Severin Matusek

Like any new technology, crypto is far from inevitable—no matter what its boosters claim. More precisely, decentralization—crypto’s core principle and its most significant contribution to reshaping markets—is far from a sure thing.

Delivering real utility outside the crypto bubble means matching the user experience consumers and businesses already get from traditional solutions. And yes, that requires building a bridge between old and new rails—often through compromises that look downright irrational to crypto purists.

We have embraced a myth that leaders are special, particularly brave or gifted. But mostly, leaders are amplified by their peers, part of a culture where leading is expected, rewarded and supported.

“How do you take the avant garde and put it into the mainstream?” says Clark of ISOLARII’s goals. “It’s about these little niches and pockets of resistance from around the world. But it's also about trying to get into mass pop culture.”

Carly speaks from her background in magazines to explain that adding a Discord channel to the NEW MODELS structure was important because “editors don’t make magazines, they make audiences. And a magazine or a podcast alone is no longer the way to do that. It has to be something more cybernetic.” She paraphrases theories from K Allado McDowell’s... See more

In 2021, Ethiopia actually began building its own social media site as a response to Facebook’s alleged incitement of ethnic massacres. And more recently, Japan funnelled taxpayer money into the dating app Tapple, in a bid to fix the nation’s declining marriage and birth rates.

Platform socialism is a systematic alternative to private power in the digital sphere and can help unite different forms of struggle around a shared vision of a democratic future. It is about reclaiming a long-term counter-hegemonic project for challenging capitalist control over technology.