In this article, we will discuss several topics: censorship, freedom, cryptocurrencies, tokenomics, collectives, struggles of innovation, and last but not least, secure messaging.
At first, things may seem a bit dark, and you might feel hopeless and trapped, but fear not, there is light at the end of this long and dark tunnel!
You’d have to be completely out of touch with reality to not realize and accept that we’re living in an increasingly censored world. Nowadays, you have to pause and evaluate every social interaction to make sure it won’t get you censored or ostracized.
Censorship comes in many forms and disguises. The primary method is social censorship. For example, it’s seen as discriminatory to say things in a certain way or to hold specific opinions. It’s considered neither inclusive nor diverse enough. It’s a conspiracy, and you’re crazy. Your opinions are unpatriotic, and you’re an enemy of your country. It’s a verifiable fact that what you say is false. This kind of censorship socially isolates you from the majority, making it impossible to share or discuss your thoughts and opinions with others.
When social censorship fails, there’s always legal censorship. You are accused of breaking the law when speaking about certain topics. This can take many forms: you’re violating confidentiality laws, interfering with an ongoing investigation, threatening the safety of the government, defaming a character, or causing financial instability. And when traditional legal censorship doesn’t work, there are more underhanded forms of legal censorship. Allegations are thrown at you, backed by false complaints, police reports, media coverage, or gossip. This always results in lengthy legal battles, financial ruin, loss of reputation, and permanent removal from society.
We could write pages upon pages listing the names of people who have been censored in these ways. But these types of censorship aren’t enough. Now, we’re seeing technical censorship being implemented everywhere. Websites are blacklisted, and domain names are removed from DNS providers (leading to 404 errors when trying to visit those domains). Governments seize servers and domain names using unlawful warrants. Information is distorted or manipulated via man-in-the-middle attacks (MitM). Apps are delisted from app stores. Tech companies are fined and pressured into submission, sometimes through blackmail and bribery. Social media accounts are banned with the excuse of violating terms of service. Posts are ghosted or delisted from search results and timelines. Geographical blocks are applied to IP addresses and users. Content is removed through weak and automated DMCA claims. And the list goes on.
To add insult to injury, censorship has crept into our history as well. Records, stories, and opinions that no longer fit the current agenda are altered or completely erased. Bad actions are rewritten as good, while good actions are reinterpreted as bad. Entire civilizations’ histories are wiped out to suppress the knowledge of the atrocities committed against them. History is always written by the winners, and today’s winner is a monstrous force that doesn’t want us to know the evils it has committed in order to control our lives.
Given the severity of censorship today, we can expect it to increase in the future, with new technologies being used against us to censor us even more.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a prime example of a tool that will be used for future censorship. Windows computers come with built-in AI, Apple iPhones feature Siri, and platforms like Android, Alexa, Google, X (formerly Twitter), and Meta (Facebook) are doing the same. With AI, all of your interactions—audio, location, texts, calls, browsing, etc.—can be algorithmically processed and used to profile you. You could be labeled as a radical, terrorist, enemy of the state, or societal threat, simply for being curious or attempting to think critically. Here’s an interesting fact: the U.S. military has an “acceptable” fail rate for drone strikes. This means that a certain percentage of innocent lives lost are considered acceptable. Statistically, this implies that 1 innocent person out of 10 “badly labeled” people can be killed, and it will still be considered a success. Apply this logic to AI: we’ve all seen the inaccuracies and errors AI makes. This same approach will be used for profiling and censoring us. There’s a very high chance that 10% (or more) of people will be wrongly profiled, and governments will accept this because it “works” overall. These incorrect profiles will be deemed necessary for the greater good. This is the chilling reality of censorship that we are slowly heading toward.
Books could be written on modern-day censorship, but this should suffice to get the point across. Let’s conclude by acknowledging that censorship is fully in effect today, and it’s only going to get worse.
Surveillance is the means by which censorship is enabled. Through surveillance, data is gathered and used to determine what should be censored.
