Post Web3: From Myth to a Medium of Existence and Governance
Inverse Inc. proposes "Post Web3," an institutional framework that evaluates Web3 not by its ideals or technical features, but by its economic and political value. It perceives crypto and decentralized technologies as a medium of existence and governance, analyzing their political value and impact on governance and resistance movements.
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In this paper, we re-evaluate the political value of cryptographic and decentralized technologies towards designing distributed institutions that can be utilized by more people, beyond Bitcoin, from the perspective of existence and governance. It is an attempt to view cryptographic and decentralized technologies not merely as ideals or technical properties, but as an institutional medium that mediates subjects and reconfigures relationships. Some arguments include experimental and speculative elements (details in "Discussion").
First, this paper presents the necessity and definition of Post Web3. Then, it examines three discussion points derived from this methodology.
Firstly, we discuss the political value of crypto institutional technology compared to existing institutions, through the limitation of Lawrence Lessig's "Code is Law." Secondly, we discuss the design philosophy and the transformation of media of resistance, stemming from the political use of cryptographic and decentralized technologies. Thirdly, we discuss how these technologies bring about changes in governance and resistance movements. Additionally, we examine the contradictions of governance rationality underlying these changes, in contrast to the contradictions of capitalism discussed by Marx in "Das Kapital."
## Post Web3
Traditional discourse surrounding Web3 has centered on ideals such as freedom, decentralization, and individual sovereignty, or technical characteristics like censorship resistance and tamper resistance. Consequently, this has led to an overestimation of ideology and the self-serving pursuit of technological improvement, making the specific economic and political value of the technologies supporting these narratives difficult to discern. Furthermore, this value has often been overshadowed by expectations of speculative profit, pushing the original point of political utility into the background.
To address these issues, we introduce the methodology of Post Web3. Post Web3 is not the name of a new technological trend. It is an institutional framework for evaluating cryptographic and decentralized technologies based on their economic and political value in comparison to existing institutions, rather than their ideals or properties.
The reason for analyzing at the institutional level rather than the state level is that while states and governments possess physical coercive power, cryptographic and decentralized technologies do not entirely substitute them, being limited to certain digital domains. Here, an institution, according to Douglass North, is understood as consisting of informal constraints, formal rules, and enforcement. Based on this definition, this paper evaluates institutions based on cryptographic and decentralized technologies in comparison with other institutions.
### Crypto Institutional Technology as an Analysis Target
What is important in this framework is to consider the totality of combinations of technologies designed for political use as the object of analysis, not just distributed ledgers alone.
This encompasses cryptographic and decentralized technologies in a broad sense, including technologies that support anonymity like PGP and Tor, and those that minimize authority like Mix Net, as well as distributed ledgers typified by Bitcoin. However, the central object is technology aimed at political use; general distributed ledgers primarily for speculative purposes are not the central focus.
In this paper, we collectively refer to these as crypto institutional technologies. Simply put, crypto institutional technology is a technology that enables a pseudo-replacement by shifting parts of institutions that traditionally relied on human judgment, trust, and authority to software-based verification and consensus.
As a concrete application of this framework, the next chapter will demonstrate the political value of crypto institutional technology as an institution.
## The Spiritlessness of Code
In this paper, we re-evaluate the political value of cryptographic and decentralized technologies towards designing distributed institutions that can be utilized by more people, beyond Bitcoin, from the perspective of existence and governance. It is an attempt to view cryptographic and decentralized technologies not merely as ideals or technical properties, but as an institutional medium that mediates subjects and reconfigures relationships. Some arguments include experimental and speculative elements (details in "Discussion").
First, this paper presents the necessity and definition of Post Web3. Then, it examines three discussion points derived from this methodology.
Firstly, we discuss the political value of crypto institutional technology compared to existing institutions, through the limitation of Lawrence Lessig's "Code is Law." Secondly, we discuss the design philosophy and the transformation of media of resistance, stemming from the political use of cryptographic and decentralized technologies. Thirdly, we discuss how these technologies bring about changes in governance and resistance movements. Additionally, we examine the contradictions of governance rationality underlying these changes, in contrast to the contradictions of capitalism discussed by Marx in "Das Kapital."
## Post Web3
Traditional discourse surrounding Web3 has centered on ideals such as freedom, decentralization, and individual sovereignty, or technical characteristics like censorship resistance and tamper resistance. Consequently, this has led to an overestimation of ideology and the self-serving pursuit of technological improvement, making the specific economic and political value of the technologies supporting these narratives difficult to discern. Furthermore, this value has often been overshadowed by expectations of speculative profit, pushing the original point of political utility into the background.
To address these issues, we introduce the methodology of Post Web3. Post Web3 is not the name of a new technological trend. It is an institutional framework for evaluating cryptographic and decentralized technologies based on their economic and political value in comparison to existing institutions, rather than their ideals or properties.
The reason for analyzing at the institutional level rather than the state level is that while states and governments possess physical coercive power, cryptographic and decentralized technologies do not entirely substitute them, being limited to certain digital domains. Here, an institution, according to Douglass North, is understood as consisting of informal constraints, formal rules, and enforcement. Based on this definition, this paper evaluates institutions based on cryptographic and decentralized technologies in comparison with other institutions.
### Crypto Institutional Technology as an Analysis Target
What is important in this framework is to consider the totality of combinations of technologies designed for political use as the object of analysis, not just distributed ledgers alone.
This encompasses cryptographic and decentralized technologies in a broad sense, including technologies that support anonymity like PGP and Tor, and those that minimize authority like Mix Net, as well as distributed ledgers typified by Bitcoin. However, the central object is technology aimed at political use; general distributed ledgers primarily for speculative purposes are not the central focus.
In this paper, we collectively refer to these as crypto institutional technologies. Simply put, crypto institutional technology is a technology that enables a pseudo-replacement by shifting parts of institutions that traditionally relied on human judgment, trust, and authority to software-based verification and consensus.
As a concrete application of this framework, the next chapter will demonstrate the political value of crypto institutional technology as an institution.
## The Spiritlessness of Code