suchapalaver
@yesevilivesey
I didn’t get into blockchain out of conviction—I needed a job and wanted to work in Rust. But through that, I ended up working on Chronicle, an open source provenance recording platform. It was there that I first became convinced of the real benefits of web3 technologies. In particular, I saw how distributed systems can support collaboration between groups that don’t—or can’t—fully trust each other. And I saw how easily important, sensitive data can disappear when infrastructure depends entirely on a single institution.
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suchapalaver
@yesevilivesey
One example: projects preserving human rights archives and witness testimony. These are often hosted by universities or nonprofits, funded externally, and politically sensitive. When support like USAID disappears—as it has recently—these archives face extinction. That’s not just a funding issue; it’s a fundamental design flaw. If a university sets up a collaborative project with a community, it bears responsibility for thinking about what happens if that project loses support. Who owns the data? Who can access it? Is the system resilient—or does it collapse the moment funding runs out?
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suchapalaver
@yesevilivesey
Web3 isn’t a panacea. But it offers tools—like neutral settlement layers and verifiable data structures—that can make shared systems more durable, even without centralized trust. Sadly, much of the public has already decided what blockchain is: a tool of libertarian ideology or right-wing politics. That reputation closes people off from even considering what else it might enable.
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