One day, I was finally able to wake up early and take a walk on the small island. The trees and birds remain unchanged, and the narrow suspension bridge sways gently. From this wooden platform, I watched the vast strait condense into deep dots. Between the horizon of sea and sky, ripples spread out. Often, we stand in front of these ripples, immersed in them, submerged beneath them. Yet, it's challenging to grasp their depth. One can't resist tossing a stone, watching it break the water, creating interweaving circles, casting waves, and making endless ripples.
Today, let's discuss a very 'Old School' topic: who the new entrepreneurs are, which we simply refer to as E3. Let's first look at the past definition of an entrepreneur. The term was first introduced to economics by the French economist Cantillon in 1755. In 1800, French economist Say first defined an entrepreneur as someone who transfers economic resources from low-yield areas to high-yield ones, seeing the entrepreneur as an agent in economic activities. Renowned economist Schumpeter (1934) believed that entrepreneurs should be innovators; thus, the definition expanded to include those who discover and introduce new and profitable products, services, and processes.
This means that entrepreneurs are essentially those who, under the rules of traditional capitalism, aim to enhance production efficiency. And indeed, innovation is a crucial ability in this. Over the past thirty years, Steve Jobs is a prime example. He combined design thinking and engineering prowess into a form of innovative entrepreneurship imbued with humanism. Elon Musk, with his strong thinking framework based on physics and economics, is another exemplary entrepreneur. The underlying premise here is that these individuals operate under the rules of traditional capitalism, including economic operations, corporate structures, and intellectual property laws.
We need to examine if any reforms have occurred to these basic assumptions, and how the definition of E3 might be redefined as a result.
The first shift is in our assumptions about currency. Satoshi Nakamoto has drastically reformed the decentralization of money. From this perspective, Nakamoto embodies a cyberpunk spirit of the times, suggesting that anyone can be like him. This means that every organization can monetize directly, and every individual possesses this monetizing ability.
For E3, their scope isn't limited to reforming production efficiency. The definition of what constitutes an organization can be revamped. Through restructuring of production relationships and then direct monetization in market games, E3 appears more as a revolutionary of the new era, an order definer, rather than a traditional entrepreneur.
To simplify, when the multidimensional rules are decoupled, E3s naturally assume the responsibility of defining rules. Regardless of whether they realize it, their legitimacy requirements, moral standards, and sense of community will resemble the rebels of the traditional era.
The second assumption is technological in nature. When the first low-trust automaton appeared, the definition of ownership began to change, both economically, legally, and in terms of social incentives.
Not only in technology do we adhere to the "Not your key, not your money" principle, but also soon to be "Not your key, not your organization." These new low-trust automatons will emerge, with E3 having tools that not only greatly enhance productivity but also effectively organize and provide incentive compatibility. The next scene might be "Not your key, not your message." Here, human thought and spirituality can be directly created.
For E3, this means not only being disruptors but also builders in this redefined production relationship and productivity tool environment.
The third assumption is from an economic structural perspective. The value of E3 is captured through tokens. In this sense, E3 resembles Deng Xiaoping, the "chief architect" of China's economic reform and opening up. They act as the chief architects in both traditional and Web3 domains.
In the Web3 ecosystem, E3 has multidimensional means to construct and develop economic entities. Many issues related to the construction of this new world can be pragmatically referenced from traditional nation-states and corporate economic design methods. E3s can also imagine and plan more creatively.
To put it simply, within the Web3 ecosystem, from the perspective of E3, there are multidimensional means available for building and developing economies. Often, when considering the construction of this new world, not only can we pragmatically refer to historical materialistic views of traditional national economies and corporate economic structures from the past, but we can also creatively imagine and devise entirely new, imaginative economic plans.
Not just in terms of the ways value is created within the economy, or how value is assessed, or development models, or how value is captured—this "chief designer" role can be more flexible, using precise on-chain data for analysis and decision-making to create accurate new plans.
From this perspective, the past definition of "entrepreneur" was more akin to an economic contractor, with much less emphasis on the concept of a chief designer.
The fourth assumption pertains to culture. E3, in its current form, clearly acts more like contributors. They are public, community-driven, bottom-up, and naturally form non-coercive consensus. In contrast, the past definition of an entrepreneur was self-centered, focused on users/customers, top-down, and enforced cultural outputs. If we assume that global capitalist laws have not yet caught up with this new era's order and technical standards, it naturally follows that new communities will form new moral and behavioral norms—what we refer to as new cultural attributes.
Under this decentralized community culture, E3, when compared to past entrepreneurs, has heightened public demands. Using classic examples like Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik, where public interest and self-interest clash, the community will lean towards the public interest. Public protocols "For public good" will increasingly be adopted by the community. Leaders who promote themselves under the guise of public interest will gradually lose community recognition. From this perspective, E3 resembles public benefit organizers, like past Red Cross organizers, rather than builders of private enterprises. E3's sense of mission will clearly surpass that of past entrepreneurs, as from day one, Satoshi Nakamoto imbued the new era with public interest behind the open-source spirit.
Another dimension to consider is the difference between community-driven and user-driven approaches. The former represents equality, as in the case of Satoshi Nakamoto, who did not discriminate. The latter, due to monopolies on discourse in the past, often resulted in apparent fairness rather than true equality. This is a major problem with the current internet—it seems equal, but is resulting in a monopoly on discourse. E3 appears to be a community selection process, not one where through their efforts users are persuaded. In this sense, E3 is more like a consensus organizer rather than a discourse provider. In the essence of the future era, communities co-create, and naturally, a consensus organizer is needed.
Certainly, the bottom-up and naturally non-coercive aspect is crucial in defining E3. Our past understanding of knowledge dissemination was top-down, like the current structure of Twitter, where KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) push their narratives. But clearly, the future is more balanced, more natural, and features a mutual knowledge production process. Non-coercive consensus is key. We don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, but the way he introduced his ideas to us was welcome. The formation of this consensus was very comfortable, elegant, and even imbued with new-age punk aesthetics. E3 may embody a more natural punk spirit.
In conclusion, E3 clearly combines attributes of revolutionists, creators, architects, and contributors, breaking away from past concepts of productivity, innovators, and disruptors. It's reminiscent of a feeling, standing on a cliff in Lisbon, wondering who would jump into the vast abyss, setting sail in turbulent waves towards a new land.