2023 Nov 2
Listening to: “Breathe And Stop Freestyle“ by Coast Contra
Drinking: Imperial Hard Cider by 19 Acres Cider Co. (Sherwood, OR)
The new home for Truth is onchain.
Until recently, Truth could be found in universities around the world and in countries that embraced enlightenment ideals.
Today though, Truth seems to be in short supply. I’m not sure when it started, but the dominant trend around the world these days seems to be one of privileging feelings over everything else; especially Truth.
Leaders around the world focus more on feelings than anything else; especially the Truth, since shored up public sentiment is what reinforces incumbent power. The natural effect of this is for leaders in any capacity to avoid Truth whenever possible since Truth is intrinsically and supremely indifferent to feelings.
Janet Yellen, current secretary of the treasury, saying shit like “[the] US can afford to support two wars," as the national debt rockets ever higher at record speeds with not even a whisper of potential negative implications on future American’s lives or plans to eventually revert course is just one of many such examples.
Once you open your eyes to this reality it’s wild to see how often folks will literally do or say anything to avoid telling the Truth, even when confronted with written or recorded evidence! And somehow we just accept and move on.
Part of the issue is that Truth as we know it today isn’t static nor is it particularly easy to verify.
Many institutions of higher learning espouse latinate mottos that often include the word ‘Veritas’ which we all know is Latin for truth. This type of truth is more closely related to empirical truths that are verifiable after running experiments in controlled settings. Valuable yes, but again, not the most accessible or approachable type of Truth.
Aletheia (ἀλήθεια), on the other hand, is the Greek word for Truth that originated in ancient Greece. Literally translated it mean “not-concealed” implying a dynamic relationship between what is true and any give individual’s perception and lived reality. One could argue, as an older, more fundamental experience with Truth, the Greek conception of Truth thought through as Aletheia is closer to how most folks experience Truth.
Last week the horrible (with a wh-) Liz Warren leaned in to a shitty WSJ article that claimed $130M+ in crypto payments made their way to crypto wallets controlled by terrorists.
The only problem with this claim is that it was based on a mis-interpretation of onchain information (i.e. Truth). Everyone can see what happens and where onchain transfers are going, so if a particular address is linked to a particular person or entity (e.g. terrorists) it’s trivially easy to blacklist said address from accessing centralized exchanges and converting crypto to fiat.
Nic Carter and an ad hoc army of bitcoin bounty incentivized onchain data researchers are still working on getting to the bottom of what a more likely number is, but that’s not the point. The point is that the Truth is there, on the blockchain, open and available to anyone with an internet connection. While concealed to the folks who may not be aware of the reality of the blockchain, it it very much not-concealed to everyone in the know.
The degree of separation between Truth and any given individual now is merely understanding how provably decentralized and transparent public blockchains work. While not trivial, the gap is orders of magnitudes closer than it’s ever been in recorded history.
That feels massive. And I think it is. What’s more is we’re at the begining of an inflection point that will much of our lived realities recorded, in some shape, way, or fashion, onchain.
Truth is moving onchain. For always and forever.
Other Thursday Bitties
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2002 seems like forever ago - check out this video of Shakira encountering a camera phone in Japan for the first time
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Evolution of Non-Fungible Tokens (October 2023) by the World Economic Forum
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Web3: The Future of Loyalty? by Marc Baumann
Cover Image: primordial octoGAN #76 by Pindar Van Arman (part of the 100% onchain “les trois bleu” byteGANs in my collection)
