It had to happen: “Blogchain” - that’s blog, not block-chain - is a decentralized Substack competitor seeking to combine Web3 infrastructure with good writing. Built using IPFS and NEAR, the system hopes to free writers from the problems that have bedeviled Web2 creator platforms: politicization, unfair algorithms or writing for ad revenue, and not customers. Even getting paid will hopefully be easier, with crypto wallets.

Of course the debate surrounding digital publishing isn’t simply technical. It’s also political and ideological. Will the blockchain empower free speech, or will communities find new architecture to moderate themselves? If centralized platforms are a thing of the past, what does the future of publishing look like?

Nadim Kobeissi is a former adjunct professor in computer security at NYU Paris. After completing a PHD in cryptography, Kobeissi founded Capsule Social to explore what he calls “decentralized discourse.”