Michael Haupt’s Building the Blockchain Human Swarm is a very strong piece. There are many great insights, and one especially profound question. Below is one of our answers to the question posed by Haupt:

“If blockchain will have a greater impact on humanity than the Internet did, what can the average citizen do right now to get involved in its development?”

Paradoxically, one of the easiest ways for ordinary folks to demand more Blockchain utility is to address those demands to current BigTech firms like Google, Amazon, Twitter, etc.

These firms are all investing in Blockchain technology as well, and can leverage BlockTech to give users far more utility just by activating basic features, like the ability to report litter/hazards. https://www.change.org/p/want-google-to-activate-trash-hazard-reporting?utm_source=embedded_petition_view

At scale, Google/Amazon/Twitter/etc. will only be able to do this well (and will only be able to monetize this well) by turning to Blockchain tech. Hence, a concrete step that an average citizen can take RIGHT NOW to accelerate the development of Blockchain tech.

Haupt is absolutely right that failure to ask these questions earlier contributed to the failures we see now surrounding the FB data debacle (but not only FB, of course). But we must also see that we’re not asking the right questions NOW either.

Instead of asking whether BigTech outfits like FB should be regulated as “Public utilities” — we should be asking, honestly, how firms like FB can EASILY give the public far greater utility than they’re currently giving. These are the questions that the nonprofit CleanApp Foundation has been asking for the past five years, and we urge you to lend your voice in support.