Welcome back, Pilgrim. Here’s what’s happened in town since you’ve been away…
Welcome back to the Reformer Newsletter, where we can take a dive into various projects and activities from around Web3 and across the Christian community. You have joined this network to contribute to our collective mission of building for Christ’s Kingdom, and we will use this newsletter as a platform to enable that.
So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. Numbers 15:40
Christians are people both of the past and the future. We are constantly instructed throughout Scripture to remember what God has done, centrally through His death and resurrection, as well as to look forward towards the consummation of our salvation. It shouldn’t be a surprise then for us to see massive potential in web3 technologies, which offer a unique mix of permanence and innovation to the builder. We’ve just started to see the possibilities in the realms of storage, long-term community building, decentralized information, and more. What an exciting time to serve God!
Around Web3
One of the core developers in the BTC ecosystem is retiring, leaving behind many questions and exposing crucial challenges behind running a truly decentralized network. As web3 applications and networks age, crucial questions of longevity and survivability will come down to individual human beings, as they always must eventually. From the earliest days of the Ethereum DAO to now, the deepest challenges have been human frailty and faults. As builders for God’s Kingdom, awareness of our own potential for sin is crucial as we attempt to build things that will last beyond our lifetimes.
Decentralized storage is a rapidly developing web3 vertical, and the Block is offering a free pdf report that breaks down the major players. As people of the Book, information storage is right up our alley.
The Case for Modular Maxis: David Phelps with a massive deep dive on the challenges, interactions and intrinsic conflicts between two of crypto’s grail principles, sovereignty and permissionlessness. 🧠
Free Public Goods: Canto enters the Defi fray with a vision for self-sustaining financial services maintained by their own fees rather than seeking to generate profit. Fascinating, and a challenging road ahead for them to prove that it's possible. 👷♂️
We Are Building a Museum: Arkive is putting together a physical, custodied decentralized museum with galleries curated by their community. This project opens a lot of doors towards ways DAOs can be used to care for and preserve history, both digital and physical,
Around the Kingdom
Ian Harber’s fantastic essay is a must read call to awareness for believers of the promise and peril inherent in algorithmically-mediated web technology. There is a path forward, and we have a hunch that resilient web3 tools and owned spaces are part of the solution.
File the Storehouse Vision under “not at all sure what we think about this yet, but probably something.” This tip was left in Pr0ph3t’s DMs after he wrote a piece on creating parallel networks to support believing communities. This one is going to start some fascinating Discord conversations.
The Reformer Essay Series
The Reformers community is a network of Christ followers who believe there is an opportunity to spread the Gospel Truth by using the next generation of digital tools we have available, commonly referred to as “web3” or “crypto” tools. In this space of innovation, there are many diverse actors striving for different goals and creating varied narratives. One prevalent narrative is “Bitcoin fixes this” or “crypto fixes that.”
Is inflation and national debt a looming catastrophe? Bitcoin fixes that.
Is the tech world controlled by a few monolithic super-corporations? Crypto fixes that.
Are online spaces devolving into hatred and vitriol? That’s right… it fixes that, too.
It is great to see people trying to fix these all-too-real problems. It is unfortunate to see them going about it the wrong way. These creations made by the hands of men cannot save us any more than a golden calf could deliver Israel from the Pharaoh. To rely on them is both idolatrous and lazy.
We know that these problems can be washed away through Gospel Truth- faith, hope, and love. We avoid idolatry when we focus on the only One worthy of praise, and we overcome lazy and passive reliance when we recognize that Christ fixes this. We the Church are the Body of Christ, so we are called to action to use the systems around us to spread the Gospel, bless our neighbors, and build for the Kingdom.
Check out the article Christ Fixes the Concentration of Power in the Reformer Essay Series on Mirror. If you like it, please support by subscribing or collecting a copy of the article as an NFT for 0.01 ETH.
The Call
The Reformers is a community of Christ followers who want to continuously explore new tools which can extend the reach of His Kingdom. If you want to lean in and support that mission, check out a Reformers NFT, become a patron of the community, get news and updates to start building with us, and help us run this race with endurance.