foreign
[Music]
okay so I know it's 5 30 and it's been a
long day and I know everybody's thinking
about dinner but let's talk about social
composability so I want to talk
specifically about how Dows can leverage
it for the future of work
okay so I want to start with actually
who am I right so actually I think that
nobody here knows me so have we met you
and I would you hire me for 300K a year
probably not right that would be insane
right not yet exactly have we met
no do you trust me
probably not okay so exactly so who am I
which begs the question if you don't
know who I am why should you care about
what I have to say right you came here
you don't know me right
so what's happening is actually that
invisible identifiers are at play here
that we subconsciously respect right the
fact that I'm up here at Defcon giving a
talk means that you to some extent
respect the approval process of Defcon
somebody has vetted me and said this
person has expertise worth sharing right
but actually I would probably think that
nobody here knows what the Defcon
approval process looks like so you're
trusting something that you actually
have no idea how it works
and this is even more difficult online
right the internet is absolutely crazy
platforms don't talk and reputation that
you build on one platform is completely
irrelevant on another if you've got
three million followers on Twitter that
only matters on Twitter technically
right
did you know you specifically that I
used to be the head of design at Spotify
yeah
no of course not because it's a lie I'm
not right but on LinkedIn anybody can
say anything right I can just go on
LinkedIn and say yeah I designed the
internet as we know it right there is
very little checks and balances of that
system right when you hire somebody via
LinkedIn you need to go through their
referrals you need to check their CV you
need to invite them to an interview
there's an arduous process for verifying
that somebody has the skills that they
say they have
which brings me to social composability
right this is something unlocked
hopefully by web3 that I think is going
to change a lot of things going forward
so composability is for anybody who
doesn't know it's basically Lego right
web3 loves it it's how can I make a
basic building block that anybody else
can start reusing
and social composability specifically
it's about social identifiers as Lego so
information that says something about
you that represents you as an individual
and about the skills that you have
but what do we actually want to know
about each other
what information makes us who we are
in the age of Taos we actually need to
change the kind of information that we
need to know about each other because
the type of work has changed
so we kind of need to as Gamers would
say min max it right we need to maximize
the useful information about each other
while minimizing information that we
don't necessarily want to know about
other people we need to respect each
other's privacy as well
so right now money talks in web 3 I if
I've got loads of money I can buy a
board ape become part of the board ABF
club and suddenly I've bought my way to
influence
so that's not kind of the web three that
I want to live in so what if more could
talk than just money so at Common
Grounds I'll get to that in a moment
we're building based on boardier's
theory of capital and he was a French
sociologist that basically came up with
a theory of capital there are lots of
theories of capital but his is the one
that we are using to build because it
was concrete enough for us to build good
software with it
so what year says that you have multiple
types of capital at your disposal
one is economic capital which is
basically cash right your assets the the
nfts that you have the properties you
have and all of this money your
Colombian pesos you also have social
capital though and social capital is
your connections it's the people you
know it's your parents it's who what
clubs you're part of the influence that
you can exert via your social capital
and then there's also cultural capital
and cultural capital is your knowledge
it's your education it's your mannerisms
it's maybe even having a British accent
right it unlocks certain doors because
of having access to this kind of
cultural capital and finally there's
symbolic capital and symbolic Capital
it's Prestige if you have two rich
people but one person spends it all on
culture and being a patron of the Arts
and another rich person spends it all on
gambling and cocaine they have different
symbolic Capital they are perceived
differently by Society if I write books
to extend my my respect in the world I'm
growing my Prestige and therefore my
symbolic capital and all of these things
are deeply in interconnected so you can
trade these things for each other so for
example I could spend economic capital
to become part of the board API Club to
grow my social connections I can throw
those connections earn knowledge or
Insider alpha or whatever the hell using
that Alpha I can maybe write blog posts
about it and get really trending on
Twitter and grow my symbolic capital and
using all of these things I can start
making money again so all of these
things are interconnected and they say a
lot about your standing in the world and
the influence that you can exert over it
so let's look a little bit about
identifies in web 3 that say something
about you
so for example in economic capital
somebody has a hundred Doge that's okay
that this person has a wallet
understands a little bit about
cryptocurrencies cool they bought some
Doge good for them
this person whoa
it's still a hundred but who is this
person right like this this is probably
