Somi Arian: Could BSV be the Microsoft of Web3?

Tech philosopher and entrepreneur Somi Arian envisions a society that is free from the shackles of tech companies like Meta (NASDAQ: FB) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Her advocacy is to uphold human integrity by allowing individuals to own their data. 

While studying political philosophy at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Somi expressed her political grievances through music, as the singer in a death metal band. “The interest in heavy metal music is an indication I’m an anarchist at heart …I’ve always been against governments, I’ve always been against authority of any sort,” she says. 

When Somi first learnt about blockchain in 2017, she says she knew in an instant that the technology would disrupt Amazon, Facebook, Google and the likes. For her part, the decentralization aspect of blockchain is the solution to data-ownership issues. As she explains, “blockchain technology is really interesting because of the possibility of self-organization …minimizing the impact of governments.”

Apart from speaking in international events, in 2018 Somi released an award-winning documentary called The Millennial Disruption which discusses how digital natives are changing ecommerce. She’s dedicated most of her work in educating people to issues concerning technology and its impact. As she explains, “the type of life that I’m inviting people to live is going against the grain of how you are being programmed by Meta and by the governments.” 

On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Somi is keen to point out to Charles Miller how countries like China disadvantage their people through the government and the corporations working together: “We have now got a problem of nation state and then we have the problem of the corporate state, they’re both as bad as each other, so I don’t necessarily think that nation state is our guard against the corporate state and vice versa.”

In her view, decentralization is a hedge against the system, and she is adamant about educating people about it. She wants people to realize that that CBDCs are not the type of digital currency that are decentralized, nor are the tech giants. If people understand this, they can extract themselves from these systems. 

Somi’s company, InPeak, aims to educate individuals about the ownership economy in the next generation of the internet. “In” stands for ‘inspire’, ‘in this together’ and ‘inclusive.’ The company offers its customers a subscription service that primarily educates individuals about Bitcoin and blockchain. Soon, the company will offer an NFT option for membership. As for the benefits of doing business in Web3, Somi explains that unlike Web 2.0, Web3 allows anyone to own their content and get paid directly without going through third parties such as banks. 

Somi spoke at a panel discussion at the BSV Global Blockchain Convention in Dubai where she made a keen observation about Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Ethereum. She says, “if Ethereum is like Apple, there’s room for a Microsoft and it is yet to be determined who is going to be that Microsoft… so maybe BSV could fill that gap.” 

Hear the whole of Somi Arian’s interview in this week’s CoinGeek Conversations podcast or catch up with other recent episodes:

You can also watch the podcast video on Youtube. 

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