Some may argue that there’s nothing to worry about with the increasing levels of surveillance and censorship we’re experiencing. They claim that some restrictions are acceptable and even desirable for the safety and greater good of all. The main argument is: “Why worry if you have nothing to hide?” This logic is flawed at its core and conflicts directly with fundamental human rights: the right to free speech, the presumption of innocence, and the right to privacy. As human beings, we are granted these rights. We wear clothes to cover our bodies and choose when and how to reveal what is beneath them. We have thoughts, a private sanctum, from which we share only what we want, when we want, and how we want. Our actions are based on our reasoning and logic, done of our own free will. If someone undresses us without consent, it’s a violation. If someone assumes what we’re thinking, it’s inaccurate. If someone forces us to act against our will, it’s a violation of our freedom. That is the essence of privacy. We have the right to keep things private from others and reveal them only when we see fit. Surveillance strips us of that right, and when combined with censorship, it can be weaponized against us. We can see this power being abused in political battles, financial markets, corporate rivalries, and government coups.
Where’s the guarantee that you, someone who “has nothing to hide,” aren’t doing something now that will be deemed unacceptable by a new regime in the future, and used against you to strip you of your rights and freedoms? By then, it will be too late to claim “you have nothing to hide.”
Let us not forget that, due to privacy and censorship resistance, the corrupt Roman Empire was overthrown, the French Revolution occurred, the U.S. gained independence from Britain, whistleblowers revealed government overreach, human rights violations, massacres, and exposed massive corruption. But, because of censorship and surveillance, Argentina was bankrupted, the Venezuelan government was overthrown, the princess of Hawaii was executed, and the list goes on. But for the sake of censorship resistance, let’s leave it there.
Let’s close this topic with one final thought: who decides what surveillance and censorship should be applied? The people or the government? We all know it’s not the people…
Censorship and surveillance have greatly hindered our freedoms: our right to travel, our right to financial freedom, our right to free speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom of expression, our freedom to inquire/research, etc. We have lost our right to challenge facts, narratives, theories, opinions, and laws.
Speaking out against the Canadian government can result in your finances being frozen. Buying or selling to the wrong people can lead to all of your assets being confiscated. Saying the wrong words online can get you placed on a “no-fly list.” Sharing an unpopular opinion online can result in physical harm in the real world. Exposing government corruption can land you in prison for an indefinite amount of time. Being privacy-conscious immediately makes you a suspect of illegal activity. Not participating in common social actions implies that you have something to hide. Challenging the public narrative immediately makes you an enemy of the state. Questioning or challenging scientific theories immediately labels you as an idiot or a conspiracy theorist. Having radical religious beliefs leads to being labeled a terrorist. And this is just a small, non-exhaustive list!
How did we get to the point where we live in a world where, even though we are all “free” and can “speak,” we are all shackled, chained, and restrained from being ourselves? How do we even begin to unravel this mess and fix it, to fight back and regain our original freedoms? What must be done to make such a reality possible?