an important person or at least a very
rich person right so but you need to
know the difference between these two
things the average person has no idea
what this means and for example Social
Capital if you have 72 followers on
Twitter maybe you're writing good
content maybe not who knows but you know
you don't have a broad audience so to
speak
but you add a k to that 72 suddenly
you're a big person you have influence
over the space I want to get to know
this person with 72k followers I want to
know what they have to say I don't want
to it's biased but I want it I don't
know why
and for example cultural capital so the
knowledge that we have for example if
you participate in governance good for
you you've understood what governance is
you've read a proposal and you put a
vote on it cool you already know more
than 99 of the entire world however if
you pass the governance vote so if you
wrote it if you defended it to your
audience and got it approved in your
Dell clearly you know a lot about the
subject matter that you just proposed
you have a different cultural capital at
your disposal
and another example is for example the
Devcon at ND so this is you the audience
right you have certain knowledge you've
understood what ethereum is you
understood how to come here and that you
want to learn more but it's not the same
as Defcon speaker me in this sense who's
been invited here to be an expert on the
subject matter I have in theory more
knowledge about something that's why I'm
standing up here
and finally symbolic Capital as an
example to be a member of a Dao is a
fantastic interesting thing it means
that you've understood what a Dao is
you're contributing in some certain way
it doesn't necessarily give you a lot of
prestige however if you are a founder of
Adele
maybe you have more connections through
that people start talking about ah this
person founded a Dao oh my God who who
is this person so they have access to
different kind of symbolic capital and
this again influences all of the other
types of capital so you get the idea
web3 says a lot about you but only if
you understand it and actually
understanding it itself is cultural
capital it gives you an advantage to
know these things and most people don't
understand it
so let's talk about designing a system
of identifiers and this is I think where
it gets a bit more interesting so we
think a common ground that a major
source of identifiers should be when
humans interact most of society is built
through humans interacting and I think
it says a lot so for example
if we build a chat app where one person
asks for help and another person
provides that help this is very
qualitative as an act and it's difficult
to quantify it's difficult to say this
person has provided a helpful service
but what if in web 3 we could say
actually if this other person says yeah
thanks for for helping me this person
could grow helpfulness in a kind of
gamified way you build this identifier
that in a way you are helpful in the
space and this is just the first example
another example is you become a member
of a Dao so if I join a Dao as a
designer and I contribute for a month
slowly my little Dow contributor level
can go up and eventually of course once
I'm level two level three people will be
like whoa this person knows a lot about
contributing to Dallas
and another example is governance votes
if I vote Yes on governance proposals I
can grow my governance expertise and in
a few years people will be like wow this
person has participated a lot in
governance
and what this does is basically you
start mapping out a skill tree of The
Human Condition
you basically collect and map out your
accomplishments and in a certain way web
2 companies already do this
except it's a quarterly review you sit
down with your supervisor and they say
what you're good at where you're
performing where you're underperforming
but it's a very subjective thing it
depends on your boss it depends on your
supervisor and ultimately if I quit a
job and go to another company I have to
start again from scratch I have to
convince them that what I did at the
last company was really good totally
believe me guys uh you know regardless
of of what I'm actually being reviewed
as so it's a very subjective thing and I
think once we start mapping out the
Human Condition in this way you can
start becoming more objective but we'll
get to the cons in a moment so this
becomes a massive skill tree summarizing
your entire existence into badges right
this is amazing loads of projects are
building this right now it's going to be
really cool
so these social identifiers become
verified credentials to be used anywhere
this is the composable aspect something
I earn on one platform I can use
anywhere across web 3. that's where it
gets interesting and pay attention to
VCS because you're about to see them
everywhere in web3 actually the w3c in
March this year recommended starting to
use verified credentials so it's
officially endorsed and I think loads of
projects are going to start using it
so I think my work here is done right
easy I've mapped The Human Condition
that was super easy and nothing bad can
come of it probably
but it's not that simple right because
designers have a massive responsibility
when actually trying to map social
behaviors and uh social inequality to
basically a glorified skill tree so all
human beings are fundamentally Born Free
and equal and dignity and rights so this
is from the universal Declaration of
Human Rights and
basically that means that these kinds of
systems have to be designed really
really thoughtfully because they can
have ramifications socially that maybe
you don't entirely are able to put to
