I was checking out X7 Finance and stumbled across one of their investors CULT DAO.

What got me intrigued was their manifesto statement. Their world might be crypto whereas we live in the Fediverse, but tell me some of this does not feel familiar:

• There are of course those who do not want us to speak. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this world, isn’t there?

• Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame?

• There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the only place you could, the government. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

• “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels … upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” - Mario Savio

• The more I learnt, the more miserable I felt, I tried politics, starting out on the right as somebody with a mind for economics, and slowly drifting further and further left, socialism, marxism, communism, I joined extinction rebellion, became a full blown anarchist and yet all I found was disappointment, unwillingness to do what was necessary to do. Political infighting exhausted and wasted all noble causes.

• Anarchism and libertarianism are supposed to be opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they in my view are the only sides of the spectrum that can agree on a universal truth. Humans need freedom.

• You have an economic system that cannot function without maximum employment, whilst you have a technological age that is automating jobs faster than we can produce bullshit service industry jobs to replace them.

• We have social media spreading the truth, and lies, quicker than the media can run their own narratives, society is escaping the leaders of the old world, the beginning of the end is here, the borderless society is coming and with it, the death of sovereign nations.

• It is the SYSTEM that is defective, SOCIETY that needs changing, a functioning society does not have 20% of its population medicated for depression. It is time we stop blaming ourselves. You are not defective. That is how the economic model NEEDS you to feel, they need you to feel as if it is you that is the problem, so much so that millions on millions are prescribed pills to keep up this illusion of normality.

• The Many should not live in fear of their governments, it is the governments who should live in fear of the many.

• The current financial system serves to keep the people poor, a society built on debt needs inflation to function, and inflation serves to rob the poor and allow them to never catch up with their overlords in the ruling class.

We talk alot about issues like this on the Fediverse, but here is what caught my attention. They are taking things a step or two further.

They are building a vehicle that will fund ventures that further the cause of decentralization and reverse the evils of centralization.They call it Decentralized Venture Capitalism.

Now I do not know if this is the right vehicle, but if nothing else it serves as a model of a way we could take our talk and turn it into meaningful change.

Crypto has a culture all of its own, just like the Fediverse does. Too many of us, parts of the Crypto culture seem downright scammy (apologies to my new crypto friends). But maybe to be successful it would be worth learning more about their culture. We might learn how to reform the financial system to take the power back from the Ruling Class and build new organizations that reflect the will of the people.

One thing I like about the crypto community is they leverage everybody’s propensity to act in their own self interest to produce outcomes that serve the greater good.

This is not investment advice. I am not telling you to buy Cult Dao or X7 Finance. But have a look and let the wheels in your head turn. What can we learn?

Read about how each of their DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) function - could this be a better way?

You will probably see more of these types of communities popping up on Exploding Heads as I seek to learn more myself. Please share what you find.