A Look Into the Future With Author Evan McFarland
In the new frontier of Big Tech in the 21st century, author Evan McFarland is here to make sense of some of the most challenging questions facing companies, leaders, entrepreneurs, and just about everyone else.
From the future of privacy to financial infrastructure, Evan McFarland’s work Blockchain Wars: The Future of Big Tech Monopolies and the Blockchain Internet covers the many different pieces of the technological puzzle as we all look toward the future of our connected world.
We took time to get to know more about Evan’s journey to writing Blockchain Wars, and the impact of his work that we’ve started to experience today:
Tell us a little bit about your journey to writing your first book, Blockchain Wars: The Future of Big Tech Monopolies and the Blockchain Internet. What inspired you to start?
I’ll be very honest here, because I remember it like it was yesterday. It happened in spring 2019 one day during my undergrad in an Engineering Economics class. For a typical class at that time I’d just put in earplugs and read cryptocurrency whitepapers (I know this was impolite, but useless is too forgiving a word for my average class lecture, so I digress), but not this class. This professor was keen on engaging the students on all things arithmetic, especially the distracted ones, so I had to lose the earplugs. It was infuriating. On a particularly busy day, I situated myself in a new seat as far away from the action as possible, right by a window. Without forethought, I began profusely writing video ideas for my YouTube channel and finished the class with about a dozen. I realized none of them were a fit for YouTube, they were meant to be chapters of a book, and right then and there I decided to write it. In the following months, the overall book arc eluded me. I had read many books on the subject that I vehemently disagreed with. Even my favorites had the same general explanation of Bitcoin followed by hundreds of pages of exceedingly optimistic applications for blockchain technology. I had no idea how to find deep truths on the subject. I spent that summer on a ship in the mid-Atlantic as part of my studies, and with not much to do, much of that time was spent meditating. Once in deep meditation the answer hit me like a ton of bricks: the truth about “blockchain” lies in knowledge of the companies it means to replace. What don’t the Big Tech and Crypto worlds understand about each other? That’s the story, and the rest is history.
For someone interested in learning more about blockchain technology outside of the tech space, where is a good place to begin?
Author Evan McFarland
Right where you are now! Blockchain will touch most of the Internet, so whatever industry you’re in, stay there. Just like a typical business owner won’t benefit much from learning how the Internet works, you probably won’t grasp much value learning the nuts and bolts of blockchains. I would instead focus on decentralization, what it means, and what it’s for. The Starfish and the Spider is my favorite book on the subject and a good starting point. If the work you do could benefit by applying it in a decentralized framework, an intuitive sense of how will become immediately apparent. Then stay focused on what you're passionate about and outsource the technical expertise. The goal of my book was to be a field guide of many cross-discipline blockchain applications, so by the end readers have the foundation to go after whichever one makes them tick.
How has the book been received by different audiences, from those working in tech to startup blockchain companies to government leaders?
I suspect that government leaders wouldn’t like it very much, but I haven’t heard from any. The most common reader I hear from is someone looking to pivot or start a career that intersects with blockchain, and the book seems to have been a wonderful fit for those folks. Those already in blockchain startups, including many of my friends, are way too busy and burnt out to read a book about blockchain, and I don’t blame them for a second. I was most pleasantly surprised by several incumbent industry leaders that read my book and need help decentralizing their companies in order to compete with Big Tech. I can’t describe what a pleasure it is seeing such incumbents attempt that shift for the first time ever.
Since Blockchain Wars was published, have you seen any of the market or tech predictions within the book start to unfold?
Yes! The book was structured in such a way that readers could make individual predictions by mapping their worldview onto newfound blockchain knowledge, but the topics I used to explain blockchain are just starting to enter the public consciousness. The book’s explanation of “blockchain” was taken through the lens of Web3 infrastructure, not DeFi or digital gold type narratives. If you look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, you’ll notice they’re mostly Web3 infrastructure/building block type coins, even though they’re still almost entirely user-less. It means the general market has caught on to the future potential and supremacy of the Web3 category. Furthermore, Blockchain Wars was dedicated in large part (about 1/5th) to blockchain governance and governance mechanisms, a concept that barely existed when I started writing and was still nascent at best during the book’s release. Now, looking at those same Web3 coins and their subsidiaries, “governance tokens” are now the standard. The now burgeoning concept only proved itself in the last six months as multi-billion dollar tokenomics models have been made to revolve around little more than shared myths about governance rights.
What’s next for your writing? Do you have a follow-up planned for Blockchain Wars?
I have no plans for future writing. I wrote Blockchain Wars not because I’m a writer, but to reveal ideas that would never otherwise be articulated. Now that those ideas are coming to fruition in the real world, directly contributing to them is more of a priority.
As a final and more fun question, with all of your work assessing tech and looking toward the future, do you have a favorite sci-fi book or movie?
In racking my brain for this one, I realize I never liked the genre. Sci-fi annoys me when it’s inaccurate and scares the crap out of me when it’s accurate. I guess it’s true what they say, the best leisure is what’s furthest from your work.