ZK-Proofs

Imagine you could prove things about yourself (age, citizenship, or subscription) without ever handing over your personal details. No need to pull out your passport or fill out a form, instead, your phone shows a QR code that represents a kind of digital ‘yes’. It’s a cryptographic proof that confirms you meet the requirement without revealing why.. That’s zero-knowledge proofs (or zk-proofs)…proving something is true without showing the underlying data.

In a world of data leaks and ransomware, flipping control of data back to individuals reduces the attack surface altogether. Today, every website and service collects mountains of personal information just to confirm who you are, creating endless breaches and surveillance (for ads and more). With zk-proofs, your ID becomes private and portable, a way to verify what’s needed and nothing more. It’s a system that combines privacy, security, and open participation.

Under the hood, a zk proof is a digital handshake between two sides: one proving something, the other verifying it. The prover turns their secret into a special cryptographic statement that can be checked for truth, but never reveals the secret itself. It relies on advanced math (modular arithmetic, elliptic curves, or polynomial commitments) to make the proof impossible to fake but easy to verify…often in milliseconds.



Real-World Problems zk-Proofs Could Solve Overnight:

  1. Identity leaks – nothing personal to steal from a database hack if you’ve never needed to share that data
  2. Endless KYC uploads – carry a reusable credential that simply says, “I’ve already passed KYC.”
  3. Vulnerable digital voting and petitions – prove eligibility and one-vote-per-person integrity without revealing their identity or choices (huge upside in countries with fewer checks and balances)
  4. Bots, spam, and surveillance-driven content – prove you’re a unique human for access (expanded explanation below)

Point 4 – Making the Internet Human Again

The internet wasn’t meant to be a surveillance machine, but that’s what it’s become. Platforms track everything you do because that’s the only way they know if you’re real, safe, or profitable.

Zk-proofs flip that logic on its head. Instead of handing over your information, you prove what’s needed without exposing anything else: that you’re human, that you’ve paid, that you belong.

Bots can’t fake cryptography, and people no longer need to be profiled just to participate. Suddenly, you can have an open web again: spam-free, human-driven, and built on trust instead of surveillance.

Sensory System

Long before we came along, with our brains and matcha tea, early life forms only had rudimentary sensory systems.

They detected and responded to environmental stimuli… things like light, pressure, or temperature.
These primitive systems didn’t “think” in any way we’d call cognition, they just acted.
They supported survival by guiding our behaviour: moving toward nutrients, away from toxins, or reacting to threats.

As nervous systems evolved, first as simple nerve nets (don’t even ask, it’s beyond me), then centralised structures, and eventually brains… those older, sensory systems (or embodied response mechanisms) didn’t disappear. They became the foundation of what we now experience as intuition, gut feelings, or emotional instincts. They operate waaaayy quicker than our rational thought because they’re rooted in ancient survival circuitry. For example, the amygdala and brainstem responses can trigger action before the cortex even finishes processing what’s happening (sometimes you know something before you know it).

So…intuition and feeling aren’t just “soft” or “irrational”, they’re actually evolutionarily ancient tools for survival and rapid decision-making. Rational thought is a newer layer built on top….And for some people, it’s still under construction.

Unnecessary shots fired.

Stability Isn’t the Same as Flow

For a long time, I thought stability and good communication were enough…that if you worked hard at a relationship, flow and improved connection would naturally follow.

But they don’t.
Not always.

Sometimes two people can share affection, safety, and even intimacy… and still miss the spark that makes everything feel alive.

That kind of flow doesn’t come from effort alone, there’s a deeper layer of nervous-system compatibility that has to exist.
Mutual affection doesn’t equal reciprocal energy. For example, you can have all the intimate facets (touch, talk, connection), yet still lack the spark of play or a sense of moving forward together. Sometimes a relationship can feel emotionally rich, yet subtly draining, if for example, playfulness is missing and is the thing that makes you feel most alive.

