Historically, the greatest technological and corporate endeavors have been driven by a purpose that extends beyond the immediate objective of profit maximization. The companies run by Elon Musk are a great example. Consider SpaceX's ultimate mission to make humanity a multi-planetary species, or the objectives of Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink, which have sought to transform the industries of transportation, energy, and the interface between the human brain and artificial intelligence. These initiatives are unified by a compelling "why" - the desire to improve and extend the existence of humanity. In the words of Musk himself: ''This tiny candle of consciousness we have on Earth might be all there is”. And it is our belief that this kind of visionary "why" should be the clear foundation of all technological endeavors, with blockchain developments certainly being no exception. On the contrary; maintaining a firm perspective of the “why” in this field is possibly more vitally important than in any other.

Yet far too often in the blockchain industry, and in the digital industry at large, do we see the general discourse of a project focused around the "what" and the "how”, with very little explanation of the “why”. Without a fundamental understanding of the “why”, our participation in the space lacks the deep sense of purpose and meaning that is essential to steer it in a direction that aligns with its foundational values - a decentralized and open internet that serves as the backbone for a new type of economy; one that serves humanity in a way that is beneficial to all, regardless of background or status. We’re in danger of much of ‘Web3’ becoming a mere continuation of the centralization inherent in ‘Web2’, only in ways that are more subtle and inventive. This article aims to explore and re-introduce a perspective of the “why” - an attempt to transcend the mere pursuit of technological superiority or profit maximization into something deeper and more profound. There is no disputing that the aforementioned motivations are significant drivers of innovation, but such innovation is empty and even dangerous unless it’s ultimately directed by a higher moral purpose.

“Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and of government interference in economic transactions.”
Timothy C. May - The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto

The actions of the ‘Cypherpunks’, a digital activist group, were firmly rooted in the ‘why’ of decentralized technologies, and their literary works can offer us many important insights into the implications of cryptography for privacy, freedom, and the creation of alternative societal structures. They envisioned a world where the decentralizing power of cryptography could challenge existing power structures, and enable a more equitable distribution of power and resources. It was their revolutionary visions that led to the inception of blockchain technology, and the criticality of maintaining the cypherpunk ethos in the development of these new systems cannot be overstated. A blockchain infrastructure that contains tradeoffs in the core principles of decentralization and cryptographic security is insufficient for purpose, yet many builders proceed to falsely claim a marketing narrative that is superficially tied to the concept of decentralization to mask their prioritization of profit. 

“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Satoshi Nakamoto - The Bitcoin Whitepaper

Bitcoin wasn’t developed merely as a digital alternative to traditional currencies, but as an entirely novel approach to achieving sovereignty and transparency in finance - a reaction to a monetary system that has become overly centralized and corrupt, susceptible to manipulation by a select few at the expense of the many.

The principle of decentralization, embedded within Bitcoin, encouraged an entirely new way of thinking about and transacting value, inspiring a myriad of other projects that seek to embody similar values of trustlessness and permissionless, and unfortunately a huge amount more projects that seek to financially benefit from the hype surrounding these nascent but incredibly promising technologies.

“Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.”
Vitalik Buterin - Co-Creator of Ethereum

Standing on the shoulders of Satoshi, Ethereum extended beyond the transactory focus of Bitcoin, leveraging the fundamentals of blockchain to provide the basis for enabling a significantly broader spectrum of applications. Ethereum introduced the concept of smart contracts, self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code. This innovation greatly expanded blockchain's utility beyond simple transactions, opening up possibilities for creating decentralized applications that operate transparently and autonomously. 

Ethereum's development was driven by the belief that blockchain technology could serve as a foundational layer for a new kind of internet and society, one where intermediaries are no longer necessary, and individuals have greater control over their digital interactions and assets. This opened up unprecedented opportunities and incentives for open-source collaboration, truly kickstarting the greater movement of blockchain development. 

“The advent of the web deeply changed our way of interacting with each other. Yet, like the larger socio-economic environment, the web became increasingly centralized to the detriment of ordinary users. Inspired by the success of the cryptocurrency and blockchain movement, a next-gen web dubbed Web3 has been proposed to return the web to its decentralized roots - but Web3’s stratagem lacks clarity in its mechanism design.”
Ming Guo - Reputation Power Matrix LitePaper

We are at an extremely crucial moment, where we have the opportunity to replace corrupt monetary and social systems with decentralized and fair alternatives, offering a more level playing field for all human beings in our universal quest for survival and happiness, and thereby avoid the present course of increasing tyranny from the centralized powers who wish to rule and govern us according to their own particular predilections and self-interests. We each have differing visions for how we wish to live our own lives, but powerful actors manipulate the views of entire populations through media propaganda, censorship, government corruption and law enforcement. Permissionless systems do not offer mere alternatives to the systems under the control of such powers, but they are vital replacements of these systems; that is if we desire to preserve our individual freedoms and create a future that allows all human beings to thrive in autonomy, rather than merely survive in subservience. Governing systems should be an exact reflection of the will of the people, which may only be possible in a decentralized environment.

