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“Right now we're just trying to get the basic things there, the fundamentals, so that later we can have the platform that we can build all of these things we want to build on.”
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Amir Taaki at a hackathon earlier this year. Image: Flickr/@JanMiranda
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Taaki's aversion to traditional governance was obvious when I asked him what he thought of those who suggest his work is dangerous. “I call them fascists,” he immediately replied.He agreed that his political views are very similar to his Dark Wallet collaborator Cody Wilson's. “Cody Wilson thinks more about the drama kind of stuff, I dunno. I have lot more in my mind about constructing or creating things, or what's possible. That's only a minor thing,” he said. They share open-source principles: developing and releasing software for free, and allowing anyone else to take their work and build upon it. The point is always, in Taaki's words, “to think about the things not for short-term profit, but for long-term gain.”“For me the technology is a tool for people to be able use, it's not some like toy,” he said. “You get a lot of these hackers who are mercenaries, working for the military. You also get a lot of these programmers who are wasting their skill building toys. You talk to them about it, and they say that 'people download my app and pay for it, therefore it's useful.' Don't delude yourself: You're actually just building toys for the iPad.”Despite making the Forbes '30 Under 30' list and often receiving job offers, Taaki has no plans to cash in on his programming skills. He has a history of living in squats with other developers, and is now looking to set up “an open source research and development centre” to work on tools. From here, the ambition is to build “our own open source cities and build our own shanty towns.”When I asked what he hoped to achieve with his various projects, he said, “I want to empower people to be able to solve problems that they need to solve to live.”“For me the technology is a tool for people to be able use, it's not some like toy.”