Human society in the 21st century is faced with numerous global-scale challenges and systemic risks. These challenges include climate change, misinformation, an insecure digital infrastructure and a lack of economic prosperity. And while solutions for some of these problems are available, they go unsolved because not enough people, groups or nation states have come together to address them in a coordinated way.
Our legacy institutions are not equipped to handle these issues, largely because individuals are focused on their own interests, and nations are focused on their own citizens, leading them down paths that help them but harm the overall system. These sorts of problems are known as “coordination failures.”
But we aren’t trapped forever in this death spiral. With the dawn of Web 3, there is an opportunity to build a better world for our generation and beyond. We can leverage the properties of Web 3 to design crypto-economic systems that are regenerative: systems that are resilient and sustainable, and align conflicting priorities toward the greater good.
Know thy enemy
The Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote that if you “know thy enemy and know thyself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Humanity doesn’t face persistent global-scale problems because we lack solutions, data or ideas. Instead, systemic risks continue because humanity has failed to address them in a coordinated way. Groups often act at cross purposes, or even make enemies out of each other, when the true enemy is conflict itself.
But conflict won’t fix climate change. To fight coordination failure on the environment and other issues, we need a coordination mechanism that is truly global in nature. Luckily, we may have found one: Decentralized blockchain networks allow us to create new incentives and mechanism designs that are borderless and direct.
Continue reading: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/06/how-crypto-can-do-good-for-the-world/
Our legacy institutions are not equipped to handle these issues, largely because individuals are focused on their own interests, and nations are focused on their own citizens, leading them down paths that help them but harm the overall system. These sorts of problems are known as “coordination failures.”
But we aren’t trapped forever in this death spiral. With the dawn of Web 3, there is an opportunity to build a better world for our generation and beyond. We can leverage the properties of Web 3 to design crypto-economic systems that are regenerative: systems that are resilient and sustainable, and align conflicting priorities toward the greater good.
Know thy enemy
The Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote that if you “know thy enemy and know thyself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Humanity doesn’t face persistent global-scale problems because we lack solutions, data or ideas. Instead, systemic risks continue because humanity has failed to address them in a coordinated way. Groups often act at cross purposes, or even make enemies out of each other, when the true enemy is conflict itself.
But conflict won’t fix climate change. To fight coordination failure on the environment and other issues, we need a coordination mechanism that is truly global in nature. Luckily, we may have found one: Decentralized blockchain networks allow us to create new incentives and mechanism designs that are borderless and direct.
Continue reading: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/06/how-crypto-can-do-good-for-the-world/