Advancements in computer science, math, and cryptography paved the way for what we know today as crypto. This technology was initially developed by a few individuals on small forum boards, with little to no funding at all. The premise of crypto was based on the fact that banks and current financial markets are untrustworthy. The power of finance was concentrated in the hands of a select few. These few, with a stroke of a pen or a click of a button, could destroy countries and send them into financial ruin. These individuals were trusted with keeping an accurate record of all of the world’s finances. Holding firm to the belief that all people, governments, and organizations eventually become corrupt, these cypherpunks (anarchists) began developing crypto. The simplest and most basic concept behind crypto is this: instead of trusting 100 people in the world to keep an accurate record of finances, why not trust everyone to keep that record, and use math to guarantee the accuracy of everyone’s record? This way, it would be impossible to corrupt the record by targeting a few individuals with the data; you would have to track down and destroy every single computer on the crypto network worldwide. The first successful experiment for such a concept was Bitcoin. Bitcoin works in a very simple manner. Every transaction, which is just sending an amount from A to B, is sent to the network. Transactions are grouped into a block, which is then verified and processed using mathematical principles. Once completed, it is submitted as a final version on the Bitcoin blockchain. To explain it in layman’s terms: the Bitcoin blockchain is like a bank records book; every block is a page in that book, and every transaction is an entry on a page. To prevent someone from changing the information in the book, every page is mathematically signed, and the signature is only possible if all the information on the page is unaltered. The information on the page includes the signature of the previous page and the list of transactions. This page is then distributed among thousands of computers. Over 50% of the computers have to vote that the information is accurate and agree to add the page to the book. Once added, all computers store a copy of the updated book. This way, if someone tries to forge data on any page, it would be impossible to do so, because thousands of computers would prove that the information is fraudulent. The system is further secured by paying a set amount of Bitcoin to any computer that creates a valid page, mathematically signs it, and shares it with other computers, which are then voted on. This is how the entire Bitcoin blockchain works and has been secured for over 15 years now, without a single successful forgery!
The Bitcoin blockchain inspired the development of Ethereum and all EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)-powered blockchains. Ethereum was the first popular “smart” blockchain. This differs from Bitcoin-like blockchains in that the blocks/pages don’t just store transactional data, but also store other data, such as notes or database entries. This data is possible through “smart contracts,” which are essentially accounts that you can send not just crypto, but also data. This data is then processed through a program/rules, resulting in notes being added to the page and/or additional transfers occurring.
These two major blockchain developments in crypto have led to the cryptocurrency boom we are still living in today. A new way to make both simple and complex financial transactions without allowing anyone to control or alter the information. Every transaction is available for audit and review by the public. Every transaction is mathematically verifiable. Every transaction is stored on thousands of computers, making it impossible for a single adversary to manipulate the data.
As with any great innovation, advancements in technology, health, and science, there are always “bad apples” — snake oil salesmen, liars, cheats, and scammers. Driven by corruption, greed, vices, and immorality, they are willing to exploit the weak, the simple, the poor, and the desperate, giving them false hope. Promising them wealth, riches, and power beyond their wildest dreams, in exchange for their money. We can look back at previous advancements and find similar cases: Ponzi and pyramid schemes in stock markets, the overpricing and exploitation of medicines by pharmaceutical companies, over-promising and under-delivering technologies, MaryKay cosmetics, Amway multi-level marketing, etc. This list goes on and on. We can be sure of one thing, though: wherever there are advancements and innovations, there are predators lurking to exploit it for their personal advantage.
There are many clear indicators and methods to spot such frauds: “Buy today, tomorrow will be too late,” “Supplies are extremely limited,” “The science is too complicated for you to understand, just trust us that it works,” “The technology is too advanced for you to understand,” and so on. Vague accountability, promises of guaranteed get-rich-quick schemes, silencing or concealing questions and criticism, non-disclosure of issues — you get the idea.
That’s why it’s so sad to see that the majority of the current landscape of this amazing crypto technology is littered with these predators. They are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They have perfected their craft, corrupted politicians to protect their actions, distorted laws to favor them, legitimized their actions, and vilified all genuine innovation and competition.
These scammers have donned names like: venture capitalists, angel investors, early backers, entrepreneurs, influencers, etc. We’re not saying that all people with such titles are bad, just that the majority wear these masks to conceal their true nature and motives. They carefully craft their scams and provide token emission schedules, allocation charts, whitepapers, airdrops, social engagement, misleading metrics, false promises, verified KYC, and many more things, all in hopes of pulling the wool over our eyes and absconding with our money. They’ve gotten really good at cleaning up their tracks with fancy concepts like decentralization, ICO, IPO, burn mechanics, and fee mechanisms.
The goal of all these theatrics is to hide the fact that they planned from the very beginning to sell you a fake product, get you to buy in, and take as much money as they can on their way out the door, onto the next scam. What you don’t know, and are never told, is that behind the scenes, it’s the same group of people doing all these things. They select unsuspecting individuals to be the public face of these scams, leaving them as the fall guys in case things go wrong.