We must also look much further forward. Reality is nuanced and there are many possible outcomes for the future, yet the widespread dominance of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality appear to be inevitable. As their development and adoption gradually (or even suddenly) become more pronounced, so does the need for their decentralization. Centralized control of such technologies could lead to unprecedented monopolies on information and power, greatly enhancing the potential for abuse and manipulation by a few powerful actors at the expense of the many.

The highest potential of blockchain-based technologies is in freeing humanity from dystopian realities and potentialities, but its adoption is hindered by certain limiting factors. From both a functional and theoretical standpoint, the present state of the overall ecosystem may seem bewildering and unsafe to many ordinary ‘would-be’ users, and the vast noise around ‘crypto-currency’ asset speculation - including the plethora of projects that exist solely in attempt to capitalize on such speculation - maintain that blockchain’s fundamental objectives remain sparsely understood.

“Interoperability in blockchains is often implemented using a trusted bridge, a separate centralized or partially decentralized intermediary which validates and transfers cross-chain messages. In this work, we implement an interoperability protocol by judiciously entangling the underlying primitives under standard security assumptions of zkRollups, leveraging our state-of-the-art recursive zkVM. The Entangled Rollup protocol is trustless, and a step toward addressing liquidity fragmentation as well as simplifying the user and developer experience as major adoption barriers of the multi-chain world.”
ZKM Research - Entangled Rollups: Multi-chain Interoperability Without Bridges

The current state of the blockchain ecosystem can be described as highly fragmented, with liquidity scattered across disparate blockchains significantly hindering the fluid movement and exchange of value, leading to increased costs, long delays, and often complicated processes. Moreover, the profusion of protocols that have attempted to solve this problem of incompatibility has not only made for a highly perplexing environment for users to try to navigate, but these protocols each contain certain implicit flaws and trade-offs that can only be bypassed with a solution that integrates seamlessly with the underlying architecture of blockchains themselves, thereby maintaining their intrinsic properties of decentralization and security. 

Logically, any dependency on a third-party for interoperability introduces security risks and necessitates tradeoffs; the natures of which are diverse, but even the mildest risk to security or deviation from decentralization is enough to deem such ‘solutions’ as ultimately inadequate. If we are to achieve mass adoption of blockchain technologies, then there is a clear and urgent need for a single, truly trustless interoperability solution that is completely network agnostic.

Analogical to quantum entanglement, which explains the binding of particles regardless of distance, Entangled Rollups can connect blockchains regardless of their respective virtual machines, enabling instant state changes across networks in a seemingly indivisible manner, without any sacrifice to security or decentralization. Reflecting the synchronicity found in quantum entangled particles, this mechanism ensures that actions in one blockchain environment can seamlessly trigger corresponding reactions in another, facilitating a level of blockchain compatibility that was previously deemed infeasible due to the diverse underlying mechanics of these platforms.

‘Quantum Entangling’ of blockchains entirely bypasses the need for traditional bridging mechanisms, unifies their liquidity, and enables the entire ecosystem to function as a single, unified layer; culminating in a vastly safer and more efficient user experience, and frictionless access to a vast spectrum of decentralized services and assets. In our view, this solution could be the key to mass adoption, bringing much needed coherence to decentralized systems and acting as the basis for a truly trustless decentralized economy. 

But the existence of decentralized technologies alone may not be enough. When we closely examine the root causes of centralization, we find ourselves in a quandary.

