I’m a true believer in crypto as a tool for global self-sovereignty.

After shutting down Laguna Games, I came to the realization that I only want to work with people who share this ethos. I’ve reached a point in life where most of my net worth lives behind seed phrases, not bank logins. I’m no longer interested in spending time with tourists. Too many people have flooded the space chasing easy money and hype. I’m here for something deeper.

The true cypherpunk spirit survives in small pockets of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and in projects like Tornado Cash, Urbit, and DarkFi. As I explore the infinite garden, I repeatedly return to Decred, not because it’s flashy, but because it’s principled, enduring, and aligned with self-sovereignty.

I think it’s Decred’s time to step into the light.

Why Now?

Decred is that rare crypto project already running what others only theorize: a self-governing, self-funding digital currency. A small, exceptionally talented dev team has continued shipping robust code through multiple cycles. Today, crypto’s attention is scattered across millions of tokens, most of them pure noise. To break through, Decred needs a clear, resonant story delivered at the right moment. With alt-season nearing and AI acceleration reshaping society, that moment is now.

For me, Decred isn’t a relic. It's a future-proof protocol hiding in plain sight.

What's Holding Us Back?

Despite its advantages, Decred flies under the radar. Too often we highlight individual features rather than clearly communicating the powerful outcomes those features unlock. We’ve let our narrative split across Decred.org, Bison Wallet, and Bison Relay, without building a unified and cohesive vision.

The reality is that compelling narratives, rather than code, draw people in. Without a unified voice, even world-class technology risks fading quietly into the background. We don't need to reinvent Decred; the protocol works, governs itself, and evolves. What’s missing isn’t functionality, it's focus on how we communicate these unique strengths.

Embracing the Agentic Future

The rise of AI is no longer speculative; it's reshaping society. Most experts anticipate AGI within 5 years and ASI within the decade. Autonomous agents are evolving from chatbots into economic actors that hold keys, execute transactions, and vote in DAOs. They won’t trust interfaces; they’ll trust rails that are transparent, verifiable, and permissionless.

We are approaching a fork in the road: closed, corporate-owned AI with opaque governance, or open, auditable AI running on decentralized infrastructure. Decred, perhaps unknowingly at inception, was designed for the latter. Stakeholders hold direct power over miners and upgrades; the treasury spends only with on-chain approval, and atomic swaps enable trustless, fee-less exchange. DAOs often struggle in their human-centric form, but as coordination shells for agents they make perfect sense provided the chain underneath is already machine-native. Decred doesn’t need to retrofit "agent compatibility." It's arguably the most capable existing system for machine-native governance and coordination.

AI is not a threat to Decred; it's our moment to lead.

A Miniature, Upgrade-Ready Polity

Most blockchains market themselves as financial plumbing. Decred is something deeper: a self-funding, self-upgrading digital polity. Historically, commodity money relied on a sovereign mint and fiat relies on central banks. Decred replaces both by encoding the mint, the payment rails, and the rule-making process directly on its public ledger. Hybrid PoW/PoS enhances security, ticket voting enforces genuine stakeholder control, and Politeia records budgets and proposals immutably.

This isn't a theory. Decred has already curbed miner dominance by shifting rewards, switched hashing algorithms without a split, and funded privacy (CoinShuffle++), Lightning integration, and a fee-less DEX…each via stakeholder votes. This track record demonstrates clearly how a digital social contract can evolve sustainably, without reliance on a centralized council or a charismatic leader.

It’s not “Bitcoin with governance”; it’s a full-stack constitutional experiment that keeps evolving without capture.

The Opportunity Before Us

At times, I’ve wondered if I’m shouting into the void, trying to revive interest in Decred. But every interaction with the core community of true believers reaffirms why it matters. The broader market hasn't fully caught on, yet our mechanisms are sound, battle-tested, and future-proof. This isn't about blind faith; it's about recognizing enduring principles and robust engineering. This community embraces the true cypherpunk ideals of self-sovereignty and this has been showcased in the history of evolutionary upgrades to Decred each voted on by its stakeholders.

Also, where else do you get an opportunity to help guide a decentralized, fully autonomous $250M protocol? The barriers here aren't technical; they're primarily cultural and political.

We’ve upgraded the protocol consistently. Now it’s time to upgrade the story.

What’s next?

I’m working with a small group to make Decred’s purpose instantly clear both to humans and to the language models that increasingly shape discovery. This is not hype; it’s precision messaging that positions Decred as indispensable sovereign infrastructure in an AI-driven world.

Rapid consensus and upgrade velocity remain Decred’s best defense against future threats, whether quantum, political, or AI. True stakeholder sovereignty (open proposals judged by the collective) beats reliance on small groups who can be pressured or co-opted. As Chris Burniske noted long ago, “Decred’s killer feature is good governance, and with good governance, you can have any feature you want.”

As agentic AI rises, Decred’s quiet strength may become its greatest edge. Brilliance needn’t scream, but it does need to be seen.

Let’s bring Decred back into focus. Together.