COMING SOON: UNDRGND NATION
NOVEMBER 13TH, 2023
“…where is the tangibility of broader utopia used to justify the hours spent and money lost?” - Network State Protocol
We were sold a bill of perishable goods with no way of preserving them.
Excitement, hype, unbridled enthusiasm over the potential of a product that was yet to be developed.
Web3 is a lie; it doesn’t exist. It is a concept, some of us still believe in that was distilled down to easily digestible catchphrases for social media:
“You’re not buying an NFT, you’re becoming a part of a community.”
“WAGMI”
“I’m here for the art!”
“GM”
Three years ago I came into the space thinking I met people whose moral convictions matched mine; individuals motivated to restructure social constructs, rectify economic inequities, and overhaul old-world institutions.
After everything that has transpired, I’ve discovered that what was buried behind the virtue signaling were the same motivations behind marketing campaigns that attribute insincere emotions to something as benign as laundry detergent: money.
Hundreds of thousands of us were captivated by the promise of equality, a new economic paradigm, and a generational change of the old-world order.
What we’ve gotten is a repackaged version of the last gasping breaths of a predatory-capitalistic-web2 system that serves the individual over the collective.
Community meant customers.
“We” meant “me”.
Building is hard. It’s literally work. Many think they want to work in web3 until they find out they actually have to work in web3. Many systems aren’t in place to protect the concept of web3 which is why, over the past few years, we’ve seen a barrage of opportunistic, charismatic personalities able to parrot coded terminology and present as virtuous, enter the space to shill soulless projects that provide no value outside of a profit for a select few who figured if they called it a “business” it would just become a business.
Now things have grown quieter. There’s a lot less noise from those people who said the right things but meant the same old things. Projects have died, promises have gone unfulfilled, and platforms have shut down.
So where does that leave the rest of us who believed in something more?
Anyone who knows me knows I’m anti-hype. Everything cannot be the best thing ever, something that will change the face of web3 or unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The hyperbole eventually becomes hollow exclamations for attention to things with little substance.
I like to save my grand proclamations for when things truly matter. I do not exaggerate. I don’t cry wolf. I choose my words carefully and I analyze situations thoroughly before I reveal anything to anyone. A statement is a promise. So for a while, I’ve kept my mouth shut.
Until now.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be providing details for our next phase: UNDRGRND NATION.
This past year has been emotionally draining, exasperatingly so. That story will be told in a special State of the UNDRGRND Address, later.
For now, I’d like to announce UNDRGRND’s partnership with Lemonade Social, the builders of Network State Protocol.
When I first reached out to their team a few months ago, I simply wanted to network and hear what it was they were working on; I didn’t know what to expect. I set up a meeting with one of their founders, missed the meeting and rescheduled, and eventually met the team that has been developing Network State Protocol.
Instantly, it felt like I found others disenchanted with the execution of what web3 promised. The only difference between me and them, they can build the necessary tools for maintaining an ethical infrastructure. So, I’m going to share a manifesto from a group of builders I believe have the same moral foundations and humanistic convictions that first attracted me to web3.
In short, the Network State Protocol acts as a DAO toolkit allowing communities (Nations) to take the next step in legitimizing their group through proposals, fund transparency, and oversight. But it goes beyond that to allow interoperability between communities, multichain functionality, and soon the ability to launch exclusive tokens from your Nation to interact within this united ecosystem.
I’ve looked at other options to begin to build my vision for what ultimately becomes the UNDRGRND DAO and never felt a true fit. Yes, others feel and think about the bigger picture regarding the potential to reframe the corporate framework which aligns with my worldview. But, what hooked me were two of the first Nations that they partnered with before UNDRGNRD: PopEx Nation, and Vinyl Nation.
Down the road, we’ll delve deeper into the other Nations, (with whom we will partner) but for now, all you need to understand is that the collaborative opportunities with PopEx Nation (live event web3 integration), Vinyl Nation (utilizing NFTs with vinyl records) and UNDRGRND were so profuse that it was hard to consider another path forward.
Using decentralization to build a majority consensus has been a primary pillar of the ethos of web3 but hasn’t been the exciting feature that attracts people. But, while governance may not sound sexy, we’re sure as hell going to try to make it sexy by bringing it to the art, music, and film industries.
If it interests you and excites you, then you’ve found your tribe here, with us.
If it doesn’t, don’t worry, I’ll convince you by launching #UNDRGRNDNATION with the help of Network State Protocol.
For now, you can read more about Network State Protocol here.
