# Vinay Gupta: his works and how they connect (part 6 of 9, 2012 to 2013)

> Every work in his career record (175), by year, with what it is, the thread it belongs to, what it came from and led to and why, and the sources in the archive about it. Part 6 of 9, 2012 to 2013; continues in https://guptaoption.com/texts/works-7.md. Vinay Gupta, exponential humanitarian. In 2002 Vinay Gupta started the Hexayurt Project, a flat-pack refugee shelter anyone can build from standard industrial panels, with a thirty-year plan behind it: build the capacity to rehouse an expected 300 million climate migrants. Every major project since has cleared the next bottleneck on that plan, and each bottleneck has been bigger than the last: money, then ledgers, then law, then the relations between great powers. Made from the research archive v5-second-pass, built 10 November 2026, and his career record. The map of the whole archive is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt; source ids such as [250] are at https://guptaoption.com/texts/250.md.

### Blind in the Panopticon: The decreasing marginal utility of access to information as an aspect of cyber policy (2012)

- Identity, law and blockchain; argument; specified; work id blind-panopticon; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/blind%20in%20the%20panopticon.pdf
- What: Cyber policy essay: past a point, more surveillance data has negative value, because a state can collect far more than it can act on.
- Summary: Seven pages. Information has no clear price because its future use is unknown, so institutions stockpile and hoard it, with diminishing returns. The worked example is a notional state where homosexuality is illegal: network traffic can now incriminate some 1% to 3% of citizens, far more than the courts can process, so enforcement turns arbitrary and the law loses its appearance of uniform enforcement. Past that point each new data point has negative marginal value, and the skill that matters is separating the relevant from the irrelevant. Cyber is better framed as espionage, like ENIGMA and radar, than as a total-war weapon alongside nuclear, biological and chemical arms.
- Threads: cyber and defense; rich data capitalism
- Came from CheapID (2006): data the state should not hold. Evidence (implied by the later work): State In A Box: Identity Services Architecture (2006) https://guptaoption.com/4.SIAB-ISA.php; Blind in the Panopticon (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/blind%20in%20the%20panopticon.pdf#page=2
- Led to One Network, One World: Designing for a 7+ Billion Person World (2013): what cheap information is worth. Evidence (implied by the later work): Blind in the Panopticon, p. 5 (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/blind%20in%20the%20panopticon.pdf#page=5; OHM2013 talk 37:30, rich networks out-compete price signals [transcribed] (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=2250s
- Sources (21, by hand first, then by importance): [6](https://guptaoption.com/texts/6.md) Blind in the Panopticon: The decreasing marginal utility... (2012); [81](https://guptaoption.com/texts/81.md) On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography | The... (2012); [21](https://guptaoption.com/texts/21.md) RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011); [77] I went to the same school as Julian Assange, but we... (2011) (no text here); [11](https://guptaoption.com/texts/11.md) RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011); [820](https://guptaoption.com/texts/820.md) Copyright and the digital economy: a case for reason (2010); [693](https://guptaoption.com/texts/693.md) Interview with Vinay Gupta by Paul Tanasyuk |... (2017); [368](https://guptaoption.com/texts/368.md) Superstruct Communications Intercept 1 - DCAR (2008); [64](https://guptaoption.com/texts/64.md) Hope for the World – my talk from the Emergency Housing... (2009); [143](https://guptaoption.com/texts/143.md) The Global Cyber Game: Achieving strategic resilience in... (2013); [446](https://guptaoption.com/texts/446.md) Complete Privacy in Crypto is a Bad Thing (2025); [674](https://guptaoption.com/texts/674.md) ‘Reputation Systems are ‘Prejudice as a Service’’ (2022); ...

### Complexity Kills (2012)

- Crisis planning; specified; work id complexity-kills; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/complexity_kills/Complexity_Kills__Dealing_in_Security__Vinay_Gupta.pdf
- What: Talk on surviving a systemic collapse: pick your team with a Social Thermometer, then map threats to assets with SCIM.
- Summary: Simple rules produce complex behavior; checklists for life. A talk version of Dealing in Security.
- Sources (1, by hand first, then by importance): [492](https://guptaoption.com/texts/492.md) US vs MiCA (2025)

