"Crypto Flight" is a character interview column of Uncommons, focusing on pioneering individuals active in the Ethereum and crypto world, documenting the crypto reality, producing diverse perspectives, and using conversation and everyday language as a method to distill the distant truths occurring elsewhere. The title is derived from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Vol de Nuit, symbolizing the challenge and exploratory spirit of cypherpunks and crypto citizens flying to the ends of the earth.
*This column accepts submissions and is openly recruiting interviewers and translators. Please contact WeChat: RealUncommons to submit or to start a column that you are skilled in and interested in.
Crypto Flight Vol.1 | Exploring the Sun-Punk Garden of Multi-Generations: Edge City & Janine#
"When you bring people from the Bay Area here, they will realize the value of the Bay Area itself."
Editor's note
I am pleased to see this batch of interview manuscripts from the other side of the world gradually coming to light after some twists and turns. The origin of the "Crypto Flight" column and the planning of the first set of interviews were completed in collaboration with the neighboring community Social Layer. As a group of "pilots" who often travel around, the unique perspectives brought by Eggy and Jiang are exactly what "Crypto Flight" aims to showcase: a group of voyagers who have landed from the past, are present in this moment, and yearn to challenge and explore a better future. We hope that this showcase can transcend the barriers of language and physical distance, becoming a bridge between future crypto citizens and reality.
Crypto Flight Vol.2 | A Mesoscopic Network Social Experiment: Network School & Balaji#
"Imagine if your neighbor was your closest friend."
Foreword
Yes. Two years after the publication of the book Network State, Balaji Srinivasan wrote: We are going to build a "Network School."
With the power of Bitcoin, gathering 150 "dark talents" from around the world, Network School, inspired by an article by Balaji, has finally become a real social experiment. In Forest City, a physical base near Singapore, we witnessed Balaji's envisioned network state gradually stepping into reality through blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), and the concept of personal sovereignty.
Balaji and his family, along with the families of the co-founders of Network School, also came here to live, communicate, and create together. In a time when the internet, AI, and crypto profoundly influence and change the world, Network School poses a question: If traditional education models gradually fail to meet future challenges, is there another learning path worth exploring? The exploration of a sustainable model combining structured and unstructured parts in Network School has proven effective. As the first batch of "enrolled" "dark talents," we experienced four core aspects of daily life: learn, burn, earn, and fun.
Today, various "Pop-up cities" are emerging, and the three-month co-learning, co-creation, and co-living model of Network School makes it a continuous experiment among these pop-up cities: no longer relying on traditional teaching methods, encouraging participants to co-create projects from day one, explore practical solutions, and achieve income through a crypto reward mechanism (learn-to-earn). Perhaps all of this is the new attempt we need in education and future society.
This manuscript is based on a one-on-one conversation and recording with Balaji.
Crypto Flight Vol.3 | Where is My Pop-up Home: Pagoda & Vienna#
"How do we change the incentive structure?"
Editor's note
We have never truly imagined a utopia, as utopia always exists elsewhere. After a series of Pop-up City events, what remains is the sun, freedom, punk spirit, welfare, and progress, young social engineering, fragile crypto faith, or a more dehumanized technological society, along with the cold embers left after the banquet? Crypto is completing a certain value evolution through various technological and non-technological means, from a series of experimental real interactions, which means we are actively creating the things we will pursue in the future, and they are likely still closed and Western-centric. As an activist accustomed to resisting large structures, Vienna's observations are detailed and insightful: what truly impacts the land are those citizens rooted here.
This article is the second piece from the first set of interviews in the "Crypto Flight" column, from the neighboring community Social Layer's Eggy and Jiang. As a group of "pilots" who often travel around, the unique perspectives they bring are exactly what "Crypto Flight" aims to showcase: a group of voyagers who have landed from the past, are present in this moment, and yearn to challenge and explore a better future. We hope that this showcase can transcend the barriers of language and physical distance, becoming a bridge between future crypto citizens and reality.
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