Ep. 36: David A. Johnston on the Economic Foundations of Crypto & Web3, Decentralised Apps (dApps) and the Movement to Decentralize Everything that can be Decentralized

David A. Johnston is the Chief Strategy Officer at DLTx, the first public tech company run by decentralists who believe the future will be built on open public blockchains, owned and operated by their users.

David is a major crypto OG, he was the chairman of the board of Mastercoin and facilitated the world’s first ICO (initial coin offering), he was one of the first people to analyze the Ethereum white paper.

This episode is to understand the thinking that leads David to his current beliefs, to give us a better sense of how we can build a more decentralized financial system, a more decentralized “web3” or decentralized everything for that matter.

David explains the "tokenization of everything" logic, and how it comes from his insights into economics and libertarian philosophy.

One of his core insights in 2013 was that the network effects of technology companies are specialized. Arguing against others who believed Bitcoin would become the be-all-end-all, David foresaw and shaped the emergence of decentralized applications (dApps), before Ethereum even launched.

The train of decentralization is now in motion and unstoppable. It will eventually lead to all assets having an on-chain record of transactions and ownership.

This new decentralized finance system is orders of magnitude cheaper, faster, and more efficient than the traditional system that requires lawyers and intermediaries.

Governments and legislators, consequently, fight against this new system that is threatening to upend their privileges. The United States has become a hostile environment for crypto, which is why David moved to Puerto Rico 3 years ago.

Special jurisdictions have been forward-thinking, like Estonia, Switzerland, Portugal or Singapore, and especially Puerto Rico, in attracting the crypto community.

Adoption of cryptocurrencies is highest in Nigeria, Vietnam or Argentina.

David is quite open that the blockchain movement is on a collision course with nation states, and he would like to see a separation of nation and state.

The future might be network nations that are globally distributed, but share an identity, a membership or residency, or a common culture.

That is the ultimate end of the decentralization of everything.

Join us on May 5-7 the Caribbean island of Roatan for a summit in Prospera and help us build exactly that decentralized future: https://infinitafund.com/defi2023

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