anticipate right so what's to stop my
entire reputation that's on chain
ruining my life in three years through
some reason it conducts me and suddenly
people find me at my home and that's it
because of some reputation thing I did
three years ago so we need to start
actually talking about preventing
reputation trails
so we need to start with something
called self sovereignty which is
basically I get to be the master of what
I share and what I don't share so when I
start building these skill trees I need
to be able to say who can see what so
you need to have control over these
systems what you also need to be able to
do is to revoke certain things so
binance actually you know they do a kyc
and this year they started issuing a
token for this kyc that you can claim
and then prove on other platforms that
you've done the binance kyc but this is
revocable so you can actually go back to
binance and this token that you have in
your wallet you can revoke and say
actually I don't want to have it there
anymore right so in case binance is I
don't know suddenly turns out to be
super evil or whatever and you don't
want to be associated with it you can
revoke it
and then there's also consent so I don't
want to be airdropped soul-bound stuff
that's on my wallet forever please ask
me first right I need to be able to
claim these things there needs to be a
mechanism of consent especially you know
when you start talking about things that
might be on chain forever and finally
Rehabilitation just like in real Society
if I break the rules I go to prison and
in theory that's to be rehabilitated so
that I can become a normal member of
society again I don't want reputation
that I collect in these skill trees and
this in the social composable system to
basically track me and I can never do
anything about it again
another thing that we have to talk about
is civil resistance so civil resistance
is basically the act of being resistant
to civil attacks which is when people
use pseudonyms to subvert a system and
if you've ever asked your cousin to
leave you a five-star review on your
Google Business you've in some way
committed an act of civil attack or if I
post something on Twitter and then I
quickly change account and upvote my own
thing and I support myself then you are
committing a civil attack so what do we
do about that right we can do things
like reverse Turing tests which is
humans having to prove that they are
humans but we are some kind of test you
know the picking little uh Street lamps
or whatever but then there's also things
like dids so there's loads of projects
starting up now talking about
decentralized identities
uh this is basically conducting a kyc
and it's often like holding up a
passport on a camera but there's also
privacy preserving dids which is
basically it can scan your face and say
you are a unique human being but we
don't want to know your name or Identity
or anything else so this is also really
interesting and finally passports so
you've probably heard of the git coin
passport and I think disco XYZ is also
considered that what they do is they
basically put verified credentials and
dids into one cool little identity so
when you connect to a platform you can
say I just want to share this part of my
passport to get access to the platform
and it basically confirms that I'm a
human being and I have the credentials
that I need to access I think these are
going to become very very common
but verify credentials are only as good
as a system that issues them so it
doesn't matter if I make a decentralized
application and issue myself a badge
that says best designer in the world
like it's irrelevant because it has no
value it has no reputation the system
that issued it so you actually need to
think about who is issuing these things
you need to actually have a reputable
issuer issuing reputable credentials so
that the user can themselves become
reputable so it's really reputation all
the way down so you're going to see a
lot of projects in the next few years
issuing all of these Badges and all of
these verified credentials but you
always have to think in the back of your
mind who are they to be issuing these
things do they have robust mechanisms in
place and do they have a nuanced view of
the world so that these issues are these
credentials actually are fair and good
for society and not just you know the
next thing so how does all of this
change anything
at Common Ground we are building
basically something which is
decentralized collaboration coupled with
verifiable credentials so we want to be
the intersection of this we're building
like this communication platform and as
I mentioned at the beginning
interactions are where things happen
so what happens when you start using
these verifiable credentials and start
planning online spaces with them this is
where I think it gets very interesting
because probably most of you use Discord
so Discord is a cognitive overload
catastrophe you join three communities
and suddenly you're spammed with 7 000
notifications and then you're like I'm
going to mute all of them and that's it
right it's it's kind of pointless so
what happens if you actually start
building areas which are more Dynamic
using verifiable credentials so let's
say that you have an online space where
you have access to the areas that are
destined for you based on the
credentials that you have so imagine
you're a Dao and you can basically make
a space for each of your working groups
that people can only get into if they
have the right verifiable credentials
and this can be an automatic process so
if I build up my reputation because I
provide my services as a designer and
then one day I'm designer level three I
