Hello again. It's been awhile.
I've never abandoned the high-level idea, the mission, or the belief that something needs to be done. I've largely been busy accepting what was difficult to accept:
My approach was never going to work!
It was the subtle and repeated shift in body language the moment I mention blockchain or crypto — no matter what other words accompanied those — when I tried to pitch the idea in the real world. It was the fundamental acceptance that Quadriga happened so long ago now — seven years — that fewer and fewer people in the community even know what happened! And it was certain experiences and events where I was left with no practical and reasonable choice but to temporarily abandon the bitcoin bubble and blockchain community I'd considered home for more than half a decade. To become — an outsider again.
But all setbacks inevitably create new opportunities.
What seemed at the time like the greatest setback, the worst imaginable outcome, has been a blessing in disguise.
It's always at the worst moments that we are forced to adapt and adjust and rethink things in ways that we never would have done in the first place.
It's not unlike Quadriga itself, a situation so horrible and unimaginable in its wide-reaching effects, a nightmare that just kept getting worse, and for me, an endlessly widening gap between what could have been and a harsh reality that had to be accepted. It was hard to watch.
It was never about Quadriga or even bitcoin or blockchain or crypto. It was fundamentally about people and community and taking care of one another. It's about education and prevention. It's about helping people figure out what to do when something goes wrong. It's about dignity, justice, recovery, and refusing to simply write someone off because their situation is difficult. The hardest situations spawn the greatest opportunities.
I needed to build something that can exist in the real world. Something that involves ordinary people, local businesses, community organizations, and people who have experienced financial harm themselves. Something that could actually work and scale in a constructive way without depending on niche fringe worldviews.
I am just one person with a vision. I don't have all the answers, and I don't pretend to. Some of the things I'm proposing are going to be extremely difficult. Some may seem impossible. There are legal, technical, financial, organizational, and community challenges that I haven't solved yet. And what I'm proposing requires a large scale to even function. That takes a competent, multidisciplinary team.
That's not a reason for me to stop. It just means I have to find the people who can help solve them. And the people who will put in the time and effort and not give up even when something seems impossible. One person at a time.
To build that, I had to dramatically alter the approach and the pitch.
Quadriga Initiative just wasn't doing it.
And that's where EIR comes in.
EIR is the new name for what I've been trying to build, but more importantly, it's a much better description of what I actually mean.
The name has our three missions built into it:
Educatio. Education and prevention. Helping people recognize fraud, understand how these situations happen, and hopefully avoid becoming victims in the first place.
Iustitia. Justice. Helping people who have already been harmed understand what happened, what their options are, and where they might actually be able to go for help.
Recuperatio. Recovery and restoration. Finding ways to help people recover from financial harm and, wherever possible, restore something that was lost. Not just financially, but in terms of dignity and the sense that somebody actually cares what happened to them. To get participants to the point of full recovery and coming back to help others.
And then there is the name itself.
Eir also happens to be the name of a figure from Norse mythology associated with healing and care. I came across the connection and it felt too appropriate to ignore. Our mission is something as old as humanity itself.
And yet... It's short. It's simple. It's easy to say.
Eir is pronounced like air. And air is everywhere. None of us own it. And yet, we all depend on it. It's something we all share, regardless of where we come from or what we believe. Invisible, yet always present and undeniable, with effects we can't ignore.
That's the kind of thing I want EIR to become.
Not another ideology.
Not another tribe.
Not another corner of the internet where everyone already agrees with everyone else.
A diverse community.
A mission bringing together people who have been affected by financial harm, people who want to prevent it, businesses that want to stand for something larger than profits, people with technical skills, legal and investigative experience, researchers, community organizations, and anyone who simply wants to help.
Blockchain will likely still have a role somewhere in the back-end. But it is a tool, a record keeper. It was never the point. And it will never be a part of the pitch.
I want to build something to help real people in ways that have never been possible before.
And I need to be honest about what comes next.
I can't build this alone.
I have ideas. I have research. I have spent years thinking about the problem and working out mechanisms that would actually function at scale.
And I have a drive and dedication that won't let this drop.
But I am just one person.
I don't know everything. I don't have every skill to build this. I don't have enough time, money, knowledge, people-skills, or perspective to build this ambition alone. I have limited time, as will any of us.
I'm coming back here not with a finished product, but with an invitation.
I want to find (or rediscover) the people who can help turn this from an idea into something real. People who want their lives to matter in a large way, to build something bigger than themselves to make a real difference.
You may have skills I don't have.
You may have a perspective I don't have.
You may even think parts of my ideas are completely crazy.
Good.
I'd rather have you tell me in explicit detail why something won't work than politely nod while I build the wrong thing for another five years.
What I need now is a community willing to explore what could work, and a serious and diverse team that wants to make a real impact on the world.
Not for a specific disaster. Not for Quadriga, bitcoin, blockchain. For something much bigger.
It's about the fundamental question of what we do when people get harmed.
Do we simply accept that some losses are too difficult to recover from? Do we blame and shame? Do we chase revenge and fight over a shrinking pie?
Or will we keep looking for ways to help people back up? Constructive, inclusive solutions that connect right to the core of our economic value engine.
That's what I'm here to work on.
I'm hoping to do it with a dedicated team.
Maybe that team includes you?
No comments:
Post a Comment