Taking stock

It’s the beginning of a new year, and with a new year comes many new opportunities for our generation to continue making decisions that will make or break modern civilization. Operating in the web3 space for a few years now, the development of new technologies in the financial and creative wings of the blockchain explosion have frequently brought to mind echoes of various dystopian pseudo-prophetic futures - centralized galactic credits of the old Republic, war economy gamification, literal hours of your life as salary for a day’s labor (Star Wars, Metal Gear Solid, In Time, respectively).

We’re in 2023 now. With an ongoing war, a global pandemic barely in the rearview mirror, and driving forward into an oncoming recession, it’s about time we stop and consider where our trajectory is ultimately headed. These last 30 years of market expansion have given us burgeoning new heights of technology and industry while at the same time allowing for multi-year recessions almost every decade. While this gives credit to the strength and resilience of open marketplaces, the economic instability and increasing wealth gap continues to leave many people homeless and raises further doubts that homeownership is something attainable for anyone outside of the middle-upper classes of society. The crypto space, despite its relatively short history, has gone through similar instability in recent years. Crypto went through its second crypto winter after a furious bull run creating even more of both overnight millionaires and cryptoflunks. This has caused blockchain and web3 to be even further stigmatized as an elaborate new age ponzi scheme, whereas blocktimists (blockchain optimists) believe in the promises of ownership of personal identity and greater financial independence from traditional banking systems.

Upwards and upwards?

Revolutionizing bureaucracy, government, financial systems, and organizational norms are just a few of the promises of the new sliced bread of global human interconnectivity, manifested through tokens, smart contracts and everything in-between. Countless startups spanning the globe are attempting to implement initiatives and experiments in ways of taking power away from corporate/state funding sinkholes to redistribute both opportunity and access to everyone. While this sounds all well and good, the ever-present invisible hand of the market is continuously steering innovation towards financial rather than societal gains. The mantra of “profits-over-everything” guides both lawmakers and businesses to act almost strictly in the interest of growth at all costs, which in the wakes of months long wildfires and war negotiations hinging on the prices of oil feel all sorts of unpleasant.

To quote American Author, Edward Abbey, “Growth for growth’s sake is the ideology of a cancer cell.” Apoptosis, or cell suicide, is a programmed mechanic in the instruction booklet of every cell in our bodies. It is when that cell growth goes unchecked that a malignant tumor forms, spreading and wreaking havoc on the rest of the body. It causes blockages, saps resources, and stops the healthy function of all other facilities within the human organism until it ultimately stops functioning altogether. Not to carry this metaphor on for too long, the world’s economic fight over resources, wealth and influence finds itself sharing an almost uncanny resemblance to a cancer cell. Hoarding assets, monopolizing innovation, and getting in the way of policies and other efforts to decentralize power are all active decisions to center all the economic body’s functions around the self-interest of few select individuals over the well-being of the human ecosystem.

Now where does this stand with regards to web3 – to the champions of decentralization and heralds of “true” ownership and revolutionary access to financial independence? Well, that still remains to be seen. Various mantras of tempering frugality during times of token volatility for promises of future gains (HODL, WAGMI, etc) and terminology for dissenters and skeptics of blockchain projects (FUDs, paperhands, and so on) show an evolution from everyday stock exchange terminology. However, they still serve the same functions when it comes to viewing assets being exchanged and their traders themselves, as merely profit-yielding instruments rather than as support of a team, idea, or product. The blockchain revolution is stymied by the Walmart and Amazon hindsight investor’s perspective of the mid 2000s and technical analysis pitfalls that have led traditional markets to become the capitalistic wasteland that it is today.

We are Spilnota.

Building and growing go hand in hand. Some trees need to be cut down to make way for roads to be paved and buildings to be erected. The ground must be tilled for fields to bear fruit. A business must be profitable before it can hire more engineers, laborers, or purchase capital. But like with all things, there is a point of diminishing returns, to both the world, and to its inhabitants. Finding space in the various ecosystems within blockchain technology means finding arable land and a customer base for whatever we choose to innovate in. The ongoing experiment we believe is most critically undergoing change, as well as is fitting to where there is need for true innovation and growth, is the way in which communities are finding ways to self-organize.

Building a firm base of 1000 true followers should be the first goal of any team building or creating for an audience. But between appealing to your intended customers, attempting to attract investors, and building out your product, small teams lacking starting capital, venture funding or angel investors are forced to cut corners somewhere. Reputation boosters through centralized organizations are appealing to new teams trying to get name brand recognition supporting your project, but also has several strings attached to it and few true accountability measures that help protect investors, both big and small, from scams and unethical uses of trusted funds.

What we hope to build is the #1 platform that enables community-oriented startups to build their projects confidently, attract funds, and develop their communities with ease, all while receiving optimal marketing visibility. Our project, our community, will build to help builders – not just the growers.

If you would like to see our vision of transparent, effortless building for the future of communities and investors come to fruition, follow us on Twitter @spilnotaxyz.

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