automatically unlock access to the right
space and everything else that I don't
have access to is fuzzy and in the
background it doesn't cognitively
overload me I think this is the way that
the internet is going to be shaped in
the future which I think will make
everything a little bit more focusing
what it also allows is more trustworthy
interactions so with this did credential
for example we can say only verified
humans can talk in this chat for example
Twitter could tomorrow Implement dids
and the bot problem would to 99 be
solved it's just they're not web 3 they
don't care right they're not going to do
it but they could the technology exists
and there are applications right now
saying only verified humans can use the
app so it basically means you're locked
out of participation until you verify
your humanity and you can do this in a
privacy preserving way
what it also allows is for more concrete
information maybe you shouldn't have
access and a view of everything and here
is an example of for example a
governance vote that is restricted so
for example if somebody asks should
Defcon give more swag maybe only people
who have attended Defcon and have the
verifiable credential that they did
attend can vote in this thing because
they are the only ones who know how much
swag was given so you don't suddenly
allow everybody in the world with their
token to participate only the ones who
are relevant for the vote
and what is what this is going to do is
also streamline entire Industries and
this is a big statement but I I fully
believe it
um in fact you could imagine that if
common ground which is my Dao would
choose to hire a senior designer for
example I could set the verifiable
credentials that we required the
applicant to have I could say it needs
to be a designer level three it needs to
have a tested Badge of being a good
communicator and this person needs to
have verified their Humanity for example
on the flip side
if I Dominic um a designer looking for
work
it would be as easy as enabling a toggle
that says I'm available for jobs and
then another toggle Auto submit my
verifiable credentials to matching dials
anonymously you can imagine how suddenly
the recruitment industry might get a
little bit worried if this would be the
simple this is how simple the process
could be you wouldn't need in like in
LinkedIn yeah the interviews and the CV
and the whatever these credentials if
the system issuing them is is
trustworthy and reputable then you can
just set the verify verifiable
credential that you need and suddenly
people are matched right this thing can
happen instantly and imagine multiplied
by all dowels and the entire Workforce
suddenly everybody gets matched in a
system that is really robust
oh there we go summary
okay so just getting to the end now
your online Persona is about to get much
richer and stickier with verifiable
credentials this is going to happen
you're already using them your your
driver's license is a credential your
passport is a credential your University
degree is a credential this is now going
to be translated into web 3 and
internalized on the blockchain so it's
coming whether you agree with it or not
it is going to come and I think as we as
designers should be very mindful of
Designing these systems in a way that
makes Society better and not worse right
you also need the quality and social
responsibility behind credentials
um that they really really matter right
so it really is all about
reputable systems issuing reputable
credentials that are well researched so
it actually causes public good and not
more trouble and finally we're looking
at fundamental changes in Collective
agency so if we pull this off in a
meaningful way and this is going to be
the challenge then web 2 organizations
will not be able to compete with the
Synergy and the doubt collaboration that
will be afforded by this change right
because they will have to transition
quickly because of the fundamental
changes that is going to be enabled by
this in terms of collective agency so I
think
that we are really talking about changes
to the fabric of our society and you
know this may be it sounds like
hyperbole but you know if you look at
the world how it is right now I I think
we have to do better and I think this
could be one thing that takes us there
so
thank you very very much for listening
follow me on Twitter to grow my social
capital
questions in terms of skills I would say
no there is no
um issue of skills that is yet at the
degree of nuance and sophistication that
there needs to be if you start talking
about issue of like decentralized
identities as credentials yeah there's
already loads I mean there's like bright
ID there's fractal there's lots of these
projects that are trying to issue these
credentials in the most privacy
preserving way whether or not those
systems are perfect I don't know I don't
think so I think there's somebody from
World coin or whatever said he had two
identities so probably in some way it's
gameable but I think the systems of
reputation that grow on top of those
basic decentralized identities then will
eventually build a better web of trust
so I would say to answer your question
no there is no reputable systems yet
this is super early
hello
um I love the concept but I was
wondering what happens with sensitive
information with sensitive information
yes because let's say we have a Dao and
we say that only people with verify
credentials can access some information
but it doesn't prevent that I take a
snapshot a sorry a screenshot and share
it with people who don't have the
credentials so how do we prevent that
attack yeah I mean there's lots of uh