“Centralization of power is a unique human phenomenon. In nature, no individuals of a species could accumulate centralized power like humans do. In fact, individual boundaries are quite well preserved across diverse species. The reason human species could break through biologically based individual boundaries to accumulate immense centralized power is due to the greatest innovation of all history, money, a tool that simultaneously harnesses communal value and breaks communal harmony. Money appears to have single-handedly propelled the human race to great achievement of civilization, as well as great exploitation and enslavement within the human race. Even the blockchain, as we know it, cannot escape the confines of money and its variants - crypto-tokens are forms of money. If this is the case, then we have a conundrum - if money, or crypto-tokens, are tools facilitating the centralization of power, how can blockchain technologies be truly decentralized?”
Ming Guo - DAC Economy Manifesto

In natural systems, each entity inherently sustains itself in harmony with its environment. In contrast, centralized human constructs enforce deviation from natural principles, often requiring us to behave in ways that are very much discordant with our health and innate propensities in order to conform and survive. Rather than freeing us from this discordance and enabling us to live in greater touch with our natural environment, many technologies have instead amplified the divisive effects of centralization, which will only increase in severity should we persist in our present course of rapid development and adoption of these nascent immersive technologies, such as those that create augmented and virtual realities. On our current path of technological advancement, virtual worlds that are indistinguishable from reality in which we increasingly use to work, play and socialize are an inevitability, and if such worlds are centralized - i.e. dictated by singular authorities - what then? 

We are inspired by the idea that, just as in nature, our technological and economic systems should not force or incentivize individuals into roles or behaviors that compromise their wellbeing or autonomy. Instead, our systems should, by design, encourage living in such a way that is harmonious with our nature, supporting our inherent human needs and inspiring activities that align with our individual health and happiness. But if unchecked and allowed to root in the proliferation of new types of currencies, our developing blockchain systems could serve merely to replicate the restrictive and inequitable structures that we originally sought to overcome. Those of us who were initially compelled to rebel are in danger of letting our newly found opportunities for personal gain keep us rooted in systems of vast inequality. We must not let our benefitting from this exponential wealth shift blind us from the greater good.  

These problems and insights give rise to a new idea, or at least a potentially crucial extension to the ideas that birthed blockchain technology: a self-sustainable decentralized economy.

"DAC Economy must break away from the grips of money. ‍
This is not to abandon money, but expand beyond it. DAC Economy’s new conceptualization of value has two types — the zero-sum type, which encompasses all money forms (including crypto-tokens), and the generative type, which has different mechanisms and dynamics from money. This new value conceptualization is called real value. Real value can be viewed as a form of mind’s communal energy.
We can’t just abandon money yet — but within and around DAC cycles the corruptive tendency of money can at least have a chance to be tamed and contained, to a certain point. The mechanisms that contain the ill side effects of zero-sum value, money, and facilitate the live and vibrant generative value, are managed and executed by DAC smart contracts."
Ming Guo - DAC Economy Manifesto

Logically, technological progress should result in a freer and improved existence for humanity as a whole, but our current systems are structured to promote economic competition and the self-centered monopolization of resources. While our monetary systems have been key to the organization of human labor, and its incentives have been a key historical driver of our collective technological progress, we are reaching a point where this approach is no longer necessary and is becoming increasingly detrimental to the broader society. Therefore, our ultimate goal is the facilitation of a self-sustainable decentralized economy, in which our technologies are directed by a singular primary function: the intelligent gathering and equitable distribution of the resources necessary to support the holistic wellbeing of all people. 

‍We believe that human systems need to reflect the balance, resilience and intrinsic patterns of natural ecosystems, where each element supports and sustains the whole. There is no central authority in nature; instead, countless interactions between diverse and indivisible entities create a balanced and self-regulating environment. We aim to mirror this efficiency in economic terms by constructing a blockchain infrastructure that acts as a broader societal framework, promoting a sense of value creation beyond the merely monetary, and enabling individuals and communities to have direct control over their assets, data and essential services without the disproportionate influence of centralized intermediaries. We envision a system that emphasizes this type of value creation over the present norm of value extraction, encouraging individuals and communities to thrive on the merits of collaboration and shared prosperity, rather than on the empty pursuit of excessive value accrual. This requires a fundamental redefining of ‘value’ beyond financial metrics; a deep shift in our collective priorities, instead focusing our contributions towards communal health, environmental sustainability, and cultural enrichment, rather than on the meager and illusory pursuit of personal gain. We must no longer be so readily willing to accept and partake in systems that are built on extortion and that encourage endless value extraction.

The endgame is a highly efficient, secure, and self-sustaining decentralized infrastructure, that is carefully designed to facilitate the responsible gathering and equitable distribution of resources by our artificially intelligent technologies, entirely directed by our shared communal governance, cultivating a balanced and self-regulating environment. The endgame is an economy that is designed to support the total wellbeing of each and every last one of us. And this radical change in the world must start with each one of us, for we are the world and the world is us.

This is the ‘WHY’ of ZKM.