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.
This past week has seen some momentous events in the world of web3… and some unexpected follow-on effects. Through it all, voices in the cryptocosm were quick to proclaim the chorus:
“The ETH Merge is good!”
“The ETH Merge is bad!”
“The Cardano hard fork was a waste!”
These voices have ignored a fundamental principle: we are not dealing with absolute moral questions of “good” vs. “bad”, but instead we are dealing with economic questions of tradeoffs, value-based judgements, and acceptable risk frameworks.
Around Web3
Reversible Transactions on Ethereum: Here is a Twitter thread (and linked article) which has already prompted some rich discussion on the Reformers Discord. What is the proper tradeoff between security and all the goodness which comes from decentralization? What are the models of decentralization (it is not a single and absolute quality), and what pros and cons of those different models? Read these discussions through the lens of introducing reversible transactions on a blockchain in the name of “protecting” investors.
Urbit is Web3, Weird, and Wonderful and I Don't Care Who Made It: Bring up the peer-to-peer network project Urbit, and watch as predictable disagreements arise over whether it is a publicity stunt, a scam, or the future of computer operating systems. This article addresses a number of questions around the platform (is it a platform? a product?) including its founder, its fork-ability, and even its strange taxonomy.
25 Anti-Mimetic Ideas: The choices we make with our time, resources, and talents, are significantly and subconsciously affected by our environments (see: “Apeing in” to a new project). The value decisions we make- those tradeoffs which we reduce to simply “good things” and “bad things”- are similarly affected. How might we introduce habits and rituals to help us break out of predictable flows of life? Will that help us gain more enriching views of the world to make better decisions?
Around the Kingdom
Christians as "Winsome Weirdos": Christians learn early on that they must make a choice between worldly acceptance and following Christ- we must "lose our lives to gain eternal life.” Wrapping up the message of this newsletter issue to consider tradeoffs- this is the ultimate trade. We must daily trade a life of worldly comforts, pleasures, gains, and acceptance, and receive the Body and Blood of Christ broken and shed for us. In this article, John Piper tells us to embrace the disdain which we receive as a result. This trade was made for our benefit and at great cost to our Lord, and we have eternity to gain as a result.
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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.