As large technology companies invest heavily to emerge as leaders in the metaverse, the risk remains that walled gardens extend from the social-mobile era of the Internet into the metaverse era. On this episode, we chat with Professor Udi Shapiro, an interdisciplinary scientist, Internet pioneer, artist, and proponent of e-democracy. He has been with the Weizmann Institute of Science since completing his PhD at Yale University in 1982. Udi provides great insight into his work on e-democracy and building an egalitarian, democratic metaverse and empowering communities with grass-roots cryptocurrencies.