Path to Eden‍

When we speak about the Path to Eden, we are recognizing the vision of decentralization through web3 and the creation of a permissionless, trustless, space in which people, not middle men, control the value.

In our collective interpretation of the web, we began in Eden, and the forbidden fruit appeared in the form of Centralization. Companies like Facebook and Google turned us and our data into products. Banks, brokers, and other glorified middle men controlled the flow of our income and access to the world around us. Money was printed at an unimaginable rate and our forms of monetary assets fought it out in a race to the bottom.

Centralization functions on highly distributed systems that ringfence power, decision-making, and monetary policy within a small privileged group. It encourages unequal dependency by design and removes the agency of the individual. These middlemen (Amazon, Google, Facebook) have become more influential than democracy.

Decentralization transfers control and decision making to a distributed network. Cryptonetworks and decentralized systems shake the very foundations of finance, governance, and digital life. They have the power to enable a new world and are built on a drastically new frame of security, independence, values, and responsibility.‍

A Cultural Revolution Enabled By Technology‍

It doesn’t start with technology, but with us. Decentralization is first and foremost a human revolution. Society’s path towards decentralization has developed through history, and this movement stems from our innate, human desire to protect our future selves and our progeny with systems of fairness.

One of the first acts of decentralization reaches back to Moses and his decision to radically replace unilateral tribal governance with specific councils for areas of decision making.

Technological advances like the Printing Press and The Web have enabled the decentralization of information, but blockchain technology offers the ability to programmably secure the integrity of these systems, values, and distributed governance into scalable and lasting solutions.

We are still at the beginning of this revolution and there are tradeoffs that exist over security and efficiency, but decentralization is possible.

Staying In Eden

The way we perceive value is changing. DeFi is the fastest-growing market in the world. In October 2020 the total value locked stood at just over $11bn and within a year it had grown to over $140bn. 

Adam & Eve is a parable of the frailness of human morality and the need to protect ourselves from our worst tendencies.

The real adopters of decentralization are not the speculators or those trying to make a quick buck, but those that understand what Moses started.

Decentralization needs to be the basis for every innovation, otherwise, we will stray from the path. We need to incentivize the cultural mission with a capital system to rival centralized governance.

We need to resist centralization and pretenders that mimic the values of crypto but are governed by centralized entities or bellwethers. 

In Eden, we can create ever-evolving systems that are born adversarial. They are antifragile, enable equality, and are built, governed, and rewarded by the community.

Rebuilding the Financial System

Finance is relocating to the internet and DeFi is what happens when you empower developers with the freedom to build the system that supports it. 

DeFi is delivering on its promise to democratize finance and make it accessible to the masses. It’s an environment where two guys can build a competitive protocol from their garage and very rapidly become a hive of 2,000 minds wielding a bigger collaborative force than the banks.

It’s money lego that glues a network of protocols together for multiple uses and advantages that a clunky centralized system would struggle with. 

Funds can move fluidly and intelligently with protocols that follow the most efficient path for the biggest advantage. It’s money that works for you 24/7 and there’s nothing comparable in the financial system.

The potential with DeFi is limitless, but as Barney Mannerings touched on at Crypto Global, we’re a long way from recognizing that vision.

That’s not to discredit the breakneck speed at which we’re evolving. In 2017, you had to make money by selling your tokens to someone else. There’s now far more choice to hold them, farm them, loan them and do a whole host of things with them. 

What makes DeFi interesting makes it equally scary. 75% of the people around the world are not connected to finance as western society is, and what’s happening in places like El Salvador is a bullish move that unseats the currently advantaged.

Israel Changing DeFi

You only have to look at the team page of a leading player in the global DeFi community to see how Israelis are influencing its course. 

However, the regulation is problematic in Israel, traditional investors have been resistant, and to step into an untested corner of DeFi with institutional support has been next to impossible.

We have a hive of trading, crypto, cipher, and cybersecurity talent in Israel that lends itself to making the next superpower, we have interested investors, and we need to harvest both within Israel.

Israel is an influential nation in Crypto and it’s understated how much we’ve contributed to the global crypto space with companies, individuals, and flagbearers. Bancor, Enigma, GK8, Fireblocks, Kirobo, Keytango, the list goes on.

What has previously been a challenge to launch a startup in DeFi and new corners of blockchain is now an opportunity.