David Irvine - Don’t secure the hardware, secure the data: tackling hard but vital problems

Permissionless systems support collaboration and drive innovations that benefit everyone. Progress is lumpy. Breakthroughs emerge unexpectedly, across many environments and contexts. By closing doors to stop others from taking part, we only limit our own horizons. We stand in a world today that is on the cusp of a great revolution. The current industrial revolution is the information revolution. But false starts, mistakes and centralisation of power have led us to a potentially dystopian world — somewhere between The Truman Show and The Matrix. However, these are only false starts, the failure to recognise what we are actually building - not a network of computers and hardware, but a network of information.

The solution to the problems of today is not to "fix" the path we are on but to get on the right path. Start by asking what the far future looks like. Then paint a clear picture of how we get there. It is not building from here to there; instead we build from there to here. This talk will concentrate on the goals and hopefully encourage the audience to consider that path.

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