Nodes of Hope
Exploring core tensions in the Ethereum Ecosystem through stories of hope.
The humans behind The Human Layer are old-timers in the crypto space. Much to the detriment of our own well being, we’ve been in this space for over a decade, stubbornly dedicated to the core mission of creating alternative systems to support our communities during accelerated transition.
We turned to these alternative systems because we knew the traditional systems that late stage capitalism were built upon were breaking. We could see it a decade ago, so we chose the left hand path of the unconventional to try and avoid the chaos looming on the horizon.
These systems of the colonizer were (and are) destroying the very fabrics of the communities we hold dear. I don’t need to state the obvious here, just open up any news app or platform built on weaponized algorithms and this reality is glaringly obvious. The powerful few who enclosed our commons and created the technology destroying what we hold dear are now pushing humanity towards technofeudalism at an alarming rate, because their tech is centralized and woven into the core infrastructure of surveillance capitalism.
Almost a year ago, Taylor and I decided to launch The Human Layer. A podcast that would serve as an outlet for the angst we feel in holding the perpetual cognitive dissonance necessary to work in crypto. The very mechanisms we wish to replace are now appropriating our technology and driving the industry narratives in directions that may just destroy the tools we need to build our life rafts for collapse.
My journey in crypto started in an obscure hacker space in rural South Carolina, run by some of the top minds in cybersecurity in 2017. We helped the City of Zion build some of the foundational tech for the NEO blockchain because we were bored, curious and because we could. I then danced in and out of industry as an NFT artist, a community lead and eventually landed at the heart of the corporate version of crypto in 2023 as a director of community and then at a large startup as the head of marketing, comms and community. I saw it all; corruption, crimes, trauma-laden workplaces, Lord of the Flies as a work culture and dark triad leadership at scale. The exact corrupt centralization crypto was supposed to subvert.
I also saw the raw power of this technology when placed in the hands of those who need solutions to society’s most pressing problems and are not waiting for a nation state or CSuite to save them. I saw the sheer force of will to bring things to life that were not even possible a decade ago. I saw communities building solutions throughout Africa and LatAm to subvert the lingering colonial systems of the oppressors of centuries past.
Within this chaos, I also found Nodes of Hope buried amongst the absolute greed and power displayed by the “leaders” I worked for at the heart of Ethereum’s infrastructure industry.
What if those societal systems put in place by an economic structure designed for colonization and empirical rule, really could be subverted? Or what if those systems are merely, and finally, collapsing under the weight of their own toxicity? What if humans, as a collective, are finally waking up to the false dichotomies of a system that was never meant for us to have “liberty, freedom and justice for all”?
What if now is the time for the cypherpunks, builders, artists, healers and misfits to rise up and thrive because we never truly believed in the false options offered to us by society in the first place and have planned accordingly?
What if we, the outsiders and weirdos, are now the ones building the Nodes of Hope for the rest of our comrades to find solace within during collapse? What if we, the ones who see a better path to regeneration and holistic living using blockchain technologies to support our need for value exchange and connection, are meant to rise up now and build the hope others can not see or understand because they are drowning in the weaponized algorithms destroying the fabrics of society?
The answer to that “what if” is YES. It is our time to build the nodes of connection our communities need right now. It is our time to build the mechanisms of value exchange that benefit our entire community, not the robber barons at the top. It is our time to show the rest of the world WHY our technology matters and how it can be used for good.
For those of us who’ve ridden the waves of these wild ass crypto cycles, we can see the whole picture. Some of us still harbor the hope that our work can break through the integrity vacuums and still provide what our communities need as we all careen towards an unknown tomorrow. And holding onto that hope is only possible because we also work within impact communities and projects doing this essential work. It’s why we still show up everyday. And, it’s why we still fire up the mic to explore these issues with each other and the community at large.
Enter Nodes of Hope; a documentary project exploring the core tensions at the heart of the Ethereum ecosystem and uncovering stories of hope in the process.
In November, we’re planning to travel to Buenos Aires for DevConnect and have media passes to document the entire event. DevConnect (and DevCon) are a special little sliver in our Ethereum ecosystem, where people from around the globe connect for a week and explore all that’s possible with our technology. The events themselves are free from shilling, sponsors and the centralized corrupt corporations sucking the lifeblood out of our ecosystem at scale.
We are launching a documentary project (contingent on funding-- FUND US!!!) called Nodes of Hope. We’ll be gathering stories of builders creating real world solutions for their communities using Ethereum technologies. Our intention is to produce a multimedia project exploring the core tensions in the ecosystem as we approach institutionalization and mass adoption by showing the true impact on individual communities of our technology when deployed in a circular and regenerative fashion.
We are looking for executive producers to help bring this to life and are seeking 2-3 sponsors to cover travel and basic production costs. We’ll take care of the rest. The full project will premier at ETHBoulder in February 2026 where we plan to also begin production of a bigger film traveling the globe to document these Nodes of Hope stories and share them with the rest of the world. EPs will get credit on all the publications, print and digital and will be included in all the promotional materials for both phases of this project.
Nodes of Hope | Multimedia Project | Phase 1
Our Premise
Ethereum as a technology holds within its code the tendrils of hope for those navigating systems in transition. Ethereum as an ecosystem encapsulates the multitude of humanity necessary to build the infrastructure our communities need to navigate societal systems in transition. Ethereum as a belief system stands in defiance of centralization and enclosure of the commons, a badge of honor worn by the many cypherpunks who steward the mission thriving underneath the casino.
A global movement of builders creating the necessary frameworks for humanity to truly flourish, free from the toxicity of centralized banking institutions and delusional oligarchs. A flourishing feared by authoritarians and appropriated by billionaires, but a flourishing nonetheless.
Ethereum as a belief system stands at a crossroads. The cypherpunks that made the technology possible and served as its stewards to the present are now faced with two very distinct and dangerous realities; what will Ethereum become as institutions, corporations and governments turn to this blockchain as a hedge against collapsing currencies and what are the truly hopeful implementations of this technology supporting the human layer of our ecosystem and the communities they serve?
These two realities create a tension that many of the ecosystem’s long time stewards are now wrestling with and is, in some instances, fracturing communities that have thrived for many years on the hopes of decentralization and autonomy. A cognitive dissonance of epic proportions that forces Ethereum community builders to hold space for the unknown outcomes of these realities by leaning into the very real and tangible impacts the technology can bring to communities when deployed from a place of resilience and regeneration.
We hope to unpack these questions and explore these tensions through interviews and begin a conversation during DevConnect Buenos Aires. We’re not seeking answers, merely posing the questions and in doing so, uncovering nodes of hope growing throughout this vast and global ecosystem.