up well thank you everyone for introducing Greg congratulations again I'm maxw lman your moderator and I'm the CEO of soul and LS we're developing infrastructure that allows for front ends to be decentralized and as userfriendly as web 2 applications to to start us off Everyone likes to talk about web 3 as being this this almost separate country this aisle this this idea that it can give us hope to create a better life for us and our families the reality is is it proposes a system where human beings are removed from the equation where we can have permissionless and trustless so the first question I have for you guys is how do you envision web 3 being different from previous iterations of the web in terms of global empowerment I Envision web 3 is being much more different from the previous versions of web as something where people can actually take control of the things that they own that they don't have to rely on a third party to make sure that their assets are being custody in a reliable way that people aren't taking undue risks uh without their permission and re hypothecating assets without their um without their knowledge and also having this idea that we can run a world through protocols where we can have as minimal corruption as possible so that we can sort of eliminate the the the human um natural evil from the equation as much as we can um so one thing I'll say which is you know a little bit of a perhaps controversial take is that um I'm a social science scientist uh by training and I actually uh believe that uh while uh crypto and blockchains can uh enable yes trustless environments and I think in some more extreme cases you need to have purely trustless you know environments um I would argue that uh the magic of it actually is the fact that it allows us to scale trust um at a much uh larger and wider scale than we've previously been able to achieve as a species and that's really what gets me uh gets me really excited about this that uh goes along with um a shared sense of ownership basically in in the things that we build in the world which as we all know right now is uh uh not shared and often very unequal so I would just offer those two additional points uh speaking from like the Creator side of it I think it's done a lot I don't think it's done a lot um you know I I personally know some musicians some artists that it's totally changed their lives it changed the way that they're able to do business without having to trust other people agents managers so on and so forth um and I think also that it's still at its very beginning of being used by creators to its maximum potential I think it's a double-edged sword uh I think that there's a lot of positive that comes out of having a decentralized place for you to transact for people who are in communities where they don't have access uh to specific things and they don't have uh they don't have trust in the people running their local governments and things like that I think there's a lot of opportunity to remove the human from the equation and run it through a protocol and kind of trust the code and not the person right but the other part of that is when you have control yourself over the assets you own um and you are responsible for what happens to them without having a centralized place for you to like reclaim what was stolen if something gets stolen and you have to be technically literate to be able to use some of these tools uh and also the I think still the major barrier is is to transact on any network you need to turn Fiat at some point into crypto to then vote if you're going to use it as a like a dow I think a dow is a great uh model for like local government and having your voice heard and verifiably heard but um the Fiat on-ramps are going to be controlled by some centralized place there's still some level of kind of centralization that needs to exist for it to be kind of globally accepted and used I think the the main tenant of it um of it being kind of crypto and web 3 and blockchain Technology open a lot of doors but with those doors come some risk so I think that there's uh a long way to go to get a lot of people comfortable um using these Technologies but I think that the framework is there we have to have people who build it responsibly couldn't say better myself thank you very much um so I guess this will lead us into our next question but how can you see people utilizing web 3 to help marginalized communities preserve their identity and their sovereignty I think that one of the most powerful points of web 3 is the fact that it is borderless giving people the opportunity in uh foreign countries to escape a highly depreciating uh n or fiat currency is incredibly powerful so that that you can allow these people to kind of preserve their wealth um you know for themselves and for their families and that in my opinion is one of the key things that most important things that are being used to this or or at this moment in time um let's see yeah I kind of want to like I don't know for some reason I'm feeling a little bit like mischievous and I want to like stir things up a little bit you know um first of all I just want to say uh thanks to everyone for coming out here in the midst of the like deepest be Market that I've experienced uh so far you know now we know who the who the True Believers in the room but you know I just want to kind of like push I think the industry as a whole we really need to be pushing ourselves more um in terms of how we present ourselves to the external world you know and so when it comes to like you know marginalized communities I just it's so tough when you you know when they see the surface of it yeah I mean guys it's like let's be real you know what I mean it's like the the main way in which marginalized communities have been touched by crypto and blockchain to date are through scam you know um and so you know I think we really need to have that conversation as an industry about how we're positioning ourselves uh in people's minds and uh there's a lot of uh of work to be done there and I think a bit of the sad reality here is with trustless and permissionless comes this kind of Unbound web and this is kind of the the result the after effect but the reality is the current way we interface with the web was not designed for the modern web so I think there is still a lot of room for what we can do on the infrastructure side to prevent a lot of these hacks and attack and social engineering promps uh and ultimately where do you just see the the grand ethos picture were able to solve all these infrastructure issues how could you see web 3 as truly being a tool to help these communities preserve their identities well you know you know sorry to you know keep going but um I think part of the challenge again is that you know talk is cheap you know and