Most of the exchanges are complicit in these operations and are familiar with the people behind them. They sign deals and negotiate behind closed doors to help them (from a distance) in exchange for a piece of the pie, so to speak. Now, this does not mean that every token, project, or exchange is a scam. It’s important to understand that the vast majority of them currently are.
These days, the two most common scams are: a VC-backed token exit scam, or a socially-pumped meme coin. The VC-backed token exit scam is simple. A company is created, the majority of the shares/equity is sold to investors at a highly inflated price, token warrants are sold to equity holders for cents on the dollar, with a very low initial token valuation. A small amount of (worthless) equity is given to the founders, under the condition that if they quit, they lose everything. Some tokens are also issued to the founders but are locked for a year or more. Then, the social media campaigns begin. They pay money to have crypto publications share their carefully crafted narrative. Simultaneously, they promise airdrops to all who engage with the initial product and provide social engagement. This forces the generation of fake/synthetic metrics, which are then used to inflate the valuation and create false yearly forecasts. Once this is established, they negotiate with exchanges (with whom they have connections) to list the token around the time of the airdrop. During the airdrop, they inject capital to drive the price up, ensuring that the token doesn’t suffer from a price drop due to airdrop selling. Instead, the price looks like it’s rising, signaling (fake) trust and belief in the token’s future. This is when the trap is set. All buyers of the token don’t realize they are buying from private investor holdings, not trading with the public. Essentially, they are being squeezed out of their cash. While this is happening, the token usually undergoes a fake decentralization process: an offshore, unregulated foundation is set up, all equity, tokens, and responsibility are transferred there, and passed on to the public via a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). This removes all legal liability from investors and allows them to withdraw the rest of their capital from the market, leaving the end user “holding the bag.”
This is a very quick and rough summary of how truly incredible and sophisticated developments in the crypto space have been perverted by these individuals for personal profit. And at the cost of unsuspecting users, who are left with the consequences of financial losses.
The meme coin scam is a much simpler and faster exit strategy. It follows a simple formula. An influencer is given a large amount of meme tokens, or cash, to promote a coin. It’s usually satirical or comedic in nature to take advantage of satire/comedy laws. The influencer, or influencers, start discussing and joking about the coin, initiating a game of Russian roulette or hot potato. People randomly buy or sell the token, and the cycle continues until the major token holders (whales) decide to exit. At that point, the token price plummets to zero. Anyone left holding the token gets burned, or worse, gets the bullet. So it’s a quick, luck-based game: being early, not being greedy, and exiting before the whales.
Remember one important thing: with these scams, no real value is being added to the crypto space. No real services are being provided, no real innovation is happening. Therefore, for anyone to make money in these scams, someone else has to lose that same amount of money. Every year, these methods drain hundreds of millions of dollars from unsuspecting participants, turning the crypto space into a rigged horse race, boxing match, and casino, rather than a place for growth and innovation.
Given the massive surveillance and censorship today, the sophistication and proliferation of scams, an individual is powerless. Anyone who tries to stand up against any of this is immediately silenced, isolated, and (if necessary) removed from society. This is why collectives are vital for freedom and innovation, and why governments and scammers fight so hard to suppress and destroy them. To paraphrase Planet of the Apes: “Apes together = strong.” Any real change and innovation in history wasn’t accomplished by governments or scammers, but by collectives of like-minded individuals, committed to the same goal and ideology, no matter the cost. These collectives were always led by great leaders and visionaries who were incorruptible and stayed strong, no matter what. In modern days, these individuals would probably be labeled as anarchists, rebels, enemies, or even terrorists by our society. We have to understand that true collectives are the biggest threat to evil and corruption—they’re uncontrollable and spread like a virus. The truth is, the power of numbers will always win, since evil and corruption usually reside in the hands of a few who hide behind the curtains, pulling the strings.
