# Economic media Understanding computational networks as economic media is at the heart of our vision. It invokes a deep insight from media theory: the medium itself profoundly shapes the message, the actors, and the nature of interaction. Our insight is to extend this to the economic realm, seeing protocols not as neutral pipes for transactions, but as active media that structure perception and condition how value is understood and expressed. ### Legacy media, legacy economics: * Markets as media: Traditional markets can be seen as a medium that prioritizes price signals, competition, and transactional relationships. The "message" it conveys is often about scarcity and optimal allocation for individual gain. * Money as medium: Currency is a collaboration medium that standardizes exchange, but also flattens diverse values into a single third party given metric. * Platforms as media: Web2 platforms became powerful media, shaping social interaction and attention, but with centralized control and extractive value models. ### Network as computers: a new economic medium The emergence of Internet-native economic agents is inseparable from the new medium they inhabit – network computations governed by expressive economic protocols like the Economic Space Protocol. * Protocols shape perception & possibility: Just as the structure of a language shapes thought, the economic grammar of ESP shapes what economic realities can be perceived, computed, and enacted. It makes multi-dimensional Utility (U), programmable relationships, and distributed coordination visible and actionable in ways previous media did not. * Agency born of the medium: The Internet-Native Economic Agent is "born in protocol." Its capabilities, identity, and mode of interaction are defined by the medium. It's not an agent that uses a neutral network; its agency is constituted by its participation within the protocolized network medium. * From exchange to expression: This new medium facilitates richer forms of interaction than simple exchange. It can encode trust, shared risk, ongoing collaboration, and collective sense-making directly into its operational logic. The "message" becomes one of complex interdependence and co-creation. * Value as a communicative act: Network-native value isn't just a quantity transferred; it becomes an expressive form shaped by the medium. Networks can design protocols to value care, ecological contributions, or shared knowledge, making these integral to the economic discourse of the medium. *The medium is the message*: The choice to build on a protocol that distributes agency, enables multi-dimensional value, and fosters programmable coordination is itself a powerful economic and political statement. It signals a shift towards different priorities than those embedded in older economic media. Understanding networks and protocols as economic media means recognizing their power not just to transmit, but to *transform economic reality*. We are focused on designing this new medium to be empowering, expressive, and capable of supporting the complex, interconnected value creation of Internet-native economic agents. ### Economic media reframes computational networks as active shapers of economic thought, agency, and interaction — not passive infrastructure. Protocols are not just rulesets. They are the expressive grammar of emerging economies. What we build with them isn’t just coordination — it’s subjectivity, value, and the politics of participation. --- Related context items - What is emerging? * [Agency born in protocol](https://hackmd.io/@ECSA/ryKS6XFSlg) * [Network value protocols](https://hackmd.io/@ECSA/S1iCrmYrgl) * [Internet-native](https://hackmd.io/@ECSA/BJCE-NYBxe) * [Economic agent](https://hackmd.io/@ECSA/ryGqU7KHlx) * [Internet native economic agent: a new paradigm in value computation](https://hackmd.io/@ECSA/SyUNVEFBex)