Let’s talk a bit about Digital Societies.

Will we be able to build a free digital society for those who come after us? Or is this, too, just another one of our utopias?

Our self-custodial digital wallet and the development of a more responsible digital culture could be key to this.

What’s interesting is that in the physical world, we understand this perfectly. When we walk along the shopping street of our city, we carry a physical wallet where we keep cash, our ID, and other documents we collect over time.

What’s curious is that in most shops and stores, no one asks for your username or password when you enter, or any extra information before you can buy something (except, for example, when buying alcohol, where they might ask for age verification). And when you leave, no one asks where you’re taking what you bought.

Once we decide to enter one shop or another, we keep carrying our wallet. The information we leave in each place is minimal. If we pay in cash, that information is even smaller. And if we don’t ask for a receipt, the record of that transaction might not exist beyond that moment, depending on the merchant.
So, even if it doesn’t seem like it, physical cash transactions are more anonymous and leave very little information — they are, in essence, more private.

I think that in our first attempts to digitalize the analog market world, we did it in a not-so-analog way. Most digital services don’t really reflect how we interact in the physical world.

To achieve a true digitalization of the market economy, it’s essential to keep the same principles of how cash transactions work in real life. Otherwise, digitalization will not be a faithful translation.

We may move on a digital layer, yes, but the analog signals we produce as buyers and sellers will not be properly reflected on it.

In my opinion, two factors are essential for a real digitalization:

1. Developing a digital responsibility culture that promotes awareness about the self-custody of our electronic cash and the care and management of our digital credentials.

2. Making sure our digital wallet, just like in the physical world, is 100% self-custodial and becomes a natural, everyday tool in our daily lives.