Unlocking Freedom: Blockchain, Decentralization, and the Future of Business - Brian Bourgerie and Luke Stokes

Brian Bourgerie:
OK, so a bit of background on this panel—something I’ve been pushing for. There are different flavors of freedom, liberty lovers, capitalism enthusiasts, and so on, but we don’t always mix. I’ve wanted to start conversations that bring us together, especially those coming from a technological or infrastructural standpoint, as well as from other angles. Today, we’ll talk more about where blockchain, decentralization, and even open-source technologies fit into business. I’d even say these are necessities if we want to ensure free markets in the future.

Let me ask you some questions: how many of you are running businesses right now? OK, most of you. And how many of you are investing in businesses? Got it, about a third of you.

So briefly, about myself: I do a number of things, and I’m based in Puerto Rico. I used to run a tech company that made plug-and-play home servers. Our focus was on securing hardware with the mentality that we want to own and control our data, and digital sovereignty was central to that. The company was acquired in 2019, but I’ve been working in economic development for Puerto Rico for a long time, collaborating with investors and innovators. I’ve also been involved in the blockchain space since about 2011. I come from the ethos that Bitcoin was founded on. I’m not a crypto trader; I never trade and don’t sell any of it unless I need gas for my car or something like that. But the core focus for me is how we maximize freedom and liberty, not just individually but as business owners and investors.

Luke Stokes:
Thanks, Brian. A bit about myself: I started building websites in high school in the late '90s, and I was very interested in technology. I later got a computer science degree from the University of Pennsylvania. A buddy of mine started an e-commerce shopping cart company, so I became familiar with the payment industry—working with credit card companies and payment gateways. That experience led me to start questioning the nature of money. I realized we spend so much of our lives working for numbers in a bank account or pieces of paper, but what is this "money" thing? The more I studied it, especially from the late 1700s onward, I started realizing the system we live in is the largest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen. That realization led me to Bitcoin around 2011/2012.

At first, I thought Bitcoin was just fake internet money, something you mined on your computer. It wasn’t until around 2013 that I spent $50 and got 2.5 Bitcoin for $20 each. From there, I went down the rabbit hole, studying and getting excited about it. Early on, the Bitcoin ethos was that if you fix the money, you fix the world. The measuring stick of value has been broken for a long time—some argue since 1944, others since Nixon’s actions in 1971.

Brian Bourgerie:
On the business side, I’ve experienced situations where we were reliant on service providers like Google. It’s great for convenience 99% of the time, but it’s also a risk. When governments or companies start freezing bank accounts for small donations, or doing things they shouldn’t be, you realize how vulnerable we are. We need to think about future-proofing our digital infrastructure.

Luke Stokes:
Yeah, and from a business standpoint, I think we need to learn from history. When I watched the internet take shape, corporations had plans to wall it off using proprietary technology, but what ultimately won was open-source and decentralization. Millions of developers improving technology for their own businesses outpaced what a single company could achieve.

When thinking about scaling a business, ask yourself: Do I want a big slice of a tiny pie, or a small slice of the world? Blockchain and decentralized technologies open up protocols for everyone to participate and be rewarded. There’s been a narrative shift around cryptocurrency and blockchain, much like the early internet, which was once considered shady but is now indispensable. Blockchain offers a global, nonviolent consensus—a way to determine truth economically, without central authorities.

Brian Bourgerie:
Blockchain may not seem flashy, but it’s vital. Walmart, for example, has been using blockchain in its supply chain for years. They can trace produce and pinpoint issues like salmonella within seconds, ensuring complete verifiability.

Luke Stokes:
It’s already happening in parts of Africa and Latin America, where people are leapfrogging outdated systems and using decentralized finance (DeFi).

Brian Bourgerie:
Exactly. These regions are experiencing rapid growth. They’re not relying on archaic infrastructure—they’re integrating into the global economy using decentralized tools.

Luke Stokes:
For those of you with global businesses, this is where some of the most exciting innovation is happening. Decentralization allows businesses to continue operating even if traditional systems fail.

Brian Bourgerie:
To wrap things up, what are some key takeaways from this discussion?

Luke Stokes:
One point I want to highlight is that money should be like gas—it fuels the engine, but it’s not the purpose of the engine. We’re running on broken gas, and that’s ruining the engine. If we had better forms of value through decentralized technologies, we could solve many problems that are symptoms of our broken financial system.

