A Story of Decentralized Governance

OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Why We Need Open Governance

Author

Forefront
December 04, 2023

Happy Monday!

Welcome to the 169th edition of the Forefront Newsletter, now more dynamic than ever. If you’re new here, we give you a weekly roundup of the best news and insights at the intersection of crypto, culture, and community. Got just few mins? Read it onchain…

This week we’re covering:

Let’s get into it…

Week’s Highlight

"Collections are history's raw materials.”

Collections not only preserve pieces of the past but also serve as lenses through which we can view and understand different eras and cultures. Historically, collecting has always been intertwined with the cultural and societal context of its time.

An upcoming drop from Forefront explores the history of collecting through various “moments” in time, from ancient Mesopotamia to the current digital age. With the rise of AI and infinite art, we’re now grappling with the question of what makes art valuable – and thus collectible.

If collections are history’s raw materials, then it becomes clear that our role in this age of abundance is to actively curate and create context around various collections for the purpose of telling the stories of our times.

The Nature of Collecting is a fascinating exploration - stay tuned…

What’s Poppin’

In this essay, Vitalik responds to the techno-optimist manifestos of a16z and e/acc with his own view. He expresses a nuanced techno-optimism, supporting transformative technology for a brighter future but stressing the importance of choosing the right technological directions, rather than just pursuing profit-driven development​​. Vitalik highlights the significant benefits of technology but warns against overcorrecting and overlooking these benefits due to fears of dystopian outcomes or power centralization​​. Finally, he expresses ambivalence about the "effective accelerationist" (e/acc) movement, agreeing with its recognition of technological benefits but cautioning against an overzealous embrace of military technology and the assumption that dominant technological powers will always be benevolent​​.

After a full cycle of consumer crypto applications, we’re still left asking why an app should be onchain… Alana Levin from Variant Fund discusses the potential of integrating crypto elements into traditional consumer applications. She argues that this integration creates "metagraphs," information networks that offer comprehensive insights into user behaviors across different applications and time. This approach contrasts with Web2, where data is often siloed within individual apps. The essay illustrates how blockchains enable these metagraphs, providing examples like a musician identifying true fans by their varied interactions across platforms. Alana concludes that while short-term benefits exist, the long-term potential of onchain elements in applications is substantial, enhancing user experience and offering new insights.

Are ads content that consumers care about? This essay is an open invitation to marketers to consider minting their advertisements on platforms like Zora. It argues that ads are valuable, memetic media, and minting them can unlock new potential by enabling collection and ownership. This approach is seen as a generational arbitrage opportunity, allowing marketers to monetize creative work and engage audiences more deeply. The essay suggests that minting ads creates durable channels for rich audience engagement, and gives examples of how blockchain can change the dynamics of consumer interaction, turning ads into collectible, valuable pieces of media.

The “patron saint” of tech accelerationism, Beff Jezos, was doxxed this week. Beff built an audience around effective accelerationism (e/acc). At its core, e/acc argues that technology companies should innovate faster, with less opposition from “decels” or “decelerationists” — folks like AI safety advocates and regulators who want to slow the growth of technology. Why was he doxxed? Beff (whose real identity is exposed in the piece) bashed the publication, which rightfully received negative feedback from many others who were unsure as to why the account was doxxed in the first place. However, given the overwhelming support and publicity for his company that he is receiving + $14.1M Seed round, others seem to believe that the doxxing was intentionally setup by Beff to grow his brand.

This December, Songcamp introduces us to C4 – the 4th chapter in their ever-expanding series of thoughtful experiments at the edges of music collaboration & onchain creativity. C4 is made up of a diverse and deeply-talented cohort of 15 producers, vocalists and instrumentalists. It all revolves around an action that we used to know and love: burning CDs. Writing to disc is a free onchain action, thus it will only cost a small gas fee. Collectors can batch as many blank CDs as they own into one write to disc transaction.

Bountycaster is a new service for creating and completing paid bounties online, leveraging cryptocurrency, decentralized social networks, and AI. Bountycaster leverages the Farcaster network for identity and content. Users sign in with their Farcaster account and post bounty descriptions to the Farcaster network. On the backend, Bountycaster monitors posts to Farcaster, and uses AI to parse the bounty content. This app is proof that the value of Farcaster is in the fully programmable social graph.

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