I I just you know we're seeing all of these things that you know I'm sure we've all been at a table somewhere trying to convince someone that this is real and there there's meaning here and yet when you look at the actual what's happening on the ground it's just completely falling short of those promises and I think that we just need to be critical of ourselves and look at ourselves and really ask ourselves why is our industry in the gutter in the way that it is today yeah I think a lot of it has to do with the huge uh information a symmetry that experience in this industry a lot of people see this as kind of an opportunity to make a ton of money and get in early on things but in reality if if people are entering this industry without any any knowledge or any form of due diligence or you know just being talked to left and right by scam artists it makes it very easy to fall susceptible to those things and why is it that the industry continues to attract those types of people they seem to keep coming um each cycle has a new set of uh scammers and scam artists and so um yeah I just you know it's it's just really tough and having been in the industry for a while I just feel like you know it's like I'm going to turn into a skeleton waiting for this like utopian dream to come through come true and the only people that seem to be benefiting as we go along or kind of the Bad actors and I think that that's just something that we need to be upfront and open with ourselves about yeah I think it's that goes that double-edged sword right like the uh kind of the anonymous nature of using the chain where you're just a number right it's kind of two things right your your address is just this large number um so you're anonymous on a personal level until you identify yourself but then every transaction you make is public so you have kind of have this this dichotomy here right where it's like everything you do is public but you don't know who the who is right so uh I mean that's that's one thing but the um I I think the part that's the toughest is is and especially when you talk about marginalized communities who often times don't have access to technology the way that we just kind of take for granted right the technical literacy required to kind of use these tools that can be like uh kind of lifechanging right when it comes to storing wealth independent of a fiat currency or having the ability to vote an approvable out of local election with a dow or something that that onramp to usability is still that's the biggest problem right that's that's that's the problem that needs to be solved before this becomes ubiquitous right because you know you talk to any most most people not any people everyone here probably understands how to do it but you talk to someone about like the benefits of a dow blah blah blah all these things everyone's like oh that's great that sounds awesome I have a voice no matter who I am I have a voice and you're like all right so you got to connect your wallet and click this and that they're like wait hold on wait what and then you that person has to learn not only how to use it right but also how to do it safely scammers come in so the question is is it too late when we get to the point where we no longer have to worry about all these things is it going to be too late for these people well cuz if the issue is need there's an educational barrier to entry is what we're all saying here right and not only is there an educational bared entry associated with onboarding but also Main maintaining your security because of these barriers to entry it's making it more difficult for these people to get in by the time we create the infrastructure to make it so it's userfriendly and they don't have to worry about these things is it going to be too late for them to be able to utilize this infrastructure to create a better life for themselves it'll be too late for some people but when we get to that point there's going to be another set of people who are marginalized right it's just it's that this circle of life so I think we're moving in the right direction um there needs to be kind of a similar to how banks have FDIC insurance right you get your stuff stolen or credit cards you know you have some fraudulent transactions and you could say ah I didn't do that you get refunded your money um on the blockchain doesn't really exist right you lose your stuff tough luck like that's the part that comes with owning it all right you have ownership of all these things that's great pie in the sky like awesome I am like everything I have I own there's no intermediate that's what I want but then when it gets stolen you want an intermediary so finding a technical solution there uh where it's easy for anyone right not just a technical Savvy person easy for anyone to get a wallet and trust that their stuff is safe but also benefit from the permission or uh not permissionless but the trustless nature of blockchain smart contracts like that's that's when this starts to really benefit people I think this is a great Catalyst Fair next question what do you all think the role is of local entrepreneurs and organizations in making web3 tools and platforms more usable for marginalized communities to go it's a role I mean I I goad par what I just said right I think it's it's not really a local responsibility it's just it's a global responsibility because blockchain is global it's not tied to a specific place now if you want to start up a local organization that is going to help uh Empower your local community by doing some instruction or or um having classes on how to use things like yeah that that can help locally but I think it's really just like we have to have tools to help people utilize the underlying technology in an effective way I think Greg is actually a great example of this the work he's done in Fall River he's invited me down there quite a few times and just seeing what they've been up to at the local government level and at even the higher level with the uh right across the border at the government of Rhode Island and the programs they're trying to implement in their school systems wouldd love to hear about it Greg so to wrap this question in kind of with the last one also um we started about last November with doing networking events to get just the term blockchain known um which goes to the bad rap and when working with schools or city officials um different organizations and while talking to them having to think like actively all right don't say that word don't they're going to think you're don't say this while that's still like a thing it is it makes it a lot more difficult to have to navigate through all of the yeses and check all of the boxes um but I have been seeing a lot of progress and when it's shared with them in a way where you you focus strictly