There’s no such thing as a dumb question when learning about these technologies. Whether for personal financial growth or your business, engage with blockchain and decentralization.

Brian Bourgerie:
Absolutely. Identify potential gatekeepers or vulnerabilities in your business. Whether it’s government regulations, service providers, or centralized systems, ask yourself: Is there a better, decentralized way to mitigate this risk? Decentralization, like cybersecurity, is something you need to think about before a crisis hits. Preparing now can save your business in the future.

Speaker:

OK, great. We already have three questions—I have four now. Let’s start here, and we’ll just work our way to the right. Do you see anything on the horizon in the next one to three years where blockchain will have a widespread use that the average person can understand, similar to what ChatGPT did with AI? Do you see anything like that coming on the horizon?

Luke Stokes:

That’s a good question. I think, interestingly enough, a lot of people in the AI industry say things like, "Oh, ChatGPT is nothing new, it’s just a smooth progression." I think similar things will happen with blockchain. Any day now, or any decade really, you’ll be an overnight success. Blockchain is the low-level infrastructure, and for the tech people in this room, when I say things like TCP/IP, SMTP, or HTTP, you know they’re just protocols. It wasn’t until services like Gmail and Netflix came along that people realized, "Oh, I’m using the internet, and now I understand it."

I still think we’re early, like in the '90s with the internet. Where will we be when everyone is suddenly using blockchain? Well, you know, PayPal and Venmo support blockchain, for example, and it’s happening slowly. I think it’s going to be when your banking apps suddenly show you a crypto reward that you’re getting when you shop with certain vendors. I think banking apps and payment apps are where it will start, but the user experience needs to improve tremendously. That’s what I’ve been working on since 2018 with projects like Theo and others. It’s still early, and I keep thinking, "It’s coming," but the killer app isn’t there yet.

Realistically, though, it probably shouldn’t be something everyone talks about. When you upgrade your database from one server to MySQL, no one cares or even knows—it’s not a marketing thing. You know you’re on the right track when it’s being implemented quietly, and your customers are still happy. At the end of the day, people just want what they’re looking for. I don’t know if there’s going to be a point where we’re all explicitly using blockchain or not. To be honest, I don’t care, as long as it’s implemented properly and getting adopted. That’s what matters. People will benefit from it, whether they realize it or not.

Brian Bourgerie:

Yeah, so sometimes I think blockchain’s best solution could be for real estate titles, to eliminate title insurance. Is that a possibility, or why hasn’t that been done yet?

Luke Stokes:

There are a couple of solutions being worked on right now. I recently looked at one called Title Chain, for example. Another project started in an African country where coups happen frequently, and suddenly you don’t own your land anymore. So, there are solutions being worked on in that space, and I know of at least three that I’ve spoken to in the last three months who are working on this specifically.

I 100% agree—there are entire industries, like title insurance, that could be automated, and while some people might lose their jobs, that’s just the natural progression of things. We don’t need to over-administer certain processes. There’s no need for excess regulation when we could automate insurance, for example. Blockchain is perfect for that use case. I know that some counties in Texas and Utah are working with solutions like this.

As for why it hasn’t been widely implemented, well, sometimes it’s because cutting out the middlemen threatens their livelihoods. Regulatory capture plays a role, too. Middlemen fight to stay relevant, even when technology could replace them. I’ve seen this over the past decade: headwinds where people recognize that blockchain is more efficient, but they resist change because the inefficiencies allow them to make money. For example, waiting three days for a bank transfer while they play the money markets overnight. So, there are also regulatory and financial reasons why adoption isn’t happening faster.

Speaker:

OK, we’re short on time—just one minute left. Do you agree with the regulators? How do you think that’s going to play out?

Luke Stokes:

Oh man, that’s a big discussion. I’ll speak generally since we don’t have much time. I think regulators often don’t fully understand the issues enough to make the best decisions. Financial markets are always a hot topic, but I won’t speak out of my lane there.

We need regulations in some cases, but we also have to be careful of unintended consequences. There are new structures and ways of doing things where I’ve thought, "This would be the best solution," only to realize three steps down the road that I hadn’t anticipated certain consequences. I think there’s more planning and game theory that needs to be applied. Unfortunately, 99.9% of regulators aren’t equipped to do that well. And often, they seek help from special interests, so we need to be cautious.

That being said, I generally err on the side of democratizing and decentralizing. Cutting out unnecessary middlemen and regulators is often the right move, but we need to dive deeper before making any final decisions.