Every great migration in human history is accompanied by the reconstruction of order. From the physical to the digital world, we are experiencing a civilizational leap of unprecedented scale. We have discovered this vast new continent and built unparalleled prosperity, yet we have also fallen into a profound “Columbus’s Dilemma”: we possess the technology to connect everything, but we do not know how to establish a truly fair and trustworthy civilization upon this land.

The two paths we know, Web2 and Web3, were both once filled with hope, but why have neither brought true liberation? Why do we urgently need to forge a new path? This is not merely a technical question; it is a question of our time that concerns the future of commercial civilization and, indeed, human society itself.

A Review of Web2: Visible Prosperity, Invisible Shackles Link to heading

Web2 platforms, with their astonishing efficiency, have connected billions of users and merchants, creating unprecedented commercial prosperity. But beneath this boom lies a distorted value distribution system. Consumers, seemingly empowered with choice, are in fact trapped in algorithmic information bubbles. According to statistics, in 2024, the social cost of ineffective marketing and fraudulent activities in China’s e-commerce sector alone exceeded 50 billion RMB. The reputation developers build on various platforms is like a sandcastle; it vanishes the moment they leave. Data from Stack Overflow shows that over 80% of high-reputation users feel their digital contributions have not translated into equivalent professional opportunities.

For real-economy merchants, the pain is even more acute. “Platform commissions” have become the norm. In 2024, the total global platform take-rate surpassed $150 billion. This expenditure did not become the merchants’ own asset but was converted into the platforms’ profit. The core of the problem is centralization: platforms monopolize the rights to define data, traffic, and reputation. Value creators have been reduced to “digital serfs” tied to the land, unable to truly own their most important asset—their business credit.

The State of Web3: A Grand Vision, a Lost Course Link to heading

Web3, with its promise of decentralization, attempts to break these shackles. By returning asset ownership to individuals through blockchain technology, it represents an indispensable technological ember for digital civilization—a great leap forward.

However, its current course has severely deviated. The mainstream narrative of Web3 has been hijacked by the single dimension of “tokens.” People’s attention is fixated on the K-line charts of price fluctuations, narrowing a great technology that should have carried a “Digital Renaissance” into a colossal, anonymous, zero-sum casino. People see only the speculative bubbles, not the things behind them that can truly change the future of humanity.

This carnival of capital has eclipsed the dawn of civilization. The true revolutionary potential of Web3 lies not in creating a new speculative asset, but in providing us, for the first time, with the technological possibility to build “programmable trust” and “sovereign digital identity” at scale. This is the digital bedrock that can support humanity as a civilization on its journey from Earth to the stars. This is the true “planetary-scale trend.”

The Third Way Begins with Rebuilding the “Contract” Link to heading

The citadels of Web2 and the fog of Web3 both point to the same root cause: the digital world lacks a solid and reliable vehicle for “contracts.”

Let’s draw an analogy from the human world: when I say, “Please trust me,” you don’t make a decision based on my words alone. You ask to see the “contract.” Why? Because behind the contract lies the enforcement power of the law. Trust in the real world is largely built upon the social consensus of law, which compels fulfillment.

So, how can this logic be transplanted to the internet?

Web2 platforms’ attempt was a failure. A platform promises you a service, and you give it your data and money, but there is no carrier of equivalent legal force between you. Platforms can change their “user agreements” at will, exploit legal gray areas to evade regulation, and even move their servers overseas to escape constraints entirely. When a platform vanishes and your funds and data are lost, you realize just how fragile that so-called “trust” was.

The decentralized technology of Web3 offers us a glimmer of hope for rebuilding the “contract.” Its core idea is no longer to rely on a centralized “judge,” but to make the process of promising and fulfilling as visible to all as if it were engraved on a stone tablet. This is the starting point of the Third Way.

The Law of the New Continent: A Trust Ecosystem Borne by “Digital Identity” Link to heading

The Third Way aims to construct an entirely new trust ecosystem. In this ecosystem:

  • Your Promises, Seen by the World: Whether it’s a merchant promising “tenfold compensation for fakes” or a user committing to an appointment, these promises will be recorded on a public, immutable ledger.
  • Your Fulfillment, Crowning Your Credit: Every time you honor a commitment, the system will precisely capture it, accumulating your “credit score.” Conversely, every breach will also leave an indelible record.
  • Your Contributions, Forged into Reputation: Every beneficial act you perform for the ecosystem that goes beyond the contract itself—whether writing a high-quality review or participating in community governance—will earn you “reputation,” further amplifying your influence.

Within this flywheel effect, the credit and reputation of the trustworthy and contributors will grow ever higher, granting them more opportunities. The untrustworthy, meanwhile, will be naturally marginalized by the ecosystem, or even temporarily expelled.

And the carrier for all of this is each person’s “digital identity.” This digital identity is no longer a “sock puppet” you use on different platforms, but your sole, non-transferable “digital passport” in the entire digital world. It is bound to all your promises, fulfillments, contributions, and reputation. Once this “passport” is revoked due to a serious breach of trust, you must, much like having a driver’s license revoked in the real world, complete a series of rigorous restoration and assessment processes to even have a chance to start over—and such chances are few.

The Ultimate Vision: A Planetary Consensus Towards Goodness Link to heading

Imagine what the world would become if everyone’s digital identity were built upon this transparent, verifiable system of trust. The cost of deception and breach of contract would become unprecedentedly high. To earn the trust of others and build their own credit scores, everyone would be more inclined to choose integrity and honor their commitments. The path to higher reputation would no longer be through speculation or exploiting information asymmetry, but through genuine value creation—be it through green, low-carbon environmental actions, altruistic community contributions, or rigorous academic exploration.

This will form a planetary consensus for all: trust is the most valuable asset of the digital age, and the only way to accumulate it is to continuously act for the good.

This is the ultimate purpose for which we forge the Third Way. In the articles to follow, we will elaborate on how we deconstruct the essence of trust from a philosophical level, how we design a fair mechanism that separates credit from rights, and what kind of technical cornerstones we use to ensure it all comes to fruition.