With modern-day surveillance and censorship, it’s clear that new collectives will require their leaders to wear masks and remain anonymous, in order to resist being targeted, silenced, influenced, pressured, or worse, eliminated. For the safety of the collective, the members will also need as much privacy and anonymity as possible.
This presents a challenge in our current landscape. All current forms of socialization have been heavily altered to control, monitor, and suppress any formation of collectives. It’s impossible to form a new idea or opinion without immediate intervention and censorship. Therefore, a new method of communication needs to be created, one that provides immunity and resistance to all current forms of surveillance and censorship.
Innovation is not easy—that’s a fact. True innovation is a tremendous undertaking and a time-consuming, labor-intensive task. Many amazing ideas are generated by humans, but only a few make it past all stages of innovation and result in a final product or solution.
By far, the biggest and most difficult part of innovation is the financial aspect. It costs money to build. This applies to the digital realm just as much (if not more) as it does to the physical world. Human labor costs money, and developing innovative software requires even more. Truly brilliant and critical thinkers are needed—developers who are like explorers, blazing new paths in uncharted territory. They will encounter problems and challenges that no amount of schooling or experience can prepare them for. These developers all have lives, families, and children. They need financial security to be able to commit fully to their work without worrying about basic needs like health expenses, food, lodging, transportation, equipment, etc. You can’t expect someone to build an innovative product if they’re working two jobs, living in a cardboard box, can’t afford food, and have broken technology. If we consider a team of 10 developers, a properly funded team would need at least $1 million a year, just to meet the fundamental requirements for innovation. That’s why a starting amount of $10 million is usually required to create something truly valuable.
Underfunded innovators are usually the first to fail. These teams are often time-constrained, meaning their products are not finished on time, or worse, corners are cut in the final product. These teams may even fall victim to bribes, often without realizing it, simply due to financial pressures.
Another major challenge in innovation is the patience required to see the vision through. Few people have the fortitude to work tirelessly on a project for years without seeing the results, only to finally reach the finish line and launch.
Investment is also a challenge. Many fail to realize that outside investment is rarely given without some loss of control and creative freedom. This results in creators often taking the “lesser of two evils,” choosing to relinquish some control in exchange for financial stability. They fail to recognize that this ultimately distorts their vision.
There is also the problem of competition. Scammers and grifters rarely create their own ideas, so they rely on others to innovate, whose ideas they then steal, repackage, and create a bastardized version that is used to financially exploit the public. This results in the innovation being no longer trusted, blacklisted, and avoided at all costs. Additionally, these grifters usually end up draining and wasting the resources of the true innovators. This is due to the level of questions, trolling, and skepticism that they push onto the innovators, as a method of extracting the needed information. And the naive innovators, without understanding what is going on, dedicate all their resources to defending, explaining, and proving their idea to the grifters.
There are many more challenges of true innovation; these few examples are mentioned to help better understand that true innovation is never easy. Not many individuals, even with a good idea, are cut out for innovation. This is why it’s important to realize and value true innovation.
All these points help explain why a new secure messaging innovation is needed, why crypto plays a key role in this, and how this can be achieved.
For the next generation of collectives to be established—improving and benefiting society as a whole—new, innovative secure messaging must emerge. This secure messaging must be tamper-proof (like blockchain), un-surveillable, uncensorable, and provide absolute anonymity. It cannot be controlled or built by scammers, nor should it include any scam mechanisms. There should be no “tokenomics” or similar gimmicks, and no influential investors. Sufficient, reliable financial backing is essential. The development must happen privately and quietly, as some governments could deem it illegal. This innovation will take as long as necessary to be properly created and deployed. Considering that “free” products often mean you are the product, this technology will need to have a cost. Maximum effort must be made to ensure it is affordable and accessible to the masses. It’s important to understand that this technology is urgently needed now and will be even more so in the future. However, it is clear that such innovation is not easy, and we will likely need multiple innovators working in tandem to ensure at least one of the resulting products is the success we need.