### Mother of Hydrogen (2012)

- Writing and inner practice; specified; work id moh; https://github.com/rrthomas/moh
- What: Novel drawing on the shelter, meditation and pandemic work.
- Summary: Novel, 2012 draft. Decoder ring. Draws on hexayurt (Harappa), meditation (Puppet, Nuit/Shakti), and plague from the H5N1 / SPRS work (Second Holocaust 2029). Also the smallpox-genome-and-printer register. Not a SCIM need.
- Threads: fiction draws on; hexayurt to chain
- Came from The Future We Deserve (2012): companion novel
- Came from Hexayurt (2002): Harappa, hexayurt city. Evidence (he says so): Mother of Hydrogen: arrival at Harappa (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt; Mother of Hydrogen: the compound (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Came from Hexayurt infrastructure kit (2003): sun, toilets, one storey. Evidence (implied by the later work): Mother of Hydrogen: point-of-use utilities in Harappa (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Came from Solo meditation (1987): the interior practice, as fiction. Evidence (implied by the later work): Mother of Hydrogen: Harry and Peter sit (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Came from Internal dialogue stops (1993): Puppet, Nuit, Shakti. Evidence (implied by the later work): Mother of Hydrogen: Nuit and Shakti (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt; Mother of Hydrogen: the Puppet totem (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Came from Severe Panflu Response Strategies (H5N1) (2008): the plague in the book; severe panflu as systems problem, then as plot
- Came from RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011): smallpox genome and a printer. Evidence (implied by the later work): Defense, Security, Resilience and rapid technological change (RCDS cyber paper), p. 12 (2011) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/Defense_Security_Resilience_and_rapid_technological_change.pdf#page=12; Mother of Hydrogen: Permanent Reds and replicators (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Came from The Unplugged (2006): nine billion lifestyle, then the novel. Evidence (implied by the later work): The Unplugged (2006-02-20) https://www.appropedia.org/User:Vinay_Gupta/The_Unplugged; Mother of Hydrogen: point-of-use utilities in Harappa (2012-11) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/mother_of_hydrogen.txt
- Sources (4, by hand first, then by importance): [148](https://guptaoption.com/texts/148.md) Mother of Hydrogen (2012); [155](https://guptaoption.com/texts/155.md) Mother of Hydrogen (2012); [822](https://guptaoption.com/texts/822.md) Mother of Hydrogen, a novel (2012); [256](https://guptaoption.com/texts/256.md) I'm coming to Malta (2019)

### On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (2012)

- Identity, law and blockchain; argument; specified; work id crypto-utopia; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-un-designing-the-cryptographic-utopia-2991
- What: Blog essay taking apart the cypherpunk dream of a code-made society, and sketching the few cryptographic primitives a politically sophisticated internet would need instead.
- Summary: About 2,550 words, 4 February 2012, the middle of a three-post series. Its companion, On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography, written the same day, says a political order should not be accepted just because it drops out of the code: implement what is known to work, with "a Jefferson at the Keyboard". Un-designing the utopia starts from the bind that with current technology one must choose between free speech and enforceable copyright. It sketches end-to-end encryption by default, carrying neighbors' encrypted traffic as a common-carrier courtesy, identities split by secret sharing, community accountability, and forks when a community refuses subpoenas, and ends on "a handful of well-designed cryptographic primitives" for a digital backbone built on untrusted networks.
- Threads: cryptographic applications
- Came from Cypherpunks (1992): the cypherpunk utopia, un-designed. Evidence (he says so): On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography (blog) (2012-02-04) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-the-ethics-and-pragmatics-of-cryptography-2985
- Led to Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012): from principles to a practical system. Evidence (he says so): Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012-02-05) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004
- Led to People's Cloud architecture and futures in 1000 words (2013): peer-to-peer stacks will replace the data center. Evidence (implied by the later work): On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (blog) (2012-02-04) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-un-designing-the-cryptographic-utopia-2991; People's Cloud architecture and futures in 1000 words (blog) (2013-04-29) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/peoples-cloud-architecture-and-futures-in-1000-words-3383
- Led to Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our favourite currency (2013): how bitcoin is governed. Evidence (implied by the later work): On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography (blog) (2012-02-04) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-the-ethics-and-pragmatics-of-cryptography-2985; Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our favourite currency (transcript) (2014-02-02) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/my-bitcoin-expo-london-talk-nov-2013-with-transcript-3539
- Sources (11, by hand first, then by importance): [322](https://guptaoption.com/texts/322.md) Vinay Gupta at the Athens Hackerspace, 2012 September 2 (2012); [82](https://guptaoption.com/texts/82.md) On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia | The... (2012); [81](https://guptaoption.com/texts/81.md) On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography | The... (2012); [763](https://guptaoption.com/texts/763.md) FutureRant - Vinay Gupta Pt 2/4 - "Survival & Politics" (2016); [86](https://guptaoption.com/texts/86.md) Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the... (2012); [719](https://guptaoption.com/texts/719.md) Cyberpunk to blockchains: Cultural history of... (2016); [580](https://guptaoption.com/texts/580.md) 'Unvaulted Assets' (2022); [353](https://guptaoption.com/texts/353.md) Eben Moglen clip - Reykjavik Digital Freedoms Conference (2012); [342] FSFI - Smári McCarthy (2012) (no text here); [344] John Perry Barlow - 4th of July 2008, Thingvellir,... (2012) (no text here); [343] John Barlow at the Reykjavik Digital Freedoms Conference... (2012) (no text here)

