dependent on where you are born. Mintgate was another company that showed an innovative project, building a digital platform that lets content creators have more autonomy and accessibility to share their digital works, such as NFTs. Their fundamental design was built for users who are not famous nor inherently well-known in any crypto or blockchain community. While many companies build with intention to enable access, there was notable concern with at least one company's model that sought to restrict access. Marketed as a “decentralized access control infrastructure designed to bring more utility to the web,” Lit Protocol allows individuals or companies to restrict access in different ways between the regular internet and web 3.0. An example was a Twitter post with a link, which prevented anyone from seeing and clicking the link unless they—quite literally—had enough cryptocurrency in their wallet. This protocol uses their own blockchain technology to make
these kinds of restrictions largely unhackable or unalterable. When asked if he found it inherently problematic that this technology could incentivize companies to make more exclusionary practices, co-founder David Sneider gave a telling response. “Well, restricted access, in some ways, is simply part of the market economy,” Sneider said. Using AMC as an example, he explained that the tool allows for systems like a VIP ticket, where people can purchase a product and get exclusive access to content when the product is acquired. However, he failed to address the fact that everyone has access to the same menu of products, in his example. A tool like Lit Protocol allows anyone to restrict access to whomever they see fit—not just to the product, but the very menu of products itself. “We’re at the low end of the system, so we have no say in
what users do,” Sneider said. “We just provide the tools, letting users do with them as they see fit.” Mark Zuckerberg had a very similar mindset when Facebook made its launch 10 years ago. It begs the question: If a tool has so much potential for misuse, why build it in the first place?
ANASTASIA PARGETT
PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 2, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
SCIENCE & TECH
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