Building a Decentralized Internet

Hey, just a reminder we have currently setup a small communities page via Locals, that we may chat a bit on. Also stuff is in the works, and OpenCollective still needs to be updated. We have lots of plans moving forward the next few month, and bigger fish to fry/stuff in store.

Recently besides the r/Lonero subreddit I have, I have also created a new subreddit known as r/offlineweb. This is to engage more w/ the community. I have also been actively involved on Reddit to promote various topics related to the Decentralized Internet, free speech and the future of the web. I'm working to engage with tech communities in every way I can. We have very specific goals development-wise.

Recently, the government came out wanting to "intervene with big tech censorship", in their own way by watering down CDA 230 and an executive order that allows for more rules and regulations. The fact is that government intervention is basically taking away the content moderation powers from the tech companies and giving them to the government. In the long run, it will backfire in unexpected ways. The real way to get rid of censorship isn't by more laws and regulations. That's never anti-censorship. The actual true ways of getting rid of censorship, is using technologies like my project or joining networks like Gab, Minds, Locals, Ello, BitTube, Steemit, Locals, and maybe even Mastodon. Maybe I am wrong, maybe the new actions in place can help. Only time will tell. At least it opens up the question. I love how free speech enthusiast and tech entrepreneur Andrew Torba phrases it, "In a free country a corporation should be free to be biased".

A recent incident happened today when I asked a critical question to an editorial group regarding a post they put out that might need further planning. This is the simplest way I am going to word it. The group which shall not be named (I don't want to publicly call out or point fingers), was a group that I was a part of. Instead of responding to the critical question that was presented in a curious, respectful manner, I was removed from the group immediately. This concerns me on the basis that it is a group that claims to be a beacon of promoting free speech. They immediately censored me just for asking a critical question. It reminded me that regardless of what side of the political spectrum we are in, we need things like a Decentralized Internet to flourish. The limitation of ideas is a limitation of intellectual diversity.

This year I was going to speak at the Detroit Startup Week. When Covid19 hit, they asked if speakers and event organizers wanted a virtual presentation slot as the event was moved to online.  I opted out. Even though most speaking engagements I video for an online audience anyways, not physically being at events like these sort of ruins it for me. You remove the charisma of speaking, networking and seeing what is going on in your local community. If I were them, I would do the exact same thing or cancel the event all together. It is just a bummer events like these got canceled as speaking on stage again would have been another great marketing opportunity to answer questions directly, and really present my Decentralized Internet on a spotlight. However, this is only a minor setback I face. I am extremely thankful for the healthcare workers during these tough times. There are those who are really struggling, and self-awareness allows me to be put back in my place and remember all the things I have. The other event I was hoping to speak at this year was a local Marker Faire, which also got canceled. That means my two planned speaking engagements of the year got canceled as a result of this virus. The upside though is this gives me extra time for doing more things in order to be an advocate of my software. That being staid, stay safe folks! I'm not gonna get too political but I will leave it at saying remember to practice common sense.

Since 2011, I have been involved in the Blockchain world and with cryptocurrencies. This is from knowing early on about Bitcoin, to being involved with a variety of different crypto startups such as BitToken, WeCrypto, CrowdCoin, BlockStarLabs, EtherStone, HopePay, MatchPay, StartHub Messenger, and side projects such as CrowdWave, CrowdToken, and DigitalCPR's Blockchain Accelerator. What fascinated me about Bitcoin early on was the decentralization aspect to it. I believed "POW" could represent free markets electronically and that centralized cryptocurrencies had no use-cases besides the digitization aspect of it. Infact, I believed that the greatest benefit to centralized currencies were given to the creators of said "currency". That being said, I have been working on a project under my blockchain startup Lonero to further promote decentralization. The project which I been actively working on is a library and SDK for building decentralized and distributed computing projects. Something that I believe is the decentralized internet, in which you can have interconnected peers processing data and transmitting information without a centralized entity. True, others are competing in this space. I and many other blockchain orgs, startups, and engineers are actively building projects for the new internet in hopes of further promoting the principals of privacy and freedom. We want a truly free and open internet.

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