Hello! I am a London-based full-stack web developer, speaker and adviser to blockchain startups that share my values.
I believe in free speech, decentralisation, the right to privacy, and open protocols.
We should own our own data and take it to the apps and platforms we use. No company should have the ability to lock you into their services or de-platform you.
Decentralised technologies are part of the solution, but I also recognise the ethical implications of immutable ledgers and unstoppable computers.
I am proud to be a hands-on advisor to TalentLayer and Zien.
It was such an honor to give the closing talk about The Future of Personal AI at the Urbit Assembly in October 2023, Lisbon.
I also gave the closing talk about The Future of Apps at the Urbit Volcano Summit in March 2023, El Salvador.
I've been a big fan of The Network Age podcast for a while. I was honored to be invited on to talk about AI, Urbit and the future of computing:
This is my "Twelve Thoughts on the future of Web3" Mega Talk at EthBrno, November 2022. It covers L2s, mobile, open protocols, emotions, the economics of software, going beyond full-time work, Gun.js, Urbit, Holium, AI programming and more. Download the slides (PDF)
Recorded just before the start of the pandemic (19th December 2019), this talk covers the difficult subject of censorship in an immutable world.
This 2022 interview with Bankless Academy explains how an "Ethereum Phone" could be re-thought from first principles, bringing millions more into crypto.
I have given many talks about Bitcoin and Ethereum at technical conferences, The London Business School and Imperial College.
This 2018 talk is about the problems with modern software development and how to fix them. It was done well before the creation of Lens.protocol and GPT-3, both fundamental leaps forward.
I love to re-think established ideas from first principles - especially in the areas of work and computing.
Over the years I have been a full-stack web developer at Advertising.com (later bought by AOL), tech lead at numerous London-based startups, brief open-source project creator, and a technical adviser to McKinsey and Capco.
After discovering Bitcoin in 2013, then going to Devcon 1, I fell head-first into the world of web3 and decentralisation. Since then I've worked with a handful of crypto companies including KR1, Status, and Parity and been a mentor at EthBerlin (2019 & 2022), EthLisbon and EthBrno hackathons.
Email: mail at owenbarnes.com
Twitter: @temporalwave
Urbit: ~locruc-fonmec