This article is mostly inspired by Vitalik's parries against “corposlop”, which illustrates the danger of Coinbase’s aggressive approach to controlling the Ethereum Ecosystem. 

In short, Vitalik provides pragmatic insight into the structural power of Three Powers: Big Business, Big Government, and Big Mob. And how these three powers affect the status quo, cognitive bias, and play tug-of-war with the Ethereum ecosystem's overton window.

However, for this article I will mostly go into detail on the Big Business side of the triage. While Vitalik claims that all three powers are gaining power. In my point of view, as a Black American, who's not wealthy or empowered by viral mob-mentality. The powers of Big Government and Big Corporation are much more real to me and my community.

Many of us are afraid of Big Business. We like the products and services that companies provide, but dislike trillion-dollar monopolistic walled gardens, video games that turn into quasi-gambling, and companies manipulating entire governments for profit.

Slave morality says: you are not allowed to be powerful.

Master morality says: you are commanded to be powerful.

A synthesis morality focused on balance of power might say: you are not allowed to be hegemonic, but you are encouraged to be impactful, and to empower others.

Coinbase follows a heavy accumulation of resources, aggressive partnerships, and is a bridge into traditional finance (TradFi), government agencies, and technology giants.

Coinbase isn't directly named in Vitalik's piece, but it's heavily implied, through historical direction that the Big Company, and it's adjacent (often very discrete) partnerships with other Big Companies such as; Farcaster, Zora, Kalshi, Paragraph, and Researchhub, all of which whom have ties to Coinbase and have claimed space on Ethereum's network.

Corposlop –– a term to describe low-effort content, often priced at a premium by The Corporation, which is easy to make because of AI.

Those examples come more from increases in capability, coupled with competitive pressure.This isn't just hypothetical, it's real and expected to continue to grow.

We also see the same pattern in video games.

e.g, Fornite, a game originally focused on fun and fulfillment now increasingly focuses on built-in slot machine mechanisms to maximally extract money from players. Even major prediction markets have started to show a worrying tendency to focus not on pro-social goals like making better news media or improving governance, but on sports betting.

Those examples come more from increases in capability, coupled with competitive pressure. There is a different set of examples that come from increases in size. In general, as a corporation gets larger, it gains more ability to benefit from bending its surrounding environment (including economy, politics and culture) to its will. A company that is 10x larger will benefit 10x more from bending its environment to a particular degree, and so it will perform such actions at all more often than a smaller company - and when it does, it will do so with 10x the resources.

- Vitalik Buterin, "Balance of Power"

Coinbase's first partnership and often hated was Zora. An Instagram clone that offered ways to tip people through a built-in cryptocurrency wallet. Which we later saw shift into a prediction style market to compete with Polymarket and Kalshi.

Coinbase Launches Nationwide Prediction Markets in Partnership with Kalshi - "The Defiant"

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by assets, launched prediction markets across all 50 U.S. states in partnership with Kalshi, offering users the ability to trade on outcomes of real-world events in sports, politics, and culture, the company announced on X.

https://thedefiant.io

i am cringe, but at least i am cringe on zora. Price Prediction | Coinbase

Get the latest price prediction and forecast for i am cringe, but at least i am cringe on zora.. Track trends and make informed decisions.

https://www.coinbase.com

The ironic part of this is that, this is not just a single instance. Coinbase has also partnered with Kalshi for it's own prediction market inside of it's exchange. Which in my opinion, is highly unethical, considering gambling apps have designs that allow users to turn them off, or self-restrict their social security numbers from participating.

Coinbase is directly integrating the gambling inside the exchange where you hold your currency which is a huge conflict of interest. However, because the CFTC has approved Kalshi, and The terms ‘digital commodity’, ‘digital commodity broker’, ‘digital commodity dealer’, ‘digital commodity exchange’, ‘decentralized finance messaging system’, and ‘decentralized finance trading protocol’ all have been given the meaning by those terms, respectively, under section 1a of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1a)

This is all completely legal for the time being. However, this doesn't mean that it's going unchallenged, or that the Big Mob is powerless against the changes.

In a gold rush, the profiteers are not collecting gold, they're selling shovels. Psychological and systemic factors like individual greed, drive the price of tools higher than normal.

We see this clearly in the price of GPUs and Crypto Miners, and simply owning a GPU for someone to rent is expected to increase in price over the next 10 years substantially.

A digital gold rush is still a bit different, because Ethereum is quite complex. It is not just a cryptocurrency, but it is a framework for the contractual language and exchange of digital goods, assets, and commodities built for ownership on a distributed ledger.

But if there's one thing I learned from the past 5 years as a UX designer, who's designing these brands and infrastructure... is that many of the people within the Big Corporation are not incredibly passionate about shared, distributed networks or self-sovereignty.

While many believed that GPUs and Cryptocurrency Miners would become “shovels” in this digital gold rush, i'd argue that infrastructure and branding have become equally, if not more important.

