I can vividly remember the Fall of 1993. I was in 10th grade (or simply 'Grade 10' as we say it in Canada). We had computers at school, but they were mostly used for word processing, accounting class or intro to computer programming. There were a couple computers (literally 2) in the library that were connected to the "Information Super Highway" through a local freenet. There was e-mail, usenet groups, telnet chats and of course the Lynx text browser. for exploring the fledgling and non-graphical web (geocities anyone?).
Then came November 1993, a pivotal date in the history of the Internet - it's when Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, was launched. Now some might argue that e-mail was the first killer app of the internet, some might say that Usenet was. But those things were really only used by academics and hardcore enthusiasts, for all intents and purposes, regular people did NOT use the internet in 1993.
Mosaic, and the subsequent explosion of the graphical World Wide Web, changed all that.
Yes, there was AOL and Compuserve and Prodigy, et al - but Mosaic represented what the internet was really all about - free, open, accessible - an open ecosystem, not a closed one.
It's hard to convey to those younger than myself who have never known the world without the internet how 'fringe' this technology was. I was among a handful of people in my school who even knew the internet existed. Mosaic, and the graphical web browsers that followed, made the web accessible and (more) user friendly.
After 1993, the web exploded. I could feel in my bones that it was going to change everything, but I didn't know where to start to be 'in on the ground floor' so to speak. So I started a business building and selling computers - everyone wanted a computer that could be 'on the web'.
I think I sold 5 computers.
Fast forward through the 90s and 00s: I remember the day Google launched. I remember discovering Amazon for the first time, I remember losing every dollar I had (not much) in the dotcom crash. I remember being in university and hearing about this "facebook". I remember the day the Iphone was launched. I remember hearing about Bitcoin for the first time in 2010.
I feel unbelievably fortunate to have grown up while the internet was changing the world all around me; being witness to the most significant innovation since the creation of the microprocessor itself.
Witness.
Don't get me wrong, I have done well in business in the digital marketing industry, in Affiliate Marketing specifically. But it's not the same as having been involved in the technologies and businesses that shaped the internet - the Mosaics and Netscapes and Googles and Facebooks and Apples of the world. But I was there - I was the right age, I had the right knowledge and skills... but I was just a witness.
Steve Jobs has a great quote that resonates with me about this:
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.
That's a very limited life.
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again
The reason I am sharing this story with you is that I have the same feeling today as I did back in 1992 when I was an early adopter of the internet. Being involved in a community of hackers, misfits and visionaries; thinkers and tinkerers.
It almost seems unreal that an opportunity of the magnitude of the internet would present itself more than once in a man's life. But I am declaring here today, that the idea of Cryptocurrency and its derivative technologies will have an even more profound effect than that of the internet, and that it's change won't take 25 years to slowly seep into society, that the change will come quickly, perhaps in half the time.
I will not be a witness this time. If I have learned anything from having watched the internet take over the world, it is that I will not be a passenger and watch as cryptocurrency does the same.
I believe that there is a global community that is ready to shape the future we collectively want. That the people of the world are no longer interested in watching their governments shape the world. People are the world; the only thing that really matters.
All people deserve to be free. Free to love and live and experience all the joys and sorrows that life has to offer. I believe that Cryptocurrency / Blockchain / Distributed Ledger / P2P technologies are the basis for a new Global society. And we haven't even really started yet.
We haven't even had our Mosaic moment yet, let alone google, or facebook or smartphone. We don't have that one killer app yet, and that's OK.
You cannot get information out of a singularity - you can't predict what's inside. In the same way we cannot predict what the specific innovations will be that propel Crypto into mass adoption. We just have to make progress towards a common goal: to change the world for the better. We have to have faith in the idea of cascading recombination - that today's innovations will combine and morph and transform (Hash?) in chaotic ways that produce unexpected and unpredictable outcomes.
This is my stake in the ground. My public moment of decision that I will not be a witness; that I am committed to shaping a world that my children and future generations can be proud of, and that Cryptocurrency will be at the center.
Until the next big thing comes along ;)
Thanks for Reading.