### Plausible Utopias (2012)

- Economics of resources; argument; specified; work id plausible-utopias; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Vinay%20Gupta%20meaning%20slides%20FINAL.pdf
- What: Talk deck for the Meaning conference: abundance breaks the financial system, because housing is accommodation, a store of wealth and a speculation at once.
- Summary: Slides for the Meaning conference talk, posted on the blog on 19 October 2012. Housing plays three roles, so building millions and then billions of new homes means "abundance breaks the financial system". Printed figures include "Spain: 1.5m units (1.5m young unemployed)", "Ireland: 200,000 empty units (4.5m population)" and "Quarter trillion $ per million homes". Its new economists are Coase, Nash and Benkler; Valve and the Quaddome are its examples of commons-based production. It ends on three futures: cheap energy and information, scarcity and war, or decentralism.
- Threads: RMI to spiral; rich data capitalism
- Came from The New Economy: out of money, out of time, but not out of ideas (2010): abundance breaks the financial system. Evidence (implied by the later work): The New Economy (In a Page) (2010) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/in_a_page/the_new_economy.pdf; Plausible Utopias (Meaning 2012 slides) (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Vinay%20Gupta%20meaning%20slides%20FINAL.pdf
- Led to Coase's Blockchain: Can Equity Crowdfunding Accelerate Past Venture Capital? (2015): Coase, Nash and Benkler. Evidence (implied by the later work): Plausible Utopias (Meaning conference slides) (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Vinay%20Gupta%20meaning%20slides%20FINAL.pdf#page=21; Coase's Blockchain (mic audio), ICT Spring 2015 (2015-06-02) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R44AdHVWPmk&t=1275s
- Led to Why there's no money: the imaginary part of financial systems (2013): abundance, and wealth frozen solid. Evidence (implied by the later work): Meaning 2012 talk 7:38, billions of cheap homes and the end of the mortgage [transcribed] (2012-10-15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BORHRKg-VoI&t=458s; Plausible Utopias (Meaning 2012 slides) (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Vinay%20Gupta%20meaning%20slides%20FINAL.pdf
- Sources (9, by hand first, then by importance): [725](https://guptaoption.com/texts/725.md) Vinay Gupta l Plausible utopias | Meaning 2012 (2012); [823](https://guptaoption.com/texts/823.md) Plausible Utopias (2012); [79](https://guptaoption.com/texts/79.md) Meaning: Plausible Utopias | The Bucky-Gandhi Design... (2012); [321](https://guptaoption.com/texts/321.md) Vinay Gupta talking at FreeAndReal / The Telaithrion... (2012); [93](https://guptaoption.com/texts/93.md) Why there’s no money: the imaginary part of financial... (2013); [530](https://guptaoption.com/texts/530.md) Transforming Real Estate (2025); [675](https://guptaoption.com/texts/675.md) '5 -15%' (2022); [497](https://guptaoption.com/texts/497.md) Debt vs Equity (2025); [671](https://guptaoption.com/texts/671.md) ‘Expensive and Uncertain: The Markets Where Mattereum... (2022)

### Sharing our fear can make peace: envisaging military cooperation to avoid Mutually Assured Starvation (2012)

- Crisis planning; specified; work id mutually-assured-starvation; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/in_a_page/avoiding_mutually_assured_starvation.pdf
- What: One-page paper: the rational elites who kept nuclear deterrence stable could cooperate the same way to avoid a spiral of resource scarcity and conflict.
- Summary: No lifestyle yet lets 9 billion people live in comfort, so every political fix runs into resource limits. Mutually Assured Destruction rested on rational elites; the same military cooperation could keep constraint from causing conflict that causes more constraint. An early statement of the great-power truce in Multipolar Realpolitik.
- Sources (15, by hand first, then by importance): [319](https://guptaoption.com/texts/319.md) A sleepless night trying to find words (2013); [706](https://guptaoption.com/texts/706.md) Blockchain Beyond Bitcoin - with Vinay Gupta | Virtual... (2018); [52](https://guptaoption.com/texts/52.md) When? | The Bucky-Gandhi Design Institution (2011); [243](https://guptaoption.com/texts/243.md) Multipolar Realpolitik (Omnibus draft) (2024); [34](https://guptaoption.com/texts/34.md) State in a Box (2006); [849] Through the Looking Glass (slides) (2010) (no text here); [20](https://guptaoption.com/texts/20.md) Resilience and Opportunity: Effective Tools for Victory... (2006); [48](https://guptaoption.com/texts/48.md) The Second Amendment in Iraq, Combat Robotics, and the... (2008); [47](https://guptaoption.com/texts/47.md) The Beautiful World | The Bucky-Gandhi Design Institution (2011); [87](https://guptaoption.com/texts/87.md) The Atrocity Archives, and a little new fiction. | The... (2011); [249] A long, difficult conversation about dealing with... (2020) (no text here); [30](https://guptaoption.com/texts/30.md) Winning the Long Peace (2007); ...

### Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012)

