At the Crossroads of Epochal Change
Last updated
Last updated
Throughout human history, especially during the Industrial Revolution, we find that the transition of great eras is not always a dream come true for everyone. The Renaissance, with its flourishing of thought and art due to the printing press, brought about a series of struggles and conflicts due to the undermining of religious authority. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution, despite enriching markets and lifestyles with new machinery, also led to widened class disparities and a series of labor movements and social revolutions.
The greater the new era, the more it tends to bring about drastic changes in human thought and power structures, inevitably challenging the entrenched interests and dismantling many old orders and authorities. In the process of societal imbalance, the working class often falls into unemployment, hardship, or confusion. Thus, at the onset of technological revolutions, society invariably experiences various conflicts and rifts, only gradually smoothing out over generations, yet the paths of competition remain long-standing. Examples include the schism between Catholicism and Protestantism, the coexistence of monarchy and democracy, and the standoff between capitalism and socialism.
The Web3 world and the Age of Exploration share remarkable similarities: aside from whether we really need to set sail in a physical world, risking our physical well-being, we can observe that the pioneers of Web3 share an astonishingly similar temperament with the seafarers of Western Europe. Here lies endless treasures yet to be uncovered, where anyone, provided they have sufficient ambition and relentless drive, can amass incredible wealth. This opportunity is tied solely to courage, awareness, and confidence, and is unrelated to all other worldly standards: be it money, status, experience, education, appearance, social connections, age, and so on.