I used to make decisions top-down: over-analysing data, drawing insights, reasoning my way through everything. These days, it’s more bottom-up…the collection of experiences either feels right or doesn’t. Sometimes you know immediately; other times you have to let it unfold until you feel certain of the path. And we’ve all been in situations where our intuition knew the answer long before our intellect caught up.

Note: stability and good comms are both still important but I think they should be the baseline tbh.

The modern global system is a continuation of historical class structures, now masked by corporate, technological, and political complexity. The dynastic wealthy elite and the merchant class have engineered an environment that perpetuates their dominance, a self-reinforcing system designed to be unbeatable until it’s widely recognised and challenged.

I gotta go scroll through some goat parkour to balance out this feeling.

Gentrification is weird, man. I thought I’d be into it, you know, polished coffee shops, places that sell only cacti and vibes.

But I miss the old locally owned spots. They were rough around the edges, but real, like some auntie’s haberdashery that also sold chicken wraps…and unsolicited marriage advice. Wholesome stuff.

Private equity eating up high streets isn’t all it cracked out to be…who could’ve guessed?! That’s why we need to bring back community land trusts (protected small businesses). Actually, we should rebrand them to protect them… call them Community Land Investment Trusts. Or C.L.I.T. for short.

Because the hipsters wouldn’t be able to find it.

…tbh, neither would half the population

Overheard in a coffee shop, I’m paraphrasing:

“I think it’s more complicated than that.
Careers and friendships have narrow trajectories. They don’t break you open or challenge your reflexes and emotional range as much as a loving relationship does.
It’s the biggest blank canvas there is… they each have a paintbrush in hand, facing themselves and each other.”

Some comments I found:

  • Credentials and money are not antidotes to the lingering effects of childhood maltreatment.
  • Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death. Many turn their backs to the table and complain how hungry they are and that there is nothing they can eat. They will stand between you and the banquet for however long you let them. So relieve yourself of them by whatever means necessary.
  • One cannot satisfy a thirst by drinking sea water
  • I’m tired of paying taxes to a government that doesn’t represent me, and is actively working against me.
  • The word democracy makes people feel safe…but it doesn’t exist. People are a labor force, that need a kind, but firm hand. There are not nations. There’s Apple, Exxon, and Berkshire Hathaway. Corporations are the real superpower. [Victoria Neumann, The Boys tv series]
  • The entire world is run as an economic machine, constructed with no regard for the collective good of humanity.

Raise Your Standards, Not Your Walls

Dating feels exhausting today not because love has changed, but because our relationship with vulnerability has. We live in a culture of guardedness, where self-protection often takes precedence over connection. And it’s not just happening in dating, it’s a reflection of broader emotional immaturity and avoidance. 



When we avoid facing our insecurities, wounds, and expectations, we end up relating through fear… fear of rejection, fear of inadequacy, fear of being seen and not accepted. So they create masks, strategies, games, roles, to maintain a sense of control. But the more control that’s chased, the less intimacy it allows. And without intimacy, dating turns into performance and to nothing healthy/long-lasting.

Thankfully, emotional intelligence is still part of dating, but it’s rare because few people are taught how to cultivate emotional intelligence. As a result, many still operate from their childhood survival strategies, just dressed in adult clothing.

Side note: It’s easy to blame the apps, but I’ve realised they’re just psychological amplifiers. Our unresolved trauma, attachment patterns, and self-worth struggles get reflected at us through gamification, endless comparison, and the emphasis on form over substance.

That’s why you see people chasing chemistry over compatibility, validation over values, attention over authenticity.



If you want to date differently, you must live differently. Be what you’re looking for. Don’t lower your standards to match a trend of emotional detachment, raise your consciousness and let that magnetise those who are on the same path.

You may find fewer people, but they’ll be more aligned.

Dating from the heart in a world that rewards armour isn’t weak, if anything, it’s courageous to risk it despite the landscape. 

Set standards based on your highest values, not your past wounds. When you’re whole within yourself, you stop needing relationships to complete you…and start using them to expand you.