When grassroots movements get elite-captured, old power dynamics replay: echo chambers, stale discourse, shallow capital (VCs), and stifled emergence.

– Discourse becomes self-referential
– Capital chases optics over depth
– Innovation replaced by repetition

This isn’t just Web3. It’s a pattern across domains — academic fields, vocations, cultural expression. When incumbents move in, they seize the narrative, and vibrancy fades. Usually takes about a decade.

I hear echoes for a shift — a synthesis of the abstract with hardware, material artifacts, tangible tools of real change: something concrete and in-hand.

@communitycoachcarmen articulates this particularly well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqZiIG4Q5YA&t=115s

This piece also captures the dynamic clearly:

Medical Doctor | MPhil, Cambridge | Human-Centered Computing, Oxford | Blockchain & AI | Founder @DIN-Org | 0=∞

When grassroots movements get elite-captured, old power dynamics replay: echo chambers, stale discourse, shallow capital (VCs), and stifled emergence.

– Discourse becomes self-referential
– Capital chases optics over depth
– Innovation replaced by repetition

This isn’t just Web3. It’s a pattern across domains — academic fields, vocations, cultural expression. When incumbents move in, they seize the narrative, and vibrancy fades. Usually takes about a decade.

I hear echoes for a shift — a synthesis of the abstract with hardware, material artifacts, tangible tools of real change: something concrete and in-hand.

@communitycoachcarmen articulates this particularly well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqZiIG4Q5YA&t=115s

This piece also captures the dynamic clearly:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-side-events-real-value-drivers-web3-conferences-2025-pokhare-5s8af/