Internet Values

2025-07-07   sketch mentalmodel startup

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Merit over Status

• Your value is judged by your output, not your background, degree, or institutional affiliation.
  

• “Show me the code” > “Tell me your title.”
  

Permissionlessness

• Anyone can build or join without asking a gatekeeper.
  

• Example: permissionless innovation on the web, or deploying smart contracts on Ethereum.
  

Build > Talk

• Builders and makers are prioritized over theorists and commentators.
  

Open Source as Default

• Sharing your code and knowledge is the norm.
  

• Licenses like MIT, Apache, and GPL are cultural mainstays.
  

Decentralization

• Preference for decentralized systems (e.g., blockchains, Web3) over top-down hierarchies.
  

• Supports individual sovereignty and minimizes reliance on centralized institutions.
  

Openness

• Open-source software.
  

• Open access to information (e.g., Wikipedia, MOOCs).
  

• Transparency in protocol and system design.
  

Pseudonymity / Privacy

• Value of pseudonymous identities (e.g., Satoshi Nakamoto)
  

• Enables freedom of expression and contribution in oppressive regimes or politically sensitive domains.
  

• Support for privacy-preserving technologies (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs, end-to-end encryption)
  

Globalism

• Borderless collaboration—remote-first, async-first, English-as-a-working-language.
  

• A community where geography is secondary to shared protocols and platforms.
  

Code is Law

• Systems are governed by code, smart contracts, and cryptographic proofs—not subjective legal interpretations.
  

• Aligns with the crypto-anarchist and cypherpunk ideologies.
  

Forkability

• If you don’t like the direction a platform or protocol is heading, you can fork it and go your own way.
  

• This applies to software, communities, and even countries (à la network states).
  

Censorship Resistance

• Free speech by design.
  

• Platforms and protocols should resist coercive state or corporate censorship (e.g., Signal, Tor).
  

Asynchronous Communication

• Time zones don’t matter.
  

• Work happens via GitHub issues, Pull Requests, Notion docs, and async tools like Slack or Discord.
  

Optimism for Technology

• Strong belief that technology can solve problems better than regulation or politics.
  

• Faith in exponential progress (e.g., AI, biotech, space).
  

Network-first Thinking

• Value flows from networks: protocols, platforms, DAOs, reputation systems.
  

• Belief in building “from the internet up” rather than “from the nation-state down.”
  

Skepticism of Legacy Institutions

• Distrust of media, governments, academia, and legacy banks.
  

• Preference for provable systems (e.g., cryptographic proofs) over appeals to authority.
  

Build Culture

• Celebration of builders, makers, hackers, and entrepreneurs.
  

• “Build” as a verb and ethos—central to Balaji’s own philosophy.
  

Remote-first Work

• Physical location is irrelevant; productivity matters.
  

• Work from anywhere, coordinate online.
  

Opt-In Governance

• Governance by consent and voluntary association.
  

• DAOs, smart contracts, and network states exemplify opt-in social contracts.
  

Transparency

• Preference for provable claims, not appeals to reputation.
  

• Public blockchains, reproducible builds, and open APIs.
  

Rapid Iteration

• Fast feedback loops, shipping MVPs, deploying in public.
  

• Agile > Bureaucracy.
  

Economic Skin in the Game

• Aligning incentives through tokens, equity, or contribution.
  

• Stake-based governance and financial accountability.
  

Exponential Mindset

• Belief in accelerating returns from technologies like AI, crypto, biotech, robotics.
  

• Linear models seen as outdated.
  

Anti-fragility

• Systems should improve under stress.
  

• Modular, redundant, and evolvable architectures are favored.
  

Protocols over Platforms

• Long-term focus on protocol layers (e.g., HTTP, TCP/IP, Ethereum) rather than centralized platforms (e.g., Facebook, Google).
  

• Protocols tend to be more open, stable, and interoperable.
  

Cryptographic Trusts or replace trust with verifiability

• Replace trust in institutions with math (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs, hash commitments).
  

• “Don’t trust, verify.”
  

Exit > Voice

• Rather than complain about broken systems, just leave or build a better one.
  

• This is foundational to network states, open-source forks, and even digital nomadism.
  

Community over State

• Identity rooted in online communities, not national borders.
  

• You’re a citizen of Ethereum, not just the U.S., Turkey, or Japan.
  

Long-Termism

• Belief in building civilizations and technologies that last.
  

• Network states, Mars colonization, AI alignment—these all reflect long time horizons.
  

Xanadu

• Xanadu Project
  

Deflationary Culture

• Software costs trend to zero; hardware costs fall over time.
  

• Opposes fiat inflation, hence favoring Bitcoin and deflationary assets.
  

Digital Minimalism

• Build products that don’t exploit attention spans.
  

• Favor productivity over engagement-maximization (a reaction to social media addiction).
  

Education is Open and Peer-Led

• Learn on YouTube, StackOverflow, Coursera, GitHub—not from gatekept institutions.
  

• Degrees are less relevant than portfolios or public work.
  

Interoperability

• Internet protocols work together: TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS, etc.
  

• New systems should follow the same ethos: composability and open APIs.
  

Epistemic Humility

• Internet-native thinkers often assume no one is fully correct, and truth is emergent from open discourse.
  

• This is why open debate, feedback loops, and Skin in the Game matter.
  

Default to Public

• Building in public, learning in public, and sharing knowledge openly.
  

• This allows replication, remixing, and improvement.
  

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