- Identity, law and blockchain; proposal; specified; work id escrownym; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004
- What: Blog essay proposing the escrownym: an identity lodged with escrow brokers under a legally binding agreement, which can issue pseudonyms. Its summary: build the courts first.
- Summary: About 3,200 words, 5 February 2012, the practical end of the series. "If you want the summary: build the courts first, and build them now, if you want to protect the Electronic Frontier, and, indeed, the People." The worked problem is peer caching of video, such as the Truth and Beauty talks. The protocol lodges a signed identity document with escrow brokers, possibly split into shares, under a legally binding agreement; brokers can then issue pseudonyms (subsidiary keys) at any level of security. What he wants is "PSEUDONYMITY and REASONABLE COURTS": the identity behind a pseudonym can be revealed in a legally binding form, but forcing that is deliberately hard. It ends: the internet is not going to police itself, and if we do not do it, the State will. The same move as CheapID's court-order disclosure, and an early form of Mattereum's identity disclosed on dispute.
- Threads: CheapID to Mattereum; cryptographic applications
- Came from On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (2012): from principles to a practical system. Evidence (he says so): Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012-02-05) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004
- Came from CheapID (2006): identity held in escrow, disclosed by due process. Evidence (he says so): Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012-02-05) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004
- Led to UKJT Digital Dispute Resolution Rules (2021): build the courts first. Evidence (implied by the later work): Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012-02-05) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004; UKJT Digital Dispute Resolution Rules, rule 13 (2021-04-22) https://mattereum.com/ukjt#page=7
- Led to Mattereum (2017): pseudonyms backed by binding agreements. Evidence (implied by the later work): Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the ESCROWNYM) (2012-02-05) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/taking-a-crack-at-a-practical-system-introducing-the-escrownym-3004; How do we control the material world with smart contracts? (Devcon4) (2018-12-11) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoFRfA0TKSg&t=0s
- Sources (124, by hand first, then by importance): [86](https://guptaoption.com/texts/86.md) Taking a crack at a practical system (introducing the... (2012); [31](https://guptaoption.com/texts/31.md) guptaoption.com/4.SIAB-ISA.php (2006); [716](https://guptaoption.com/texts/716.md) How do we control the material world with smart... (2018); [163](https://guptaoption.com/texts/163.md) Tell Me Who You Are. Identity, institutional memory, and... (2019); [66](https://guptaoption.com/texts/66.md) My State In A Box – Identity Services Architecture paper... (2007); [714](https://guptaoption.com/texts/714.md) Autonomous A1 - Taming Capitalism with Vinay Gupta of... (2021); [82](https://guptaoption.com/texts/82.md) On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia | The... (2012); [647](https://guptaoption.com/texts/647.md) Vinay Gupta - Internet of Agreements conference (2017); [81](https://guptaoption.com/texts/81.md) On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography | The... (2012); [735](https://guptaoption.com/texts/735.md) Vinay Gupta - Mattereum (2022); [780](https://guptaoption.com/texts/780.md) Vinay Gupta and Ian Grigg Speak On Arbitration and... (2023); [21](https://guptaoption.com/texts/21.md) RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011); ...

### The Future We Deserve (2012) (he edited)

- Writing and inner practice; specified; work id tfwd; https://www.appropedia.org/The_Future_We_Deserve
- What: Essay collection co-edited with Cat Lupton and Noah Raford, released March 2012; includes the short story The Tiny Army.
- Summary: Released 3 March 2012, online, as a download and in print. Edited by Vinay Gupta, Cat Lupton and Noah Raford. Holds The Tiny Army as the fiction piece.
- Threads: fiction draws on; hexayurt to chain
- Came from Truth and Beauty (2011): the talks, then the book. Evidence (he says so): Truth and Beauty, or "what in the hell is going on, Vinay?" (blog) (2011-10-18) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/truth-and-beauty-or-what-in-the-hell-is-going-on-vinay-2877; The Future We Deserve 2, video 0:00, about a year and a half since the project began... (2012-02-15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9irdzMI13I&t=0s
- Came from The Tiny Army (2010): collected in the book. Evidence (he says so): Appropedia: The Future We Deserve/The Tiny Army - Vinay Gupta (2010) https://www.appropedia.org/The_Future_We_Deserve/The_Tiny_Army_-_Vinay_Gupta; Appropedia: The Future We Deserve, list of articles https://www.appropedia.org/The_Future_We_Deserve
- Came from The Big Deal (2011): the book project behind the essays. Evidence (he says so): The Summary: an introduction to #TheBigDeal (blog) (2011-02-06) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/bigdeal/the-summary-in-part-2282
- Led to Mother of Hydrogen (2012): companion novel
- Sources (6, by hand first, then by importance): [241](https://guptaoption.com/texts/241.md) The Future We Deserve — Our Future and the Sun — Vinay Gupta; [106](https://guptaoption.com/texts/106.md) The Future We Deserve (2012); [210](https://guptaoption.com/texts/210.md) The Future We Deserve (2012); [240](https://guptaoption.com/texts/240.md) The Future We Deserve — Introduction (2012); [354](https://guptaoption.com/texts/354.md) The Future We Deserve - 2 (2012); [107](https://guptaoption.com/texts/107.md) The Future We Deserve/The Tiny Army - Vinay Gupta (2010)

### Tools and language: why government can't manage the 21st century, but we can (2012)

- Economics of resources; specified; work id pixelache-2012; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/PIXELACHE_KEYNOTE/PIXELACHE%20KEYNOTE%20SLIDES.pdf
- What: Keynote opening Camp Pixelache 2012 in Helsinki: the Hexayurt Project, SCIM and EdgeRyders as working models of cooperation, then Coase and Nash.
- Summary: Friday 11 May 2012 at Arbis, Helsinki. The state is bad at complexity and cooperation is the 21st century's main mode. A hexayurt sauna was built for the festival. He went on to Tallinn to talk on infrastructure-centric politics for Ptarmigan.
- Sources (1, by hand first, then by importance): [158](https://guptaoption.com/texts/158.md) Pixelache Festival 2015