security mechanisms to be able to
prevent this I mean what we're talking
about here it's this kind of skill
system that gets you the entry right but
this is built together with an overall
reputation system so you could also say
that it's a combination of
trustworthiness via a matrix of skills
and the participation in the platform
that you can say only a person with a
minimum trust can come in if I break
that trust then maybe I'm slashed
socially or in terms of tokens or in
some way maybe there's even like a
staking mechanism that if you enter you
need to stake your reputation and if you
misbehave and share screenshots you are
slashed in some way so there are
mechanisms that are very very
interesting to be able to address these
problems
so native Dao Workforce is a tiny tiny
fraction of the entire Workforce yeah
industry tiny so how would you see like
the initial data dump right like the the
the bridge between the the old ways of
doing reputation I don't know uh degrees
or work experience into these kind of
things so I think there's lots of ways
to build a skill system like the one
that um that I was talking about here
for example you could even start with
self-assessment so when you join the
platform you give an estimation of your
skills and abilities you rate yourself
in this kind of nuanced contextual
system and then maybe others who know
you have worked with you can verify you
over time so it you don't necessarily
have to start a skill system at zero you
can self-assess and then stake certain
things and if you then live up to that
self-assessment then you can participate
effectively in the system if you don't
live up to that self-assessment then you
are slashed in some way so I think we
need to of course be realistic and you
know we can't expect everybody to start
at zero especially what happens if you
got an established skill system and then
you know everybody has been there for
five years and you get a new user who's
has nothing that what is it gonna they
can't compete right so there needs to be
a system of self-assessment and say or
or somebody vouchers for you somebody
Stakes their reputation and says this
person has the skills they say they have
and if they don't then they're both
slashed so there are mechanisms to get a
head start in the skill system so that
you don't get left behind you know
if that answers your question ideal
thank you great talk so I'm just curious
about your thoughts on China's
reputational system because they
gamified the way they want their
population to behave yeah and that might
necess not necessarily be for better
yeah but so you're talking about this as
a social credit score yeah right so I
think the social credit score in China
is a little bit different because
um it's tied to you as a person and
there is nothing you can do about it
because you will only ever be you in web
3 in theory you know I could create a
new wallet and generate a new identity
and start from scratch so there is ways
for you to reinvent yourself in web 3
without having to you know create a
whole new identity so it's not I would
say the same as the social credit score
because that one you can never get rid
of the government has labeled you with
it and there's nothing you can do with
these kinds of systems you can create a
new wallet and you're a new person
okay and follow up and
how do you how can we give opportunities
to those that haven't proved the
reputation because those are going to
favor those who have been proven more
yeah so I think this goes a little bit
back to the the previous answer as well
so
be able to say that they are skilled in
a certain thing and maybe they can then
be a probational period for example if I
say I'm a master designer and I join a
Dao and you know they don't know it's
just self-assessed that I'm so good at
design then for example if I start
working with them maybe the money that I
earn is in an escrow account so like a
third party during this probational
period for example and if I confirm to
the Dao if they say actually this person
has been doing a good job then the money
is paid out or if I don't live up to
those expectations then maybe that is
slashed is that in the right direction
how do we discover this the skill or
I am not sure I understand
maybe we can talk later sorry uh because
I think this is a discussion a large
discussion and anyone has any okay and
just the the last one
so as you said you're basically
reinvating Reinventing the wheel uh the
qualification and credential system
already exists yes non-digital world I
think the biggest problem with scaling
it to the larger size is how you rate
the issuers so how you actually make
sure that the people that give
credentials are the reputable entities
yeah I think this is going to happen
organically I think there's going to be
a lot of projects issuing a lot of
credentials in the next few years and I
think it's going to happen organically
based on how people interact with these
credentials so is there a threshold is
the system robustly designed is the
system transparent so people can
understand how things are weighted and
how you collect these Badges and these
skill systems I think there's going to
be an avalanche really of these skills
systems and badge issuers and whatever
and it's going to take time for that
kind of to stabilize and people actually
starting to realize which ones do we
take seriously and which not so I don't
think it's as easy as you know somebody
uh vetting you know a issuance system
and saying this one's really good I
think it's going to happen more
organically but this is just my opinion
okay that's it so okay yeah we are
we don't have thank you very much
everyone yeah
[Applause]