@vitalik.eth

I agree with maybe 60% of this, but one bit that is particularly important to highlight is the explicit separation between what the poster calls "the open web" (really, the corposlop web), and "the sovereign web". https://x.com/tom777kruise/status/2006710624424702362 This is a distinction I did not realize until recently, and I must admit the bitcoin maximalists were far ahead: a big part of their resistance to ICOs, tokens other than bitcoin, arbitrary financial applications, etc was precisely about keeping bitcoin "sovereign" and not "corposlop". The big error that many of them made was trying to achieve this goal with either government crackdowns or user disempowerment (keeping bitcoin script limited, and rejecting many categories of applications entirely), but their fear was real. So what is corposlop? In essence, it is the combination of three things: * Corporate optimization power * An aura of respectableness of being a company with sleek polished branding * Behavior that the exact opposite of respectable, because that's what's needed to maximize profit Corposlop includes things like: * Social media that maximizes dopamine, outrage, other methods of short-term engagement, at the expense of long-term value and fulfillment * Needless mass data collection from users, often followed by managing it carelessly or even casually selling it to third parties * Walled gardens charging monopolistic high fees and actively preventing people from even linking to other platforms * Hollywood releasing the 7th sequel to some tired franchise, because that's the most risk-averse thing to do * Every corporation that rallied around slogans of diversity and equity and the need to overturn society to fight racism in 2020, and then publicly mocked those causes for engagement in 2025 This is all digital corposlop; there are big and important analogues to this in the physical world too. Corposlop is soulless: trend-following homogeneity that is both evil and lame https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/12/30/balance_of_power.html#how-we-fear-big-business These are things that appear to serve the user, but actually disempower the user. I have many qualms with Apple, but aside from their monopolistic practices, they actually have many non-corposlop traits. They serve users not by constantly asking "what do users want this quarter", but by having an opinionated long-term vision. They have a strong emphasis on privacy. They resist and create trends rather than following them. I just wish they could take the brave step of ending their monopolistic practices and switch to an open source first strategy. It may damage their market cap, but man must live for something higher than market caps. Zac from Aztec was also early to recognize the importance of this, with a post that is on the whole very pro-freedom, but at the same time does not shrink back from labeling what is essentially corposlop a primary enemy, even when it does not violate the libertarian non-aggression principle. https://x.com/Zac_Aztec/status/1986086241276657868 In 2000, the understanding of "sovereignty" largely focused on avoiding the iron fist of government. Today, "sovereignty" also means securing your digital privacy through cryptography, and securing your own mind from corporate mind warfare trying to extract your attention and your dollars. It also means doing things because you believe in them, and declaring independence from the homogenizing and soul-sucking concept of "the meta". These are the kinds of tools that we should build more of. Build tools like: * Privacy-preserving local-first applications that minimize dependence on and data leaks to third parties * Social media platforms and tools that let the user take control of what content they see. Appeal to people's long-term goals, not short-term impulses * Financial tools that help users grow their wealth, and do not encourage 50x leverage or sports betting or taking out a loan to pay for a burrito * AI tools that are maximally open and privacy and local-friendly, and that maximize productivity from merging the power of human and bot, rather than encouraging the user to sit back and let the bot do all the work, so they learn nothing * Applications, companies, and physical environments that take an opinionated view on the kind of world they want to see, and have an opinionated culture * DAOs that can support organizations and communities that steadfastly pursue a unique objective, and do not all get captured by the same groups. Privacy-preserving and non-tokenholder-driven voting can help here Be sovereign. Reject corposlop. Believe in somETHing.

33 replies

67 recasts

329 reactions