The Shift Towards Deterministic Systems
The reality is that many people, in my opinion, are unaware of the true guarantees provided by existing centralized systems—be it financial systems, IT infrastructures, or social media platforms. These systems may seem to offer guarantees, but what they actually do is grant conditional access. For instance, they grant access to your data, your money, or your ability to communicate with others. However, these guarantees are not absolute. They can be revoked, altered, or even turned off by individuals or organizations.
The Fragility of Traditional Systems
Take, for example, something as seemingly secure as a bank account. When you log in with a password, your access is not guaranteed in a deterministic way. Instead, it’s probabilistic, reliant on a group of people who ultimately decide whether your password grants access to your account. History has shown how fragile this trust can be, with cases like the Silicon Valley Bank collapse or the 2008 financial crisis. People believe in guarantees because an institution with a brand assures them of it, but those guarantees often lack true security.
The Rise of Deterministic Guarantees
This is the fundamental issue that our industry is addressing. In contrast to centralized systems, decentralized technologies offer deterministic guarantees. These guarantees are mathematically and cryptographically enforced.
For example, when you own a private key, it doesn’t matter whether it’s tied to Bitcoin, a stablecoin, or another digital asset. The power lies in the deterministic relationship between the private key and the asset. When you sign a transaction, no individual or organization can stop or interfere with it. This level of mathematical control and assurance is fundamentally different from traditional systems, where functionality depends on the decisions of other people.
Encryption and Restoring Trust
The shift toward deterministic systems is evident in various areas. Take WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, for instance. This became a standard because of a widespread loss of trust. People realized their messages could be intercepted, telecom companies were hacked, and private data was misused by social media platforms. The solution was cryptography—end-to-end encryption applied to messaging systems.
Today, many people prefer messaging platforms with guaranteed encryption, with Signal Messenger standing out as the gold standard.
The Future of Web3
This trend is reshaping the digital world. Applications that can deliver the same features, cost, and speed as traditional Web2 applications but with deterministic, mathematically guaranteed results will inevitably be superior.
That’s the essence of Web3: decentralized applications (DApps), smart contracts, and systems built on deterministic trust. This industry is about far more than tokenization. Reducing it to tokenization would be like saying the internet is only about email.
Beyond Tokenization
Early on, the internet was just email, and many thought it would only disrupt the postal service. But the internet evolved into a platform for information technology that transformed countless industries. Similarly, the core of Web3 is trust and value technology. It extends beyond tokenization to encompass all forms of digital relationships that can be made highly reliable and deterministic.
Towards a Deterministic Society
A deterministic society is one where trust doesn’t depend on individuals or groups. It’s a world where your ability to access your money, interact with others, or manage your data is guaranteed by cryptography and mathematics, not by promises.