Go Big or Go Home

If our goal is to create a parallel economy, how should we begin?

First let's frame the problem:

And summarize our solution:

Enter The Arcade

Imagine a decade from now there is a thing called The Arcade that works at civilizational scale with billions of participants.

How would we describe what that Arcade is and does? What are its characteristics?

We've already identified three:

  • Its money is sound and incorruptible, with a fixed supply that politicians cannot manipulate, and which can be sent instantly and cheaply anywhere in the world

  • Its participants may connect, communicate and transact with each other freely, needing no permission from coercive governments or corrupt institutions

  • Its social structures are all voluntary, based on mutual consent, and can be easily created, updated, joined, and left with no friction or red tape

We may imagine the size and scope of The Arcade to be similar to The Oasis from the world of Ready Player One. But there would be key differences...

Because we have no interest in building an escapist VR playground.

Instead we aim to build a fun and fulfilling context for humanity to relate to each other in new ways, free from the corrupting influences of the fiat world.

We can call it a new social operating system. Or a real-world metaverse. Or the Bitcoinized world. It's all of those things and more.

We'll keep it simple and call it The Arcade.

Now how do we get from here to there?

A killer app

Thinking backward in time from that future Arcade, we may imagine that it began with a massively successful consumer application which engaged millions of people, pulling them into a new web of trusted social relationships for trade, work and play — all outside the conventional fiat system.

Let's call that 'the killer app'.

What would be some likely characteristics of that killer app?

  • Consumer-facing — Anyone in the world should be able to access The Arcade from their computer or smartphone. So it must be a cross-platform app for web and mobile.
  • Social — Because of course it is. Connect with your friends, build networks of trusted peers, communicate and transact freely.
  • Geospatial — It includes a 3D map that supports real commerce and real relationships with real sense of place and community. If The Oasis was proof-of-stake, The Arcade is proof-of-work — anchored to reality.
  • Censorship-resistant — No one must be able to shut it down or censor it. So it will use technologies like Bitcoin, Lightning & Nostr.
  • Extensible — It includes a platform for building new apps and services on top of it, enabling developers and entrepreneurs to create new experiences and new business models.

To build this killer app, we'll first need to release a simple MVP ('minimum viable product') and iterate our way to 'killer app' status based on user feedback.

Legends

Releasing our MVP and gathering that initial feedback is the goal of our participation in this month's Legends of Lightning tournament.

We'll be posting weekly updates on our tournament project page - and invite you to follow along.

The Bitcoinized world will not be designed in a dark room, built in secret, and then released to the world. It will be built openly by millions of people, each laying one brick at a time.

We invite you to join us in building The Arcade.

IT WILL BE FUN!