Established businesses which hold a great reputation are more likely to be advantageous in the theoretical shift from the read-write era of internet to the read-write-own era.

If digital commodities become second-nature to the internet just as social media became a second-nature for social connection, surpassing traditions into the hyperreal parasocial world. Those who have established a foundation in the technically dense language of solidity, smart contracts, and shared infrastructure will likely be kings.

This is exactly why Mental Wealth Academy exists - to prove that shared infrastructure can empower individuals rather than extract from them. While Coinbase builds walled gardens that look open, we're building actual commons where every participant gains more agency, not less.

Shared infrastructure, shared resources, and shared assets. As long as we continue to provide the brand with new shared tools and infrastructure that adds value to individual members, the more agency users gain as a participant of MWA, vs X or Meta.

The hurdle to this is ideology is working together.

As members of a capitalistic society, we have an extremely difficult time wrapping our heads around the benefits of a new system with shared resources, and infrastructure.

Things are now different, and the average individual in the world now has an ability to invest in an oasis of wealth and earn and connect to the value in many new ways.

Donald J. Braben, founder of the 20th century Planck Club says that current model of funding research is outdated, yet people are far too afraid to question the system.

The same lies true for the modern day, many are afraid of Big Corporations, yet they don't realize the amount of power they actually wield against them in the digital world.

More projects should explicitly think about not just a "business model" - how they bring in resources to support the work that they are doing - but also a "decentralization model" - how they avoid concentrating power in themselves, and the risks associated with having such power.

One way we do that is utilizing our agent Azura as an unbiased mediator for funding.

But more on depth in this in Part 2 of the series on Anti-Corporation systems.

Thanks for reading.

We are currently fundraising for Mental Wealth Academy on artizen and we've reached around $5,000 out of our $30,000 goal. Funds will be used for grassroot outreach, onboarding, and detailing shared infrastructure, shared resources, and shared assets.

Our platform is an oasis of Mental Wealth, a shared commodity and organization seeking to empower and uplift the average individual in the world up towards new horizons.

If you'd like to read more join the telegram:
Check out the live fundraiser: https://artizen.fund/index/p/mental-wealth-academy
Our Website: https://www.mentalwealthacademy.world/
Azura Agent: https://azura-theta.vercel.app/
Research Paper: https://www.researchhub.com/post/4266/daemon-consciousness-implementing-jungian-unconscious-to-ai-through-rag-architecture

Footnotes:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3633/text#toc-HC4DC284A76754EDD9E951F7A1AD049A1

This article is mostly inspired by Vitalik's parries against “corposlop”, which illustrates the danger of Coinbase’s aggressive approach to controlling the Ethereum Ecosystem. 

In short, Vitalik provides pragmatic insight into the structural power of Three Powers: Big Business, Big Government, and Big Mob. And how these three powers affect the status quo, cognitive bias, and play tug-of-war with the Ethereum ecosystem's overton window.

However, for this article I will mostly go into detail on the Big Business side of the triage. While Vitalik claims that all three powers are gaining power. In my point of view, as a Black American, who's not wealthy or empowered by viral mob-mentality. The powers of Big Government and Big Corporation are much more real to me and my community.

Many of us are afraid of Big Business. We like the products and services that companies provide, but dislike trillion-dollar monopolistic walled gardens, video games that turn into quasi-gambling, and companies manipulating entire governments for profit.

Slave morality says: you are not allowed to be powerful.

Master morality says: you are commanded to be powerful.

A synthesis morality focused on balance of power might say: you are not allowed to be hegemonic, but you are encouraged to be impactful, and to empower others.

Coinbase follows a heavy accumulation of resources, aggressive partnerships, and is a bridge into traditional finance (TradFi), government agencies, and technology giants.

Coinbase isn't directly named in Vitalik's piece, but it's heavily implied, through historical direction that the Big Company, and it's adjacent (often very discrete) partnerships with other Big Companies such as; Farcaster, Zora, Kalshi, Paragraph, and Researchhub, all of which whom have ties to Coinbase and have claimed space on Ethereum's network.

Corposlop –– a term to describe low-effort content, often priced at a premium by The Corporation, which is easy to make because of AI.

Those examples come more from increases in capability, coupled with competitive pressure.This isn't just hypothetical, it's real and expected to continue to grow.

We also see the same pattern in video games.

e.g, Fornite, a game originally focused on fun and fulfillment now increasingly focuses on built-in slot machine mechanisms to maximally extract money from players. Even major prediction markets have started to show a worrying tendency to focus not on pro-social goals like making better news media or improving governance, but on sports betting.

Those examples come more from increases in capability, coupled with competitive pressure. There is a different set of examples that come from increases in size. In general, as a corporation gets larger, it gains more ability to benefit from bending its surrounding environment (including economy, politics and culture) to its will. A company that is 10x larger will benefit 10x more from bending its environment to a particular degree, and so it will perform such actions at all more often than a smaller company - and when it does, it will do so with 10x the resources.