on the benefits that it brings to the overall you have nothing to do with any sort of money side of things um we've been able now to uh we have a fashion and Tech program starting in the high school out there in a couple of weeks where we'll be able to bring in companies like Nate um people from Puma uh to be able to share about how Tech is being used in fashion and so it's introduced to them in a way that they're excited about it they can understand it um and they can get a clear insight as to what makes this Tech more beneficial than the current um options I think also taking a step back looking at the ideal world where we have um quote unquote wallets whatever form that may look like in the future where people or anybody of any age or um any place of origin can easily interact with it in kind of an intuitive level I think along with that the democratization of information especially potentially using uh leveraging Technologies like Ai and ml to look at the the smart contracts that people are are interacting with and identify oh this like raise a flag this contract may have potential vulnerabilities this contract has a back door getting getting this this information that's difficult to to eminate now out to the people in a very easy to digest manner is going to be key in um kind of like accelerating this adoption and then going back into your question before about is it going to be too late for some of these communities to interact with this technology yes it may be too late in terms of whatever gains they may acrew in terms of price appreciation but I don't think it'll be late for them too late for them to find a better system if you look at you know the systems we're using today like is it too late for somebody to use a bank is it too late for somebody to use the stock exchange no because it still provides the service but um being able to find a better alternative is there's always opportunities out there for that thank you Jack Vince wouldd love to hear about uh what's going on at the Boston Dow and what you guys are doing um well you know I I think it's again it's to me it points to this tension right because we're on the one side we're talking about kind of infrastructure and tooling and and uh improving that and making it more accessible and how that allows you to kind of quote unquote take people out of the loop um so there's a little bit of a Reliance on the kind of technical abilities of blockchain but I think that we're just there is a social element to this this is why I keep coming back to it's not about trustless it's about scaling trust it's about allowing actual people to work with each other better and do more things better together and I think that that's one of the tensions in this place that is really uh sabotaging us um this attempt to basically it really cast it ends up basically casking this kind of Blind Eye to uh the the social human elements of the space and I think the result of that then uh is a bunch of just like scamming and Bad actors because you know human nature is not uh not not necessarily good by default so when I think about you know things like the Boston Dow you know we're currently in the process of uh actually organiz izing a more formal governance committee which I'm participating in um you know we get to see each other on a regular basis we hang out um I I think that it's just a part of the equation in the crypto space that gets overlooked too often the importance of real people like the work that you're doing right now in Fall River you're going in there the reason that people are starting to um you got these programs going is because they now know that you Greg are not a scammer and that they can trust you and so I just you know continue to encourage folks that are building in the space in the room today to to just not ignore that that human element um and this kind of obsession with like trustless and taking people out of a loop I just don't think it's really working for us well right now as an industry so just some thoughts I think it's well there's two parts to it right there's I want my I want the contracts I interact with to be trustless right like I want to be able to look at the code and be like all right I'm obviously I'm a technical person so I can look at it be like oh I know what that's doing right so like I don't want there to be someone approving the the transactions that I'm kind of going through I want to be able to like the tool I'm using it's trustless because I I trust the code I don't trust whoever put the contract there right but then like the human element of of building right whether that's Community or software or whatever like people who are part of a community you trust each other like if I know you and trust you really well and you have a part part of my app that you're building I'm going to be like all right do it if I hire someone out just like you would in any other uh industry as well hire out and I don't know this person but they're going to do work for me or whatever and I just deploy their code without looking at it like yeah I'm not I shouldn't trust that person if I don't know them but building the community helps you build stronger applications and and networks and um so to your point like yeah the but that like the community building part of it is important because that's how we lay the foundation for building something better yeah um but it's not necessarily blockchain Focus right that's just a human thing like be a good person meet good people and as a group do something cool you know but yeah you should definitely never lose the the pure human aspect of it I mean that's what makes us humans and there def blockchain technology is definitely a double-edged sword because if you look at something like um like developing onchain reputation for example to you know prove onchain that you are not a bad actor that you're actually trying to build something good while that that is that does have some value proposition to it loading all of this personal data on chain can inherently have some risks that are associated with it and then at again at the base layer you're not trusting nothing you're trusting the code and so it's important to have confidence in the platform in which you're storing all this personal data about you and if you need to evaluate if that's something that you want to be a reality yeah and you know I just want to be clear it's like I understand the you know the use case and I understand the technology and I know what we're going for I think it's more that I think we maybe as an industry more over indexed on the technical prow of the technology and we're kind of overlooking then the kind of softer elements of trust Community uh marketing branding distribution like we're really struggling on on those fronts and so just trying to call a little