### Exploring Data Generated by Pocket Devices (2013)

- Economics of resources; argument; specified; work id pocket-devices; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/The_Smart_City.To_Whos_Advantage.Pocket_Devices_and_Data_Trails.Vinay_Gupta.pdf
- What: UCL Institute for Security and Resilience Studies paper: smart devices turn physical capital into networked property rights, and the fight is over who captures "the economies of omniscience".
- Summary: July 2013, for the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at University College London, marked limited distribution. The fight over smart technology is a fight over who captures the gains from better information and better automated decisions: "One might even refer to these as the economies of omniscience." AirBnB, Uber, cycle hire and automated transport make physical capital legible and liquid, and the phone becomes the terminal for networked property rights. It sketches three futures and ends on who runs and regulates the natural monopoly in information synthesis. The earliest written form of the idea behind Mattereum.
- Threads: CheapID to Mattereum; rich data capitalism
- Led to The Cities That Will Walk Away (2019): economies of omniscience, named in 2013. Evidence (implied by the later work): Exploring Data Generated by Pocket Devices, p. 4 (2013-07) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/The_Smart_City.To_Whos_Advantage.Pocket_Devices_and_Data_Trails.Vinay_Gupta.pdf; The Cities That Will Walk Away talk 1:01:53 (2019-09-23) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJWPv3Cl5Go&t=3713s
- Led to Mattereum (2017): networked property rights. Evidence (implied by the later work): Exploring Data Generated by Pocket Devices (2013-07) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/The_Smart_City.To_Whos_Advantage.Pocket_Devices_and_Data_Trails.Vinay_Gupta.pdf#page=4; Exploring Data Generated by Pocket Devices (2013-07) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/The_Smart_City.To_Whos_Advantage.Pocket_Devices_and_Data_Trails.Vinay_Gupta.pdf#page=10
- Sources (114, by hand first, then by importance): [752](https://guptaoption.com/texts/752.md) Vinay Gupta: The Cities That Will Walk Away (2019); [18](https://guptaoption.com/texts/18.md) Exploring Data Generated by Pocket Devices (2013); [243](https://guptaoption.com/texts/243.md) Multipolar Realpolitik (Omnibus draft) (2024); [242](https://guptaoption.com/texts/242.md) Dog Atheism: on smart contracts, risk, and value networks (2016); [237](https://guptaoption.com/texts/237.md) The Internet of Agreements (Hexayurt Capital section,... (2017); [266](https://guptaoption.com/texts/266.md) "Blockchain: IoT's trust broker?" talk on the fly by... (2017); [271](https://guptaoption.com/texts/271.md) Introducing the Internet of Agreements (2017); [165](https://guptaoption.com/texts/165.md) The Mattereum Manifesto: green capitalism, product... (2019); [793](https://guptaoption.com/texts/793.md) COP26 Event: The Circular Economy - Finance and Data for... (2021); [716](https://guptaoption.com/texts/716.md) How do we control the material world with smart... (2018); [379](https://guptaoption.com/texts/379.md) Blockchains, databases, reification: are bottom up... (2015); [723](https://guptaoption.com/texts/723.md) "Saving the Climate with Real World Asset NFTs" by Vinay... (2020); ...

### Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our favourite currency (2013)

- Identity, law and blockchain; argument; specified; work id governing-bitcoin; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/my-bitcoin-expo-london-talk-nov-2013-with-transcript-3539
- What: Bitcoin Expo London talk, November 2013: how bitcoin is governed, its competitors and its resilience to change, ending on whether it is an anarchist or a libertarian breakthrough.
- Summary: Given at the Bitcoin Expo in London in November 2013; posted 2 February 2014 with subtitled video and a full transcript (about 3,700 words). It covers bitcoin governance, its competitors, its resilience to change, the Hexayurt and a nine-billion-person world, and closes on whether bitcoin is an anarchist or a libertarian breakthrough. The talk came the year before he joined Ethereum.
- Threads: cryptographic applications
- Came from On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (2012): how bitcoin is governed. Evidence (implied by the later work): On the ethics (and pragmatics) of cryptography (blog) (2012-02-04) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-the-ethics-and-pragmatics-of-cryptography-2985; Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our favourite currency (transcript) (2014-02-02) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/my-bitcoin-expo-london-talk-nov-2013-with-transcript-3539
- Led to Ethereum launch (2015): the year before Ethereum. Evidence (he says so): Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our favourite currency (transcript) (2014-02-02) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/my-bitcoin-expo-london-talk-nov-2013-with-transcript-3539; Mattereum is Blockchain Cypherpunk (2022-03-01) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yaXwqx-XzA&t=0s
- Sources (13, by hand first, then by importance): [317](https://guptaoption.com/texts/317.md) Vinay Gupta (@leashless) of Hexayurt Project at the... (2013); [80](https://guptaoption.com/texts/80.md) Governing Bitcoin: what the future holds for our... (2014); [742](https://guptaoption.com/texts/742.md) Vinay Gupta - Bitcoin Will Die | London Real (2014); [39](https://guptaoption.com/texts/39.md) Internet of Agreements (2017); [680](https://guptaoption.com/texts/680.md) Blockchain technology, trade-offs, and helping launch... (2021); [112](https://guptaoption.com/texts/112.md) ‘Bitcoin Is Teaching Realism To Libertarians’: An... (2014); [437](https://guptaoption.com/texts/437.md) The Forgotten Crypto Futures of the 1990s (2025); [697](https://guptaoption.com/texts/697.md) Vinay Gupta - Resilience Guru - TRAILER | London Real (2014); [522](https://guptaoption.com/texts/522.md) Fiat Assets vs Self Sovereign Assets (2025); [421](https://guptaoption.com/texts/421.md) SEC, Crypto and Securities (2026); [462](https://guptaoption.com/texts/462.md) The Invisible Crypto War (2025); [218](https://guptaoption.com/texts/218.md) Blockchain to be breakthrough tech for Dubai and... (2017); ...