- Vitalik Buterin, "Balance of Power"

Coinbase's first partnership and often hated was Zora. An Instagram clone that offered ways to tip people through a built-in cryptocurrency wallet. Which we later saw shift into a prediction style market to compete with Polymarket and Kalshi.

Coinbase Launches Nationwide Prediction Markets in Partnership with Kalshi - "The Defiant"

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by assets, launched prediction markets across all 50 U.S. states in partnership with Kalshi, offering users the ability to trade on outcomes of real-world events in sports, politics, and culture, the company announced on X.

https://thedefiant.io

i am cringe, but at least i am cringe on zora. Price Prediction | Coinbase

Get the latest price prediction and forecast for i am cringe, but at least i am cringe on zora.. Track trends and make informed decisions.

https://www.coinbase.com

The ironic part of this is that, this is not just a single instance. Coinbase has also partnered with Kalshi for it's own prediction market inside of it's exchange. Which in my opinion, is highly unethical, considering gambling apps have designs that allow users to turn them off, or self-restrict their social security numbers from participating.

Coinbase is directly integrating the gambling inside the exchange where you hold your currency which is a huge conflict of interest. However, because the CFTC has approved Kalshi, and The terms ‘digital commodity’, ‘digital commodity broker’, ‘digital commodity dealer’, ‘digital commodity exchange’, ‘decentralized finance messaging system’, and ‘decentralized finance trading protocol’ all have been given the meaning by those terms, respectively, under section 1a of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1a)

This is all completely legal for the time being. However, this doesn't mean that it's going unchallenged, or that the Big Mob is powerless against the changes.

In a gold rush, the profiteers are not collecting gold, they're selling shovels. Psychological and systemic factors like individual greed, drive the price of tools higher than normal.

We see this clearly in the price of GPUs and Crypto Miners, and simply owning a GPU for someone to rent is expected to increase in price over the next 10 years substantially.

A digital gold rush is still a bit different, because Ethereum is quite complex. It is not just a cryptocurrency, but it is a framework for the contractual language and exchange of digital goods, assets, and commodities built for ownership on a distributed ledger.

But if there's one thing I learned from the past 5 years as a UX designer, who's designing these brands and infrastructure... is that many of the people within the Big Corporation are not incredibly passionate about shared, distributed networks or self-sovereignty.

While many believed that GPUs and Cryptocurrency Miners would become “shovels” in this digital gold rush, i'd argue that infrastructure and branding have become equally, if not more important.

Established businesses which hold a great reputation are more likely to be advantageous in the theoretical shift from the read-write era of internet to the read-write-own era.

If digital commodities become second-nature to the internet just as social media became a second-nature for social connection, surpassing traditions into the hyperreal parasocial world. Those who have established a foundation in the technically dense language of solidity, smart contracts, and shared infrastructure will likely be kings.

This is exactly why Mental Wealth Academy exists - to prove that shared infrastructure can empower individuals rather than extract from them. While Coinbase builds walled gardens that look open, we're building actual commons where every participant gains more agency, not less.

Shared infrastructure, shared resources, and shared assets. As long as we continue to provide the brand with new shared tools and infrastructure that adds value to individual members, the more agency users gain as a participant of MWA, vs X or Meta.

The hurdle to this is ideology is working together.

As members of a capitalistic society, we have an extremely difficult time wrapping our heads around the benefits of a new system with shared resources, and infrastructure.

Things are now different, and the average individual in the world now has an ability to invest in an oasis of wealth and earn and connect to the value in many new ways.

Donald J. Braben, founder of the 20th century Planck Club says that current model of funding research is outdated, yet people are far too afraid to question the system.

The same lies true for the modern day, many are afraid of Big Corporations, yet they don't realize the amount of power they actually wield against them in the digital world.

More projects should explicitly think about not just a "business model" - how they bring in resources to support the work that they are doing - but also a "decentralization model" - how they avoid concentrating power in themselves, and the risks associated with having such power.

One way we do that is utilizing our agent Azura as an unbiased mediator for funding.

But more on depth in this in Part 2 of the series on Anti-Corporation systems.

Thanks for reading.

We are currently fundraising for Mental Wealth Academy on artizen and we've reached around $5,000 out of our $30,000 goal. Funds will be used for grassroot outreach, onboarding, and detailing shared infrastructure, shared resources, and shared assets.

Our platform is an oasis of Mental Wealth, a shared commodity and organization seeking to empower and uplift the average individual in the world up towards new horizons.

If you'd like to read more join the telegram:
Check out the live fundraiser: https://artizen.fund/index/p/mental-wealth-academy
Our Website: https://www.mentalwealthacademy.world/
Azura Agent: https://azura-theta.vercel.app/
Research Paper: https://www.researchhub.com/post/4266/daemon-consciousness-implementing-jungian-unconscious-to-ai-through-rag-architecture

Footnotes:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3633/text#toc-HC4DC284A76754EDD9E951F7A1AD049A1