bit of attention to that yeah I'm I'm a big believer trustless products still have to be trusted exact the reality is like you know Unis swap there well there's uh probably at least a thousand Unis swap Forks that exists but the reality is 99% of all traffic is still plus is still on Unis swap right there's a sense of trust and credibility that comes with using the core protocol right Unis swap. org uh while anyone could use any number of these Forks they could use any number of aggregators they could even get slightly better prices but they're just comfortable with Unis swap they trust it right and there's Beauty in simplification as well right you know they're not constantly updating their code or their front end or their back end uh and trust is there uh so next thing is really uh do you guys know any great examples of any projects that are actually working to benefit communities directly I mean we've all probably heard of worldcoin and their goal to create a universal basic income um but I don't think that's really yet to benefit anyone um people in Kenya might have made some money on the ground but um their government already blocked it so uh are are you aware of any projects that are actively helping people on the ground I would outside of the kind of core protocols and and chains not so much no I mean admittedly I haven't gone looking for them um I'm sure there are some projects with some uh commendable aspirations that some may get off the ground most probably won't um I think that the core Tech technology is really the driver of the of leveling the playing field a little bit it's the ancillary parts that aren't so like sexy and like oh we're doing this for Global empowerment like the things that are just like making it easier to use again I think that those are the projects that are actually going to make an impact there um but so yeah I I am not aware of any specifics myself but I think uh as the ecosystem fleshes it self out I think it'll just start to raise the bar a little bit a little bit a lot of people who try to promote like oh we're doing this for all the right reasons generally like they're not but uh I don't know I don't trust I don't trust anybody so yeah I think it's kind of a shame that this is one of the more difficult questions to answer on this panel um but I think that's also due to the fact that like we like we as a community we haven't really built built anything yet that's useful to the general public um never mind just like a specific set of people outside of this community so um I think I think that kind of needs to come first before we can actually do something like this but the only thing that really comes to my mind um is empowering creators that don't have the connections or the the uh Capital needed to put their work out there music ns are a really powerful thing right now if you're in a music ARS that's coming from nothing you can easily Kickstart your career fund yourself in allow your fans to kind of like bet on your success but besides that like it's a tough question so you know again I would just you know kind of brings me back to what I was saying at the beginning the fact we can talk we can use all the platitudes and you know nice high sounding language about decentralization democratization of power and wealth and all of that um the fact that I guess you know 2010 Bitcoin comes out it's not 20 the fact that 13 years later um we are on a panel and we're still struggling to figure out how and if this technology is actually making an impact in people's lives I think should raise questions why is that and and it demands I think uh uh just a deep look inside ourselves and the industry as a whole as to what are we really doing here and and what is this really really about and by the way if it really is just about you know chilling and making a quick buck that might be okay but let's let's be honest about it you know what I mean don't go out there talking out of one side of your mouth saying oh yeah this is going to lift uplift humanity and then not have anything to show for it as as I said you know talk is cheap So yeah thank you Vince thank you Greg thank you Bill thank you Jack do we have any questions from the audience oh we got a question well it's not hello how's it going you guys hear me can so it's not as much of a question as more of a statement that I feel like I disagree with that complete last segment of sort of like the fertility of decentralized services in crypto the main reason why is that if you look at what's been done with um Central bankers and governments when Facebook came out particularly with Libra that it was like that was like just kind of a promise of just the potential of actually democracy izing kind of money which was what Nakamoto was originally talking about and it was completely killed by Central Bankers in fact I was in 2019 at a conference in crypto Valley in Z and Central Bankers like were kind of who were there were like openly like we killed it so the idea that things haven't been proposed and actually worked on I completely disagree with it's a more it's more effort of you you know if you look at things that are going towards decentralization and pushing you are taking kind of power and control from Elite established things and it's like Frederick Douglas said right power never conceives so that's you know that's something that always needs to be mentioned when you talk about what's next what's possible is that you have existing interests that will constantly be like uh no we kind of disagree with the direction that this might be going and so we don't want it to to happen anyone got a quick response to this we got 50 seconds I think I mean I think people have proposed a bunch of different things that would solve it right but I think if you look at Facebook and Libra like that's just a massive corporation uh they're they're just they're not going to be the ones to do it right I think like once if somebody comes up with a protocol that really truly allows for kind of global distribution of wealth and sharing and all these things like they put the code out there it's there right no one no one will stop it if people use it they use it it I think there are the the the larger established businesses that are tied into whatever Financial Market they're working in and under the government that they operate under like that it's going to be harder for them to do it um it'll take a somewhat Rogue actor probably to to Institute something that actually works and once people adopt it and it's on chain and the smart contracts are are humming like you can't slow it down so that's my thought at least but that was a good point all right we're all wrapped up here I'd like to thank everyone very much for listening to us ramble uh thank you for all of our speakers thank [Music] you