Sci-fi titan Neal Stephenson, whose Snow Crash coined the term "metaverse" and Cryptonomicon sketched the contours of crypto, joins Friederike to bridge fiction and frontier tech. As Lamina 1 co-founder, he champions Web3&#39;s core ethos: empowering creators with direct micropayments and IP sovereignty, without the data-exploiting enclosures of Web2.Neal unpacks his detached craft plausible worlds that inadvertently blueprint reality while cautioning against Web3&#39;s traps: Criminal stigma, abysmal UX alienating normies, and risks of becoming surveillance superhighways or bank shiny toys. Spotlighting Lamina 1&#39;s launch with "Artifact" (a Weta-forged sci-fi game), he envisions success as "cool stuff" flourishing where blockchain fades to background hum. A nuanced lens on tech&#39;s ambiguous promise, from yarn-spinner to builder.Topics discussed in this episode:<ul><li>(00:00) Introduction to Decentralization and Blockchain</li><li>(01:20) The Role of Storytelling in Technology Prediction</li><li>(03:48) The Balance of Optimism and Pessimism in Fiction</li><li>(06:27) Web3: Promises and Pitfalls</li><li>(08:36) The Evolution of the Web: From Decentralization to Centralization</li><li>(13:37) Metrics for a Decentralized Web</li><li>(15:55) Lamina One: A New Vision for the Metaverse</li><li>(23:44) Creating a Financial Layer for the Creator Economy</li><li>(25:08) Legal Implications of Smart Contracts</li><li>(27:38) The Strength of Smart Contracts</li><li>(31:04) Decentralization vs. Centralization in the Creator Economy</li><li>(36:21) The Decline of Centralized Platforms</li><li>(41:23) Financialization and the Creative Economy</li><li>(45:47) The Future of Web3 and User Experience</li><li>(51:17) Potential Failure Modes of Web3</li></ul>Links mentioned in this episode: <ul><li>Neal Stephenson, Co-founder Lamina1: https://x.com/nealstephenson </li><li>Lamina 1: https://lamina1.com/home </li></ul>Sponsors: <ul><li>Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world&#39;s first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at gnosis.io </li></ul>This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

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Lamina1: The Future of The Creator Economy

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