ShortSimon on Nostr: Throughout history, the ability to own and control property has been intimately ...

Throughout history, the ability to own and control property has been intimately linked with literacy. In medieval times, when most people couldn't read or write, they were effectively excluded from property ownership - unable to read contracts or verify their rights. They had to rely on others to interpret and validate their property claims, creating a fundamental power imbalance where literacy itself became a tool of control. The spread of literacy democratized property ownership by enabling people to directly understand and engage with their property rights without intermediaries.

Today, we face a similar junction with digital property. Just as traditional literacy enables understanding of written contracts, cryptographic literacy enables true ownership in digital space. Without this new literacy, people remain dependent on platforms and institutions to mediate their digital rights, just as illiterate people once depended on others to interpret their contracts. The path to true digital property rights requires not just technological tools but widespread understanding of how to use them.