Web3 As An Interdependent Economy: A Conversation With Mat Dryhurst “In its current state, the internet can largely be characterized as a place where a very few people in charge of very few platforms dictate conditions and agreements for a great many atomized people. This emphasis on creator independence, or giving individuals tools to self publish and promote, has brought with it many benefits, however, as we discussed previously, I believe there to be a real ceiling on the heavily individuated approaches of places like Patreon or substack.” “So what makes sense is to build new institutions from the rubble of the independence economy, which looks like reimagining very useful organizations like the newspaper or the record label from the bottom up, based upon agreements between previously atomized creators.” “I would refer to this as a transition to an “interdependence economy,” which feels like a positive development from the experiment of the independence economy in the 2010s. I’m particularly interested in web3, DAOs and smart contract infrastructure as new tools to assist making this happen. The new institution can look like fluid agreements and coordination between decentralized participants enshrined in code”

"NFTs and social tokens are all the rage, but how can artists actually utilize them to create enduring value and build sustainable careers on their own terms in an interdependent manner?"

Mat was one of the earliest of adopters in what is now referred to as the NFT/Social Token space. We’ve shared conversations and ideas over the years, and Mat was recently kind enough to Zoom into my Blockchain + Music at Berklee; the insights Mat brought to that conversation inspired me to dive deeper, and hence, this conversation, which has been lightly edited.