### Hexayurt Project: from sheds to sustainability (2013)

- Survival hardware; specified; work id emf-wave-2013; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Electromagnetic%20Wave%202013%20London%20-%20Vinay%20Gupta%20Hexayurt%20Project.pdf
- What: Talk at Electromagnetic Wave 2013, London: what a small shed can do for nine billion people living within one planet's yield.
- Summary: Opens on all the people: 2 billion urban rich, 1 billion urban poor, half a billion rural rich, 3.5 billion rural poor. Then sustainable yield shared by 9 billion, and what a small shed can do toward it.
- Sources (10, by hand first, then by importance): [169](https://guptaoption.com/texts/169.md) OHM2013 Program (2013); [101](https://guptaoption.com/texts/101.md) Hexayurt project/Mass evacuation (2007); [76](https://guptaoption.com/texts/76.md) Free housing and 21st Century Leadership | The... (2010); [10](https://guptaoption.com/texts/10.md) Course of Action (2006); [33](https://guptaoption.com/texts/33.md) Soft Development Paths (2008); [103](https://guptaoption.com/texts/103.md) Hexayurt project/Assembly (2006); [16](https://guptaoption.com/texts/16.md) Hexayurt Country (2010); [161](https://guptaoption.com/texts/161.md) Hexayurts, Distributed Infrastructure, and Maximizing... (2014); [162](https://guptaoption.com/texts/162.md) media ccc de v emf2014 144 hexayurts distributed... (2014); [188](https://guptaoption.com/texts/188.md) Hexayurt Image Gallery (2003)

### Municipal Administration of Cities in Crisis (2013)

- Crisis planning; argument; specified; work id cities-in-crisis; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/Municipal_Administration_of_Cities_in_Crisis.Vinay_Gupta.pdf
- What: UCL Institute for Security and Resilience Studies paper drawing lessons for city governments from Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Sandy.
- Summary: July 2013, for the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at University College London, marked limited distribution. Lessons from Katrina, Haiti and Sandy, then cascade failures, wicked problems, network mapping against stocks-and-buffers resilience, and a reconfigurable smart city designed together with its responders.
- Threads: nuclear / panflu
- Came from Hexayurt Country (2010): Haiti, then Katrina and Sandy, for city governments
- Came from The Living City (2009): lessons for city governments, four years on. Evidence (implied by the later work): The Living City talk for Arup 19:36 (2012-11-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vBX8cIqqTI&t=1176s; Municipal Administration of Cities in Crisis, p. 9 (2013-07) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/SMART_CITIES/Municipal_Administration_of_Cities_in_Crisis.Vinay_Gupta.pdf
- Sources (10, by hand first, then by importance): [689](https://guptaoption.com/texts/689.md) Vinay Gupta - Resilience Guru | London Real (2014); [8](https://guptaoption.com/texts/8.md) Municipal Administration of Cities in Crisis (2013); [320](https://guptaoption.com/texts/320.md) The Living City - Buttered Side Down presentation to... (2012); [365](https://guptaoption.com/texts/365.md) social media and local resilience (2010); [176](https://guptaoption.com/texts/176.md) FluSCIM-6p-Spanish; [366](https://guptaoption.com/texts/366.md) "Through the Looking Glass" - Vinay Gupta - Ireland... (2010); [363](https://guptaoption.com/texts/363.md) Culture Control Group - Brussels Cheese Crisis Report -... (2011); [208](https://guptaoption.com/texts/208.md) Taming Black Elephants (2016); [157](https://guptaoption.com/texts/157.md) The Black Elephant Challenge for Governments | IPS Commons (2017); [182](https://guptaoption.com/texts/182.md) About (2007)

