Alex Norta on Blockchain, Decentralization, and the Future

Date: August 21, 2025
Interviewer: Clinton R. Siegle
Interviewee: Alex Norta

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexnorta/

Q1. Looking back 25 years since your PhD work on smart contracts, how do you feel about the way these ideas have evolved and diverged from your original vision?

Alex Norta:
My PhD began with automating inter-organizational business processes. At the time, I created what I called a “contracting language,” which later evolved into an XML-based smart contract language. This research was further developed by my former PhD students, such as V. Maltri, who defended his thesis at Ulster University. Together, we built languages like SLCML — a legally relevant, blockchain-agnostic smart contract framework.

Over time, we also developed tools for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), including a modeling notation and a tool called SynCoL Cloud, which allows users to design DAOs visually and generate them automatically. My early work has expanded significantly thanks to collaborations with PhD students, and today I’m focused on commercializing these ideas.

Q2. In 2025, AI-driven DAOs and self-executing systems are becoming a reality. Do you see this as enhancing decentralization, or reinforcing central control?

Alex Norta:
AI tends to reinforce centralization because governments and corporations fund it heavily for control. Blockchain, on the other hand, is underfunded because it empowers decentralization. That’s why I argue for combining AI with blockchain — only then can we achieve ethical AI. I’ve published on this recently, showing how blockchain can counterbalance centralization by embedding transparency and accountability.

Q3. With governments experimenting with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), do you see this as progress or as a betrayal of blockchain’s anarchist promise?

Alex Norta:
It’s a betrayal. Blockchain was created to decentralize power, but CBDCs are about surveillance and central planning. They can easily be tied to social credit scores, carbon credits, and restrictions on freedom. Instead of empowering people, CBDCs reinforce authoritarian control.

Q4. You’ve often emphasized the philosophical side of technology. How do you think blockchain reshapes not only economics but also the way society perceives trust?

Alex Norta:
Philosophically, I align with Austrian economics and voluntaryism. True progress comes from free markets and even anarcho-capitalism — not centralized planning. Blockchain provides trust in a trustless environment through immutable traceability. Sadly, most people are indoctrinated by schools and media to distrust freedom itself. Over 20 years, I’ve become less idealistic: many people don’t want truth or trust, which makes blockchain adoption difficult.

Q5. Technology can be neutral until weaponized. In 2025, has blockchain been more a tool of liberation or surveillance?

Alex Norta:
Unfortunately, surveillance. Governments and think tanks learned how to weaponize blockchain through pseudonymous chains and permissioned systems. Instead of empowering citizens, blockchain is often allowed only in contexts that enhance state monitoring and control.

Q6. Looking ahead, how do you see blockchain integrating with frontier technologies like quantum computing, space exploration, or biotechnology?

Alex Norta:

• Quantum Computing: The main risk is breaking cryptography. Fortunately, blockchain can be upgraded to be quantum-resistant. On the positive side, blockchain could help manage and monetize quantum computing resources.
• Space Exploration: Blockchain could store exploration data in immutable ways, though I haven’t seen strong use cases yet.
• Biotechnology: Sadly, COVID showed biotech’s misuse. But blockchain could enforce transparency by recording all experiments immutably, ensuring accountability for research such as gain-of-function.

Q7. What role should education play in preparing the next generation for a decentralized future? Are universities keeping pace or falling behind?

Alex Norta:
They’re falling behind. Schools and universities indoctrinate students into centralized thinking. Blockchain and decentralization are almost absent from curricula. Governments don’t want the next generation to imagine decentralization as a real option. Instead, education is flooded with AI and cloud computing, reinforcing centralization.

Q8. Automation threatens many jobs. Do you see blockchain and DAOs creating new meaningful work, or pushing society toward redundancy?

Alex Norta:
In centralized systems like the EU, automation destroys jobs without creating new ones. But in a free-market environment, blockchain and DAOs could unlock entirely new needs, wants, and industries — creating far more meaningful jobs than today’s so-called “bullshit jobs.” Sadly, central planning currently suppresses this potential.

Q9. Beyond finance, what blockchain application could most transform society in the next decade?

Alex Norta:
Two stand out:

1. DAOs — mass-produced in a “DAO factory” style to replace wasteful bureaucracies.
2. Private cryptocurrencies like Monero, which ensure true financial privacy and accountability. Together, they could dramatically transform governance and economics.

Q10. Finally, as someone who challenges authority and hierarchies, what message would you give young innovators in 2025 who want to disrupt but fear institutional resistance?

Alex Norta:
Don’t just chase profits — think ethically. Build families, have children, and care about the future. Once you have children, resistance to authority becomes easier because you’re motivated to create a better world for them. Innovation must be rooted in ethics and responsibility, not just personal gain.

Closing Note:
Alex Norta’s reflections show both optimism for blockchain’s liberating potential and deep concern about its capture by central powers. His work continues to push for decentralization in an era increasingly defined by central control.