Faith in Web3

Normally we talk about faith in religious environments, nobody talks about faith in digital or technological environments, but, stay on these lines and give me the opportunity to explain this matter. So before you think that I am going down a religious path, nothing to see, first of all let's go back to the etymology of the word faith, which comes from the Latin “fides” this can be confirmed in any Latin-Spanish dictionary. Fides, comes to mean trust or loyalty.

Although the word faith is associated with religiosity, I believe that it is possible to approach faith in a certain way, and be able to apply it to our daily digital life, and surely you may be wondering how to have faith in web3?

Let's propose an analogy, at some point we can go through some pathology whether mild or serious, we go to the doctor or specialist to tell us what to do, after making the respective checkup, he mentions which are the drugs and the steps to follow during treatment, it may be the case that we completely ignore how the condition we suffer from works and much less know how the drug works in our body; and yet, we comply fully because somehow we have faith (trust) in the specialist.

In the same way I think it usually happens with technology, we usually do not understand how it works, but we care that it works, we have faith that technology works as it should work. However, even if we can live that way, I think there is a Latin phrase that could come in handy in this reflection.

St. Anselm of Canterbury said centuries ago: "Credo ut intelligam ” and that summarizes all the scholastic thought of the Middle Ages, where they debated the relationship between faith and reason, and that such a phrase of St. Anselm and that is also used numerous times by St. Augustine of Hippo, comes to mean that the previous step to understand is to believe, or in other words to have faith, because faith opens the way to knowledge, although, in this sense, we can propose a particularly opposite phrase.

Intellego ut credam

I remember reading this phrase for the first time in the papal encyclical “Fides and Ratio”. A phrase that is opposed to the previous one, since it means, I understand in order to believe, and it is precisely this phrase with which the possibility of having faith in web3 resonates with me the most. I believe that it is precisely this idea that should move us as enthusiasts of these new ways of understanding the Internet and of relating to each other in these new digital environments. That is, we must be moved by the spirit of curiosity, a sincere curiosity that is, with full openness to want to understand the processes, what the concepts mean, what this whole horizon that we call web3 philosophy is all about.

Do you find Bitcoin interesting? I ask you: Do you know what SHA-256 is?

Do you like Hive? I ask you: Do you understand how the DPOs protocol works?

Look at it as a challenge, taking it on will open your mind and from that understanding you will have faith in web3. In summary, faith is not only believing in the invisible, it is knowing that the invisible has a logic and that understanding is the key to unveil that which makes it invisible, I think I understand, if not, leave me in the comments your doubts.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)