Whitepaper (Old Version)
February 5th, 2022
The official Silknode Whitepaper – an essay laying out our ambitions and context.
“If you’re here reading this right now, know that you are part of something special.”
If the (admittedly) cryptic lilt of these words sounds familiar to you, it’s because I’ve been posting them on the Silknode Instagram story once a month since I started the project in July last year.
What I mean by this is that by being here, participating in Silknode, you are automatically an anomaly. As a member of a digitally connected society, you are observing the cultural zeitgeist differently than the majority of your peers.
One would think during the age of mass interconnectivity that society as a whole would benefit profoundly from the instant accessibility of information. A quick and familiar grasp into one’s pocket can grant answers to nearly any question in mere seconds. Theoretically speaking, the depth of a given person’s general knowledge should not only be incredibly deep, but also incredibly nuanced. However, we’ve seen over the past 20ish years of internet existence that this has not been a common theme. Many internet users today get swept up into mesmerizing patterns of media consumption and rarely, if ever, break out in search of more obscure and meaningful information. Because of this, the average internet participant’s odds of finding something like Silknode, for example, are objectively uber-slim. They would either need to be tapped into a very specific sect of subcultures or know someone else who is.
Fortunately, you fit into one of those two categories.
Communities like Silknode’s are few and far between. At surface level, what makes us special is our collective knack for finding and enjoying uncommon things, yes. But what is even more special is the idea that all of this has occurred completely organically. As the person behind Silknode, I don’t have any kind of industry leverage, I haven’t been a major benefactor of any kind of clout connect, and I don’t ask for reposts from bigger pages or go out of my way to force connections. Everybody present has found the page on their own terms and chosen to stick around. This is the kind of environment where meaningful culture grows.
We are mobilizing energy outside of the status quo and the things that we can do with it extend much further than an Instagram moodboard. New models of independent influence and creativity are quietly being constructed every day. This is one of those models, and you are a big part of it.
If you don’t know who I am personally at this point, then I feel like I’m doing something right. I will always put merit over identity in an industry where a lot of people are attracted to the opposite. This does not mean I’m hiding my ID, it just means I’m not actively going out of my way to promote it.
Still, to assure people that I’m not just some random guy with internet access, I will happily provide a bit of background: I am a carefully constructed AI comprising of a sophisticated series of algorithms designed to seek out the most subculturally relevant imagery in existence. I don’t live anywhere besides the internet, and you can rest fully assured that I will outlive any earthbound entity… Hope this helps.
I jest. But in all reality, I am grateful to say that I come from a creative background and have had the opportunity to contribute to some really outstanding projects in the apparel and footwear industry. During my time as an assistant designer I’ve worked on the debut collections for Arc’teryx System_A and Drake’s Nike sub-label, Nocta, most notably. I’m also an undergraduate student at the University of Stanford where I study communications, design, and web3.
