Why Web 3.0 can be a hard pill to swallow
Dear Reader,
For those looking to critically unpack the excesses of Big Tech and the digital economy, one of the perplexing aspects of this engagement – and part of what makes new trends in technology so dangerous – is the extent to which powerful actors can adopt the language of critique and subversion to their ends. Indeed, in its early days, the internet was often cast as a revolutionary force of disintermediation, working to wrest control away from inefficient and parasitic corporations. Not long after, the discourse of the ‘sharing economy’ was touted as a means to overcome oppressive and hierarchical modes of work, and the emergence and rapid proliferation of social media was rendered as an empowering new outlet for democracy and dissent. Most recently, the world of crypto and Web 3.0 has been evangelized as a solution for the ills of centralization and the monopolistic tendencies of today’s digital platforms.
Each wave of technological development has virtue signaled the promise of revolutionary action, and masterfully appropriated the disaffection and anguish that ordinary people feel towards the status quo. But as the current crypto crash exemplifies – they have seldom delivered.
It is crucial to overturn these discursive facades. This month on DataSyn, we first take stock of this juncture – examining the evolution of Web 3.0 and its increasingly speculative and flawed constellation of deceptively alternative initiatives . But our project does not end here. We also seek to rescue and revitalize the genuine promise of people-centered alternatives.
The Datasyn Team
THE BIG EXCESS
On Web 3.0 and the Promise of Alternatives: Big Tech by any Other Name...
Ann Marie Utratel & Stacco Troncoso
Charting the arc of the hype around Web 3.0 discourse, from the initial exaltation of various forms of decentralized finance to more recent paeans about the democratic potential of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Ann Marie Utratel & Stacco Troncoso incisively unearth the hollowness of the subversive credentials of this rhetoric, and foreground the change truly radical experiments could bring instead.
Read on.
PROLETARIAT MATTERS
Data Sovereignty and Alternative Development Models
Paola Ricaurte & Rafael Grohmann
Probing the radical experiments around community-based data stewardship in Latin America, specifically as an attempt to mitigate a data economy whose gains are almost exclusively captured by Big Tech, Paola Ricuare & Rafael Grohman engage with the potential of people-centered models, and deliberate on the scope for alternative trajectories of development.
Read on.
The Sins and Synergies Lounge
Tired of people endlessly extolling the virtues of the blockchain? The perfect antidote may just be the Web3 is going great blog, a curated list of its many failings, administered with the perfect dose of acerbic sarcasm.
To better grasp the complex regulatory issues surrounding cryptocurrencies, it is important to understand money. Tune into this episode of the Marxist Voice podcast, where Adam Booth explores the history of money, from barter to bitcoin.
The recent stock market crash has dented the technology sector. What will be the broader implications of companies no longer having easy VC money to sustain their ‘growth-first’ models? Derek Thompson paints a stark picture in The Atlantic, of the likely shift in the services of digital platforms we have all come to rely on.
Recent weeks witnessed some major developments in the multilateral sphere with the conclusion of the World Trade Organization’s 12th Ministerial Conference, and sadly, the news for workers and the global south was mostly grim. Read as Deborah James provides a comprehensive and critical reflection on the proceedings.
Post-Script
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