### One Network, One World: Designing for a 7+ Billion Person World (2013)

- Survival hardware; argument; specified; work id ohm-2013; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig
- What: Talk at the OHM2013 hacker camp: housing everyone at one planet's worth of consumption, and why information-rich systems out-compete price signals.
- Summary: Observe Hack Make 2013, Netherlands, uploaded 3 September 2013 (49 minutes). The core design principle of the Hexayurt: a family living at one planet's worth of consumption in relative comfort. Numbers for housing everyone (about 3 billion Hexayurts, 36 billion sheets, roughly 100 million tons of panels); Hexayurt adoption doubling yearly, with about 1,000 units at Burning Man in 2012 and test units in Sri Lanka and Haiti; the original guess of 15 years from first Hexayurt to the first large refugee camp deployment; Appropedia as an on-ramp for the 5 billion people about to come online. From 36:24, information theory and economics: feudalism pushes decisions down a hierarchy, capitalism exchanges information through price signals that carry only a few bits, and richer networks now displace price signaling. Wikipedia could not have been built with any amount of money; what replaces capitalism is a more information-rich, more equitable system.
- Threads: hexayurt to chain; rich data capitalism
- Came from Hexayurt (2002): one planet's worth of consumption. Evidence (he says so): OHM2013 talk 40:00, the core design principle: a family at one planet's worth of... (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=2400s; OHM2013 talk 2:30, we are at 4 to 8 times consumption [transcribed] (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=150s
- Came from Blind in the Panopticon: The decreasing marginal utility of access to information as an aspect of cyber policy (2012): what cheap information is worth. Evidence (implied by the later work): Blind in the Panopticon, p. 5 (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/blind%20in%20the%20panopticon.pdf#page=5; OHM2013 talk 37:30, rich networks out-compete price signals [transcribed] (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=2250s
- Led to Coase's Blockchain: Can Equity Crowdfunding Accelerate Past Venture Capital? (2015): price signals carry a few bits; blockchains make transactions nearly free. Evidence (implied by the later work): (OHM2013) One network one world: designing for a 7 plus billion person world (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=2100s; (OHM2013) One network one world: designing for a 7 plus billion person world (2013-09-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcxS1nLpig&t=2250s
- Sources (46, by hand first, then by importance): [753](https://guptaoption.com/texts/753.md) (OHM2013) One network one world designing for a 7 plus... (2013); [169](https://guptaoption.com/texts/169.md) OHM2013 Program (2013); [725](https://guptaoption.com/texts/725.md) Vinay Gupta l Plausible utopias | Meaning 2012 (2012); [36](https://guptaoption.com/texts/36.md) The Hexayurt Project: Free Hardware housing for the world (2002); [100](https://guptaoption.com/texts/100.md) Hexayurt project (2002); [79](https://guptaoption.com/texts/79.md) Meaning: Plausible Utopias | The Bucky-Gandhi Design... (2012); [66](https://guptaoption.com/texts/66.md) My State In A Box – Identity Services Architecture paper... (2007); [752](https://guptaoption.com/texts/752.md) Vinay Gupta: The Cities That Will Walk Away (2019); [711](https://guptaoption.com/texts/711.md) Vinay Gupta – Hexayurts, Distributed Infrastructure, and... (2014); [727](https://guptaoption.com/texts/727.md) Undergraduate Lecture Series 2024: Vinay Gupta & Bryan... (2024); [245](https://guptaoption.com/texts/245.md) Vinay Gupta - Fab 16 presentation (2021); [303](https://guptaoption.com/texts/303.md) How To Sell Ideas from (from Ethereum DEVCON Berlin) (2015); ...

### People's Cloud architecture and futures in 1000 words (2013)

- Identity, law and blockchain; argument; specified; work id peoples-cloud; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/peoples-cloud-architecture-and-futures-in-1000-words-3383
- What: Blog essay: the data center is doomed, its efficiency is bought with centralization and monitoring, and peer-to-peer stacks, proven by Bitcoin and BitTorrent, will mature and draw the talent.
- Summary: About 1,000 words, 29 April 2013, part of a #peoplescloud series. Computer power keeps getting cheaper, so the data center is doomed, and its efficiency is bought at the price of centralization and inevitable monitoring, with investors and the State shaping what happens to the data. Bitcoin and BitTorrent show peer-to-peer architectures are mature; their hard parts will be standardized into easy stacks, as LAMP was for the web, and programming talent will migrate to them. Two years before Ethereum's launch.
- Threads: cryptographic applications
- Came from On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (2012): peer-to-peer stacks will replace the data center. Evidence (implied by the later work): On Un-Designing the Cryptographic Utopia (blog) (2012-02-04) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/on-un-designing-the-cryptographic-utopia-2991; People's Cloud architecture and futures in 1000 words (blog) (2013-04-29) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/peoples-cloud-architecture-and-futures-in-1000-words-3383
- Sources (34, by hand first, then by importance): [83](https://guptaoption.com/texts/83.md) People’s Cloud architecture and futures in 1000 words |... (2013); [280](https://guptaoption.com/texts/280.md) Vinay Gupta Digital 2016 Newport Wales (2016); [164](https://guptaoption.com/texts/164.md) Programmable blockchains in context: Ethereum’s Future –... (2015); [299](https://guptaoption.com/texts/299.md) Mic audio: Coase's Blockchain: can equity crowdfunding... (2015); [113](https://guptaoption.com/texts/113.md) The Ethereum Launch Process | Ethereum Foundation Blog (2015); [153](https://guptaoption.com/texts/153.md) Financial Cryptography: Coase's Blockchain - the first... (2015); [379](https://guptaoption.com/texts/379.md) Blockchains, databases, reification: are bottom up... (2015); [303](https://guptaoption.com/texts/303.md) How To Sell Ideas from (from Ethereum DEVCON Berlin) (2015); [244](https://guptaoption.com/texts/244.md) Coase’s Blockchain: Can Equity Crowdfunding Accelerate... (2015); [695](https://guptaoption.com/texts/695.md) Vinay Gupta - Dangerous Old Men: cypherpunk's failure,... (2015); [564](https://guptaoption.com/texts/564.md) Vinay Gupta at 'A Decade of #Ethereum' (2024); [688](https://guptaoption.com/texts/688.md) Vinay Gupta on the beginning of blockchain (360,... (2016); ...

