The Decentralized Web and the Paradox of Privacy

Protecting privacy online is one of the great challenges of the Internet Age. As the saying goes, if you're not paying for the product, then you (and your data) are the product. Now, as companies continue to sweep up vast troves of information in order to monetize people's attention, Big Tech faces a revolt of the public. With the current internet crumbling under the weight of its flaws, a growing audience looks to the nascent decentralized web as the solution to privacy's longstanding challenges.

But operationalizing the abstract concept of privacy, already difficult for centralized systems, becomes even more complex for decentralized networks. As builders innovate in this space and policymakers grapple with the implications of these technologies, we must think through privacy's evolving relationship with security and digital ownership.

What does privacy mean on the decentralized web? What lessons can we learn from Big Tech's privacy failures, and how should we apply them to the decentralized web? How should we balance the potentially conflicting desires to enhance both national security and individual privacy?

Join the Foundation for American Innovation in New York City on Wednesday, May 31 as we convene a panel of crypto natives, privacy advocates, and national security experts to discuss the paradox of privacy on the decentralized web.