Redesigning Governance: Trust Networks, Decentralization, and the Dichotomy of Extremes in Politics

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

I definitely wanna go. So yeah, curating amazing people, curating good space, really, really good job. Yeah, so we're gonna talk a little bit about some of the things that I've been noticing when it comes to decentralization, the dichotomy of extreme politics, and some ideas around trust networks. So before we get started, first we're gonna do, let's say, a reminder of these different terms. What do they really mean?

So first, decentralization. Chad GTP says, the process of distributing power, decision-making, and control away from centralized authorities, whether it's government, 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, rely on their word or on the contract that you guys have created together. 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 decentralization, it's important also to remember that decentralization also has a 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, spectrums, actually. So we have the technical decentralization, we have the monetary decentralization, governance decentralization, social community decentralization, cultural decentralization. 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 gonna be the code that we are all seeing.

And that, yeah, basically, that the code is not gonna judge you based on your race, based on your, let's say, gender, or whatever, any bullshit, so yeah, basically, that is kind of like open to anyone. Then we have the monetary decentralization, which basically refers to the distribution of the financial power and control away from basically decentralized authorities that will be printing this new money, or creating this new currency. 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 that are, 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 the social and the community decentralization that is basically focuses on distributing power 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're creating their events, or they're creating their own communities around the Ethereum ecosystem, for example. That's an example.

And then, basically, that they're able to create these meaningful opportunities for the network. And then we have the cultural decentralization, which is basically that we can have anyone coming and expressing themselves in the network, whether it's with art, or with any other form, let's say, any other media that reflects, let's say, some form of knowledge, or some form of expression. But yeah, rather than having, let's say, a centralized authority detaining how is the content created or how is, let's say, the different themes that are being curated in a specific media channel, then you can have, let's say, not necessarily a centralized authority doing that, but anyone being able to access it and do it on their own. I joined, let's say, the Web3 movement before it even was called Web3, I guess, and the promise was that we're gonna 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 church, or whatever form of institution that is trying, let's say, to create things in a very opaque way, closed way, centralized, top-down, licensed sometimes, and that we were going to pass from that BS to distributed, transparent, inclusive, decentralized, accountable, and bottom-up. But sadly, I personally don't believe that we're there.

I think that we're still more on the institutional side, and that's a little bit sad for a lot of the people, and I know a lot of friends that have left the space because they don't feel represented anymore, they feel like the values, the punk values that initially brought us in are not really there anymore, but yeah, that's why, I guess, a lot of us are coming back to Berlin, to these events, to hopefully move away from there to the distributed side. So, what do we do 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 you the monetary policy, they're not telling you the governance, they're not telling you how the culture is being created, they're not telling you how, let's say, the messages are being spread, they're not telling you any of that, they're just telling you it's decentralized, and many of us go and applaud like seals, and we're like, yeah, it's decentralized, cool.

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're actually decentralized, holistically decentralized, and equally accessible for all of us. Okay, so now, let's talk a little bit about the dichotomy of extreme politics, and I'm gonna bring it up why they're important later on. Here you have a QR code, it tells a little bit about my story and what I lived back in Venezuela, but to tell you a little bit about it, I'm originally from Venezuela, and yeah, basically the government there decided to take away from my family, we used to own land, my dad used to have radio stations, so yeah, they took the land from my family, just because my dad used the radio station, and on top of that, my dad was very public about being against the government back at home, 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 spitting out is that they were going against colonialists, my dad is originally from Spain, so apparently my dad is a colonialist, something that happened 350, 400 years ago, so it's like, okay, sure, my dad colonialist, but yeah, my dad came to Venezuela, so the government decided to take all away from him with this resort, you know, with this thing, and yeah, what I realized there is that basically the government used 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 countries, and yeah, this pattern is unique to Venezuela, many socialists and communists, many socialist or communist states follow the same path where elites hoard power, wealth, while using collectivist propaganda and silencing those against it. Instead of abolishing class extinction, 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 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 societies are more meritocratic, for sure, and there's obviously a few exceptions where people that might not have the connections might still be able to get funding and so on. Similarly, in socialist societies, those connected to power are the ones who benefit. The ruling class brings in their friends, their family, and loyalists, just like in capitalism, but under a different narrative. In capitalism, it's the same, but they're bringing their friends in and so on.

Socialists, the same, same stuff. In both systems, access to wealth isn't as open as it seems, so it seems like for the people, it seems like, no, it's not really like that. Having lived years in the US, France, Germany, and Spain, and spent months in multiple countries with different governance models, I see how both capitalism and socialism, when taken to the extremes, both fail to empower the people. The real issue is centralized control in any form, because 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 Nazis. They fear anything that has to do with social or collaborative, as if automatically leads to authoritarian control due to a collective trauma, but real decentralization is about empowering the collective.

It's about designing systems that prevent monopolization, whether by corporation, governments, or crypto-wealths. If blockchain just becomes another tool that is used for capital accumulation, what the fuck is the point? The challenge is in 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, 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 to come together and make the best out of both. So the future is in capitalism or communism. It's decentralized, resilient, and radically collaborative.