### Swarm Cooperatives (Big Picture Days) (2013)

- Writing and inner practice; specified; work id swarm-cooperatives; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/swarm-cooperatives-more-event-details-including-speakers-3406
- What: First of six Big Picture Days at the Limewharf Annex Culture Lab in London, on hackathons, unconferences, free schools and other temporary structures.
- Summary: Schedule posted 18 May 2013: Swarm Cooperatives, the first of six Big Picture Days at the Limewharf Annex Culture Lab, on hackathons, unconferences, free schools and similar temporary structures.
- Came from Truth and Beauty (2011): another London series. Evidence (implied by the later work): Truth and Beauty (blog) (2011-10-18) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/truth-and-beauty-or-what-in-the-hell-is-going-on-vinay-2877; Swarm Cooperatives Schedule (blog) (2013-05-18) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/swarm-cooperatives-more-event-details-including-speakers-3406
- Sources (2, by hand first, then by importance): [85](https://guptaoption.com/texts/85.md) Swarm Cooperatives Schedule | The Bucky-Gandhi Design... (2013); [388] Big Picture Days Hangout 4 (2013) (no text here)

### The Global Cyber Game: Achieving strategic resilience in the global knowledge society (2013) (he contributed)

- Identity, law and blockchain; specified; work id global-cyber-game; https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/20130508-Cyber_report_final_U.pdf
- What: Hardin Tibbs's 2013 report of the UK Defence Academy Cyber Inquiry for the Ministry of Defence, which cites commentary submitted by Vinay Gupta.
- Summary: The Defence Academy Cyber Inquiry Report, 127 pages, May 2013. Written by Hardin Tibbs of Synthesys Strategic Consulting under a Ministry of Defence contract; the Inquiry team was Susan Ambler-Edwards, Michael J Corcoran and Hardin Tibbs, and its question was how the cyber domain should be conceptualized. Two passages cite commentary submitted to the Inquiry by Vinay Gupta: that software people understand scarcity differently, with code free and talent scarce, and that fast actors such as tech firms, internet culture and criminal groups move inside the state's decision loop, the argument of the "Actors, fast and slow" section of S4inet. Vinay Gupta names the Royal College of Defence Studies, part of the Defence Academy, as the client for this work.
- Threads: cyber and defense
- Came from RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011): S4inet cited in the Inquiry's report. Evidence (implied by the later work): S4inet: a simple safe secure subsystem of the internet (for Synthesys) (2011) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/S4inet-a_safer_internet_public.pdf#page=4; The Global Cyber Game (Defence Academy Cyber Inquiry Report) (2013-05-08) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/cyber/20130508-Cyber_report_final_U.pdf#page=48
- Sources (2, by hand first, then by importance): [143](https://guptaoption.com/texts/143.md) The Global Cyber Game: Achieving strategic resilience in... (2013); [21](https://guptaoption.com/texts/21.md) RCDS cyber (Tibbs) (2011)

### Why there's no money: the imaginary part of financial systems (2013)

- Economics of resources; model; specified; work id why-no-money; http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/why-theres-no-money-the-imaginary-part-of-financial-systems-3235
- What: Blog essay: money has a fluid phase, pocket change, and a solid phase, mortgages, debts and fixed assets, so the world's wealth cannot flow from destructive uses to creative ones.
- Summary: About 1,450 words, 28 February 2013. Nearly all the world's wealth seems tied up in destructive forms; if money is fluid, why can it not flow to creative ones? Because money has phases, like gas, liquid and solid: pocket change is fluid, but it gathers into hundred-year contracts, debts and fixed assets with "an appalling fixity and permanence".
- Threads: RMI to spiral
- Came from Plausible Utopias (2012): abundance, and wealth frozen solid. Evidence (implied by the later work): Meaning 2012 talk 7:38, billions of cheap homes and the end of the mortgage [transcribed] (2012-10-15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BORHRKg-VoI&t=458s; Plausible Utopias (Meaning 2012 slides) (2012) https://files.howtolivewiki.com/Vinay%20Gupta%20meaning%20slides%20FINAL.pdf
- Led to Half a Trillion Dollars a Year of Magic: Blockchain, AI, and the Future of the Built Environment (2026): making fixed assets liquid. Evidence (implied by the later work): Why there's no money (blog) (2013-02-28) http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/why-theres-no-money-the-imaginary-part-of-financial-systems-3235; Half a Trillion Dollars a Year of Magic (Mattereum, Medium) (2026-01-21) https://medium.com/humanizing-the-singularity/half-a-trillion-dollars-a-year-of-magic-blockchain-ai-and-the-future-of-the-built-environment-69e1972f6b79
- Sources (17, by hand first, then by importance): [93](https://guptaoption.com/texts/93.md) Why there’s no money: the imaginary part of financial... (2013); [768](https://guptaoption.com/texts/768.md) #03 - Vinay Gupta : History of Money, Foundations of... (2021); [441](https://guptaoption.com/texts/441.md) The Necessity, Stability and Feasibility of Real Estate... (2025); [431](https://guptaoption.com/texts/431.md) The Asset Of The Future: Gold, Bitcoin, Real Estate (2025); [501](https://guptaoption.com/texts/501.md) Crypto is Fiat. The Real Revolution is RWA (2025); [429](https://guptaoption.com/texts/429.md) The Great Leap Forwards (2026); [426](https://guptaoption.com/texts/426.md) Why Bitcoin? (2026); [438](https://guptaoption.com/texts/438.md) Universal Asset Liquidity (2025); [467](https://guptaoption.com/texts/467.md) The Currency Crisis: Fiat, Crypto, Free-Banking (2025); [480](https://guptaoption.com/texts/480.md) The Real Relationship Between Crypto and Government (2025); [466](https://guptaoption.com/texts/466.md) The Future Of Money (2025); [448](https://guptaoption.com/texts/448.md) What Does an Actually Stable Coin Look Like? (2025); ...