# Collective self-determination by Sam Hart [Skip] x Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress

- Speakers: [Sam Hart](https://streameth.org/speakers/sam-hart)
- Channel: [Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress](https://streameth.org/ethereum-cypherpunk-congress)
- Date: 2025-10-07
- Duration: 13:42
- Topics: Education
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-fSJly21DtkM
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSJly21DtkM

## Description

How to build solidarity economy, reach collective self-determination, and role of privacy in the realm of accountable sovereignity. 

Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress facilitated by the Web3Privacy now collective: https://www.web3privacy.info

Sam https://x.com/hxrts
Skip https://www.skip.build

Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress: https://congress.web​3privacy.info
X: https://x.com/web3privacy

## Transcript

so a little bit of background um I uh this talk came out of some research that I was doing with um other internet uh an applied research group that I work with and um it kind of started with an investigation into uh networked public goods um and kind of found its way into privacy um so it's going to take a little while to kind of loop back around to privacy um but hopefully this will kind of clarify a few things for you um so yeah when we were looking into to public goods on the internet um we ran into some challenges kind of like understanding what that looked like because the you know a public is often defined as kind of in the context of a state or um some kind of closed social unit and uh the internet is you know a a Global Network and um the kind of understanding that we came to the the kind of um proposition that we put forward is that um first of all digital public goods are um kind of scale through these Network effects and they um they are kind of unique to uh specific sub subcultures that live on the internet um so we yeah we kind of put forward this this notion of a a solidarity economy that's composed of these discrete uh Network Sovereign sovereignties and the the what this architecture kind of avoids is this hegemonic trap of um having to define a singular good um that you know for the entire internet for the entire globe um so yeah now you know a precondition to what um basically I'm going to kind of argue for or or try to theorize this notion of a a collect of collective self-determination um there's kind of two pieces that I'm going to go into accountability and sovereignty so sovereignty is supreme authority within some territory um territory is basically able to uh Define a boundary and um address a subject without without actually naming them and um accountability is something that I kind of runs through like all of my work all of my research um kind of keeps coming up and uh the what I've come to understand about accountability is it's basically a a control mechanism it is a a way of of exerting proxy control over uh over a delegated party um there are two kind of self-reinforcing components of accountability uh answerability uh which basically gives V visibility over action and enforcement um which we all understand and these kind of feed into one another so um through enforcement you can compel answerability and through answerability you can justify the use of force um so I'm going to talk a bit about sovereignty um so sovereignty is uh there's kind of multiple facets of sovereignty um I'm going to talk about external and internal sovereignty so um external sovereignty is freedom from outside influence um basically it defines a boundary between inside and so um one thing that people maybe don't necessarily uh realize when they think first think of sovereignty is that recognition is actually the first kind of element of of sovereignty uh one individual needs to recognize a third party in order for them to uh in order for a boundary to be respected so uh Geographic boundary or um some other kind of right uh so um yeah you kind of start this this um this consensual Loop by legitimizing a third party through recognition um it's a mutual process um and then the way that two entities uh then start to engage one another is uh after legitimizing one another kind of recognizing that their existence and the kind of boundary of of this in this case a state um they can then consent uh to engage in in some kind of arrangement um so this could be a trade agreement or it could be um a a kind of free border or or whatever um so consent is actually one of the the kind of primary Logics in which um Sovereign entities interact with one another and this is because there's no kind of outside Authority that you can call to um you need to kind of come come to one another on your own terms um what you do have is uh peers so uh third um third party States um often hold um parties accountable uh just by kind of having visibility into their into the arrangement itself so uh if one state kind of breaks a trade agreement it kind of indicates that they're going to be less trustworthy in the future um so being kind of answerable to these kind of future diplomatic expectations um is an important component in kind of holding this whole regulatory system together um internal sovereignty so internal sovereignty requ um refers to the scope of control within a geographic boundary um so what does the control regime look like within a state in this case um again recognition is kind of the first step towards internal sovereignty um and it's it's kind of constitutive of the social contract so confirming basically the people uh legitimize uh a state by recognizing statehood you know this is the a legitimate government and a state recognizes the people um by giving bestowing citizenship and uh again it's not often like spoken explicitly but this naming process the recognition of statehood the recognition of people is absolutely critical to holding the system together and you can kind of manipulate the regime of control by by uh by manipulating the you know how you deem uh who is recognized as a citizen for instance so this is why um voter regulation or or kind of a um yeah controlling who is able to participate in in the the voting process is so important um so state power originates from the consent of the Govern um after you've kind of gone through this process of legitimation um you have a foundation for engaging in a consensual or coercive relationship with the entity that you're interacting with in this case estate again um so this is the the rule of law and the people kind of working within um within that space um importantly uh exceptions to the rule are really what determine who ultimately has control in the system so um if you are able to kind of circumvent the traditional process of governance and the regime of control you you are now the the kind of sovereign Authority um and the uh this is why kind of at the bottom here you see um representation is ultimately a forced enforced through credible threat of Revolt um if the people do not have the ability to uh have ultimate say over um what the what the kind of designated State actor is um then you end up having a kind of runaway regime where uh people no longer have control um so really understanding the kind of dynamics of exception um who has the ability to control under these extreme conditions is absolutely important for understanding uh who has sovereignty um this is massive on my screen so I won't read it but this is one of my favorite Hanah run quotes um basically indicates uh point I I want to kind of bring up here is that um her conception of power is um very interesting it it really says that power can kind of only be bestowed by Third parties um so uh we kind of gain power through others consensual um uh it flows through others so um we gain gain power by others giving it to us um if you were to exert if you're going to exert control coercively um this is Authority without power so yeah just to kind of turn this into a 2 by two um Collective self-determination so really the kind of end goal that we're trying to achieve here requires both sovereignty and accountability um if you only have one then you're either in uh you know a you're you're either in a tyranny you you don't have any accountability but you you have a sovereign entity is kind of a monarch scenario or uh you're relying on uh a kind of outside regime of control um in order to uh in order for your accountability construct to um to exist um so in order to have this kind of self-determination you know you are in control of the system people are in control of the system and to um yeah to have that kind of independently um have that control derive through independent voice you need both of these together um so where does privacy come in I haven't like mentioned privacy the entire time basically privacy defines the border between um the state and people and the people it it gives them in uh an independent space from which they can work work in similar to the geographic border defined by uh through by by this consensual process um that I SP spoke of before um without privacy uh the state has full visibility or the the kind of um Sovereign entity has has full visibility into the lives and decisions of the people that it's governing and um those those are then kind of folded into the regime of control so there there needs to be some independent space in order for the people to participate independently so yeah any regulatory apparatus that's able to hold sovereigns accountable requires uh this threat this credible threat of a coordinated regime change um even if you're not going to exercise that threat it's essential to um kind of demonstrate that it's there and the private sphere um protects this autonomous Zone uh where individuals can freely assemble deliberate and coordinate such action so privacy is absolutely necessary it's a precondition for Collective self- Nation that's it [Applause]