Dot earth | Open Money and internet scale

Operating at internet scale makes Open Money both inevitable and resilient

At internet scale, money becomes something more than a means of exchange. Instead, it becomes an open protocol for collaboration, innovation, and shared prosperity.

Just as open-source software unlocked new possibilities for developers around the world, Open Money unlocks financial systems that were once confined by geography, regulation, and legacy institutions. It rewrites the rules, making financial inclusion not a charitable cause or goal, but an inevitable reality.

In this context, Open Money is a technological breakthrough, but its also a cultural shift — an evolution in how we perceive and engage with value.

Just like the growth and adoption of the internet flattened hierarchies of information, Open Money has the potential to flatten hierarchies of wealth and power. Permissionless systems don’t ask for approval. They challenge long-standing gatekeepers and redefine participation.

In this new age of oligarchs, a global financial fabric that can achieve internet scale is an important safeguard.

Internet scale unlocks new economic models — models that are global by default, resilient by design, and inclusive by necessity. When money operates on an open, permissionless network, it empowers individuals and communities to build, transact, and thrive without reliance on intermediaries.

This changes not only who can participate but also how economic systems evolve over time.

This shift isn't without friction. The incumbents — banks, governments, and traditional financial institutions — will resist. The idea of money flowing freely, without borders or intermediaries, is a direct challenge to their dominance.

But history has shown that when technology lowers barriers, change becomes unstoppable.

The printing press defied the gatekeepers of knowledge.

The internet defied the gatekeepers of information.

Open Money will defy the gatekeepers of value.

And yet, it’s not just about defiance. Open Money offers something more profound: the opportunity to reimagine trust. In a world where trust in institutions is eroding, decentralized systems provide an alternative — the integrity of code, in consensus, in transparency.

This is why the timing is so critical. As geopolitical tensions rise, institutions, and billionaires tighten their grip, Open Money offers a counter-narrative—one of openness, inclusion, and human collaboration at scale.

The question isn’t whether Open Money will succeed; it’s how long the transition will take. As more people plug into permissionless systems, the gravitational pull of open economies will grow stronger.

The walls being built today will eventually crumble under the weight of a networked, borderless world. And in that world, money won’t just be a tool for transactions, it will be a foundation for a more interconnected, resilient, and dynamic global society.

Internet scale also makes Open Money more resilient. Unlike centralized systems that can be targeted, controlled, or co-opted by oligarchs and institutions, permissionless networks distribute power across the entire system.

This decentralization ensures that no single point of failure exists, making Open Money resistant to attacks, censorship, and hostile takeovers. In essence, the more widely it is adopted, the stronger and more secure it becomes. The collective strength of millions of nodes and participants creates an economic fabric that is flexible, antifragile, and inherently resistant to control.

This post is part of the Open Money project, an ongoing series that forms the basis of a longer work. Subscribe to get a weekly update as it unfolds.

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