A Better Web
Web1 was open.
Web2 was captured.
Web3 is a casino.
We are not here to save you.
THE STORY
We stood on shoulders. We found resonance. We built on what we learned.
THE INHERITANCEThe 1993 warning we ignored+
Eric Hughes wrote: "Privacy is necessary for an open society." He warned us we couldn't expect governments or corporations to grant us privacy. We had to defend it ourselves. Cypherpunks write code. Information doesn't just want to be free. It longs to be free. What he called "anonymous transaction systems" is now blockchains. The technology caught up. The ethos didn't. We didn't listen. By the mid-2000s, platforms grew. By the 2010s, they dominated. Users became products.
THE RESONANCEWe weren't alone in thinking this+
Later, work we found articulated what we felt: "Sovereignty is no longer an abstract ideal but a practice - a discipline born of code." "Autonomy is not isolation. It is interdependence without subservience." "The power to walk away. The power to fork. The power to choose a different path." We weren't alone.
THE NOWThirty years of evidence. Time to build.+
We've watched Big Tech consolidate. AWS. Google. Azure. Cloudflare. ICANN. Any can flick a switch. We've watched web3 become a casino. Money over freedom. Scams over solutions. We've watched VC capture. For-profit focus turned public infrastructure into extractive platforms. We're not here to repeat warnings. We're here to build. These manifestos informed our thinking: • A Cypherpunk's Manifesto (1993) - Eric Hughes • The Autonomist Manifesto (2025)
THE PROBLEMS
We've named the fractures. Here's what we see.
INFRASTRUCTURE CAPTUREThree companies can flick the switch+
AWS. Google. Azure. Cloudflare. ICANN. Any of them can flick a switch tomorrow. Most of what we call "web3" would disappear. We're not ready.
VC EXTRACTIONFor-profit focus killed the ethos+
Venture capital funded R&D. That's valuable. But extraction overshadowed the good. For-profit focus turned web3 into a new walled garden. Public infrastructure cannot be funded with extractive capital.
DINO PROJECTSDecentralized In Name Only+
Red flags: - Claims decentralization, runs on AWS - VC-owned, calls itself community - Token sold as ownership - it's not - Closed-source "trust me bro" - Business licenses in DeFi
THE CASINOMoney over mission+
DeFi became gambling. NFTs became speculation. "Just trust me bro" replaced trustlessness.
THE ACCESS GAPMost decentralized network means nothing+
Infrastructure exists. The access layer is broken. The last mile is the hardest mile. And frankly, it's a joke.
THE PATH
This is what we build. This is how we build.
WHAT WE BUILDTools, not toll booths+
We publish code. We build systems that can't be shut down. Infrastructure that doesn't depend on Big Tech. Access layers that work for real users. Protocols that resist capture.
HOW WE FUNDPublic goods deserve public funding+
Not extraction. Not rent-seeking. Not VC returns. If we can't sustain without exploiting users, we're doing it wrong.
SUCCESS METRICSIf web3 is invisible, it worked+
If you use web3 and don't notice it's different from web2 - if it's boring, if it just works - only then we succeeded. The standard, not the exception.
CREDITS
Cypherpunk Manifesto (1993) by Eric Hughes — Foundation
Autonomist Manifesto (2025) Shared publicly — Resonance
YOUR MOVE
This is a starting point.
Fork it. Improve it. Challenge it.
We are not a product. We are not a sales funnel. We are a public good, released under CC0.
Created by Lume. Maintained by anyone who cares.
We are Cypherpunks.
We write code.
We build.
Released under CC0. View on GitHub.