Explaining Blockchain to a 12 year old.
The biggest constraints to blockchain adoption at scale are the Two "U"s. My Children are helping me to evolve my thinking.
Social Media is defining our children’s lives and not in a good way. It’s time we become more thoughtful about what we want their digital futures to be and how we build towards this.
Something fascinating happened when I was driving my 12 year old daughter to a friend’s beach house for a weekend stay on Cape Cod yesterday.
These pockets of time with our children are precious. While most might think that driving for an hour in a car with a kid is thoroughly unremarkable, I’ve found these times to be some of the most valuable in my daily life. Without intending for this to become a parenting therapy session, there are remarkable things to be learned in the areas of the Two “U”s (Usability and Utility) that I seem to obsess about more than I should!
As my daughter tapped on her device behind me I was listening to a particularly chewy podcast from one of my favorite writer/thinkers, Packy McCormick. The subject was Token Economics and class was definitely called to order.
The subject matter is basically every reason why I keep coming back to this paradox of the two “U”s. Be ready to tap the rewind button multiple times if you attempt to hack through the podcast. Trust me it’s worth it.
“What is he talking about dad?” … from the back seat as it does once in a while.
“Let’s do an exercise,” I said, “Let me describe what blockchain is and why it’s going to change the world for you and your friends, and you absolutely promise to tell me how well you understood my explanation from 1-10.”
“Deal.” She said.
“But don’t cheat me.” I said. “Your reaction to my explanation is going to help me get smarter about what I’m working on….if you give me a 10, that would mean that you would feel completely comfortable walking in to the beach house and not ONLY explaining by yourself WHAT it is, but also WHY its important to you and your friends!”
“Got it” she said. And off we went.
Explaining the concepts of ownership, custody and basic rights.
“Did you know that the moment you post anything to Instagram or TikTok you are unknowingly relinquishing your ownership rights to that content and further, the company you gave it to is in the business of taking everything you make and then selling it behind your back and you get nothing.”
“What???” she said.
“So let’s say you and your friends create a Reel this weekend. You all spend time practicing and perfecting the routine - it comes out amazing and you post it….”
”Ok….” she said.
“Instagram will tell all your friends you posted and if it’s really good, a whole lot more people too that you don’t know / have never met will see it……For every person that comes to watch your post, they will make money and keep it and never tell you.”
“Wait so lots of people I don’t know will see my post - and when they do, Instagram gets paid and I don’t?”..
“Basically, Yes.”
“Ok but then at least I might be famous….”
”Yes I suppose so darling….”
Of-course this is the poisonous elixir that they prey on teenagers with, to attract, distract, and addict them to the service. This modern form of digital enslavement is real and scary. For all those who have children, I’m sure you agree.
“So how is it that they are able to do that dad?“
“Well think of it like this. IRL (In Real Life) darling, we own things….. I own this car correct?”
“Yep”
“I have a record that I own this car - it’s here and it’s called a title.”
I reached over to the glove box, pulled it out, and handed it to her.
“Now if I give this title or I sell this car, I mean, then I give the title over to the buyer and I no longer own the car, but I receive the money in return for the car…..the amount of which is the price the buyer agreed to pay for my car….”
“So now I no longer have the title and no longer own the car, but I have the money…..”
“I can also lend the car to a friend, or rent my car out if I like by becoming an Uber driver…..I still have custody of the title, and I still own the car, but someone else might be using it….and even paying me to use it…..but it’s still my property and I get to decide if what I want to do with it….. make sense so far? “
“So Stella, IRL we Own, Use, Rent and gain or relinquish custody of things all the time. That cake pop you are eating from Starbucks is yours and it became yours in return for $2.68…..”
“Similarly, that Lululemon headband you are wearing, you borrowed from Emily….that means that you will give it back at some point in the future and if you lose it or damage it, you are obliged to pay her back….that’s how you think about that right?”
”yep” she said.
“So really, you OWN that cake pop by reason of the fact that we paid money for it…. you BORROWED that headband by reason of the fact that you asked Emily and then she relinquished CUSTODY of it temporarily to you…….Daddy owns this car and has that paper in your hand that proves it, and we just rented out our lake house for Thanksgiving to another family who hopefully will clean up and leave it just as they found it…..but like the car, mum and dad have a piece of paper that proves that they own the house and the land and govern the rights of everything on it……”
“So now, if you have followed this far darling, lets talk about what happens on Instagram and go back to that example about you posting a story about your friends….”
The penny drops on what’s really happening on social media.
“SO you have created a great little story of you and your friends goofing around on the lake, and you are really eager to share it and so post it.”
“The moment you post it, you have relinquished your ownership of it to Instagram. You might still retain Custody of it in your account feed or if you had saved it, but any rights you had to its future have been relinquished and handed over to the platform. Forever.”
“The platform will use your story to make money by showing it to as many people as they can, and while doing so, include ads for things like Ford and Lululemon who are paying them for this service. “
“What they give you back in return for this are things like “Likes” and “Views”. These are entirely designed to appeal to your desire for popularity and to distract from the real intent of their platform. You see they want you to post and post and post because this simply means they have more units they can keep selling to customer while you are busy trying to be more popular…….get it?”
“WHOA!!!!” she said… “That’s Crazy!!”….”Now I get it……I never ever knew that! “
So now…What is Blockchain and how can this help?
“You see Stella, with the blockchain and web3, this all changes. This new technology has the ability for you to travel around the entire internet with that piece of paper in your hand” - I point to the title of the car she is still holding.
“I wont bore you with HOW this works, but just think about being able to create great stories with your friends, share them with others and still retain the ownership of that story and thereby who is able to use it, sell it, borrow it or add to it……” “The entire step whereby Instagram is able to sell your story to Ford has now been removed unless you give permission.”
“That makes complete sense - why can’t we do that now???”
”Well darling that would be a car ride chat for an entirely different day” I said as we pulled on the beach road leading to her friends house.
“So how did I do?” I said.
“Did you understand it? Did it make any sense to you at all?”
“I’ll give you a 7/10 daddy - I got most of it I think!” as she jumped out of the car and ran up the steps to the porch to greet her friend…..
Brought to you by Cid. - Not an Ad! The soundtrack while i wrote this post ;)
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