It's human-centric and not capital-centric. If we don't reclaim the idea of collective power without control, we're repeating in history just with different rulers. Same shit, same monarchs, same stuff. So blockchain was meant to disrupt power structures, 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 bullshit.

No ideology should be justified for oppression. True progress comes 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 gonna be help 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? The way that I'm imagining it is that I have a network with all of the people that I know and that I own that network and that I can share with this individual part of my network, if I want to, some groups, specific groups, that I can tell them, you know what, you can have my radio where I am, 100 kilometers, or this person, three meters, radio, and so on, that I can 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 something that we need to work on when we're designing all of these apps, that we need to remind the user what is actually really happening. And yeah, decentralized network, whether based on blockchain or peer-to-peer protocols, rely on trust to validate transactions.

Why I put that in bold is because we're thinking that we're designing trustless systems but in all of these trustless systems that we're designing, we require trust. We require, first, the trust that there's gonna 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.

So yeah, we need to remember that the technology that we're building relies on different trust. So trust to the code, energetic trust, governance trust, monetary trust, like many forms of trust. Without trust, decentralization is merely a techno-utopian idea that falls apart due to lack of security and coordination. So why trust networks matter in governance? Trust is fundamental for any governance model so as I said before, trust is required for literally everything.

And it's even more important in decentralized systems where not central authority ensures fairness or transparency. Trust networks enable transparent governance where individuals can verify decisions, validate participation, and ensure that processes are inclusive and equitable. And yeah, the main idea is that these trust networks hopefully will help us move away from this economy. Why, because I might trust David with his music taste, while I might trust James when it comes to governing monetary policy, while I trust this other individual when it comes to, let's say, marketing or growth ideas and so on. So imagine that you can start creating like a graph of all the people that you trust and then you can start delegating trust in many different things that you want someone to make a decision that is actually, let's say, some form of meritocratic, that you earn their trust to be there and represent you because they have somehow earned it to get there.

And then if you don't trust them anymore, you move and you select another person that you trust and so on. So I think we need to start rethinking about the new governance models, like how do we create 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 shit.

So whoever wants to learn more about trust networks and different experiments that we make, check this QR code. 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 me, you just scan the QR code, send me a message, and on Sunday, come to the Cypher Rave, and let's hang out. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Manu.

Thank you, Manu, amazing. Okay, we got a couple of questions here. First one is, what's your hottest take about crypto right now? Go off. My hottest take?

We're fucked. If we don't come together and start caring about each other, we're fucked. Got it, okay, that's straightforward. How can we prevent the chaos that this decentralization may naturally cause in Web3, either organizationally or as a community while keeping the ecosystem permission less transparent and decentralized? That's a good question.

So until now, most of the leaders, what they're suggesting is 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.

We can have, let's say, a committee. We can have 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 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 something completely new, but we just haven't created check and balances.

Most of it is just plutocratic 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, I wasn't sure.

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 made-up new currency, sure, go for it. I mean, at the end of the day, currency, what it is, it's just, let's say, I believe that you can use it as a medium of exchange, that it has some form of historical value and so on. Like, we know what money is, right? But in general, what it 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 gonna give it back or whatever the promise is, sure, you should be free to do that.

I don't think 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, a community should be coming together, right? And creating it together.

But here, what they're proposing is each individual has their own currency. I think that's like creating a lot of fragmentation. What we need to create is more union, I think. But again, go for it. If somebody accepts your new token, cool.

Right, right. How do you propose to decentralize culture exactly? You mentioned this and I want to know the steps for protocols to actually take and what to do and what not to do. That's a good question. I think decentralizing culture, like you can create like the rails for people to navigate.

So you can create, let's say, different guidelines. So what is it that you want to incentivize for your community? And then, hopefully, the culture remains for, let's say, the ideals and not just for the reward. But the thing is that a lot of people still need to pay rent, we still need money to eat and so on. So 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 gonna get tokens that I can sell and I can pay for stuff. So that's like the main difference that, like the projects that really create really decentralized culture is because it goes beyond the monetary thing. It goes beyond the money. And that's a difficult part of it, 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. It's a bit of a big question, so I'll see how you tackle it. But your take on decentralized AI, why and how? Good question.

So I think we definitely need it. It definitely has to be decentralized. Each of us should own our own models to own our own data that we put into the models. We should be hopefully running it ourselves as well. But to get to that point requires a lot of capital.

So yeah, a lot of capital and also like creating new infrastructure that we still don't have necessarily. But yeah, ideally, yeah, this is something that a lot of people 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 recreating, let's say, a decentralized network, AI decentralized network, where, let's say, the form of governance is just capital, then we're gonna end up doing the same stuff.

So yeah, I think that's like the main thing that we need to decipher somehow. We still haven't done it, but I think the ideas are there and the builders are there. It's time for us to make it. Cool.