How to Build an Internet Where Communities Thrive

We'll build new protocols that give people control over how they connect and build communities.

Slowly at first, then incredibly quickly, we'll return control of the internet to the communities that depend on it.

To lay these out, let's start with an overview of how our technology is changing, then we can talk about how new protocols will change how our digital communities function and feel.

Communities are how we make sense of the world and generate a sense of progress.

The problem is, the communities we build are all stuck inside the apps we use.

Instead, we'll build single-purpose tools that communities can compose creatively.

In this future, we'll be able to decide how much personal information we share with our communities and what we require other members to share.

Membership could be subject to a collective vote, content moderation could similarly go through different phases of community review, identity details could be used as a kind of "Staking" for anonymous-but-verified communities.

There's enormous potential for geographically distributed, decentralized communities to build in incredible ways.

I can see the outlines of what these communities will be like - but I can't tell you what they'll do or how.