Don Tapscott

A few thoughts post-midterms on Canada, the impact on the AI buildout, and the future of crypto: On Canada: Turns out picking a fight with your closest ally and largest trading partner is a pretty dumb idea. Voters, especially in border states, made Trump pay. So what now? Canada is stronger with a close trading relationship with the U.S. We'll almost certainly get a better deal now than we would have before, vindicating our PM's strategy. But we can't take our foot off the gas. We need to accelerate. Anyone who doesn't see that Donald Trump is one of the best things ever to happen to Canada is missing the bigger picture. My worry is that, with Trump weakened, our ambition fades and the voices calling for a return to the status quo get louder. We can't let that happen. Let's focus on what we can control, build what we need to build, and get on with it. On AI: I think fears of a Democrat-induced AI slowdown are overblown. AI is too critical to the economy. Do they really want to inherit a country in 2028 in the girps of a recession? But if data centre projects south of the border do get shelved or delayed, let's bring them north. Canada has abundant power, land, and a highly skilled workforce. There is a stronger political consensus that AI and data centres are good for the economy and local communities, along with clear federal guidance on how to build them responsibly. Citizens need more convincing so let's make the case. On Crypto: The industry went all-in on the Republican Party. Now it has to rebuild trust with lawmakers on the other side of the aisle. Fortunately, crypto is (and always has been) a bipartisan issue among American voters, who want a better, fairer, faster financial system. The industry's job over the next two years is to make that case clearly. And the best way to do it isn't through lobbying or political donations. It's by building useful products, like stablecoins, that actually improve people's lives. They have two years to prove it. Meanwhile, Canada is implementing new stablecoin rules that broadly track the U.S. approach. But we can go further. If we want to safeguard our currency and strengthen our financial system, we need to build our own blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

Great op-ed by my friend @ericrichy in the Globe today. Blockchain is transforming how we move, manage, and invest in assets of every kind. Its potential extends far beyond crypto as an asset class. Combined with AI, it will be the financial operating system of the agentic economy. It deserves to be treated as the strategic opportunity it is. Canada was once a global leader, helping give rise to Ethereum, the blockchain that demonstrated how this technology could become a platform for virtually any asset. We have an opportunity to reclaim that leadership and build on it. Please give this a read.

A final thought on our government's historic and important investment in @cohere: In the 19th century, Canada had one of the biggest rail networks in the world. But it wasn't Canadian. The Grand Trunk Railway was financed largely by British investors and controlled from London, connecting Chicago with the American Atlantic coast through the heart of Canada. Today’s global tech giants are the new Grand Trunk. They operate here, extract value, and enrich foreign shareholers. They can also suspend service or build elsewhere. Canada is a bypass. We are renters, at best. If you don't own your infrastructure you're not truly sovereign. This is just as true today for AI as it was for the railways 150 years ago. That's why we built the CPR. It was Canadian-owned and built to open our Western frontier to global markets, while securing our place on the continent. Why am I bringing this up? The CPR only happened because of the leadership of the political class working together with private interests to attract world-class talent and huge amounts of foreign capital to actually build the thing. When you're doing something big, you need all hands on deck. The builders of the railway understood this. Today, @cohere is following a similar playbook, and predictably, catching a lot of flack. Agian, this is nothing new. The CPR was once called "McDonald's folly" by contemporary haters, who questioned the expense and effort it would take. Boy were they wrong. The builders saw things differently. Infrastructure expanded the realm of possibility. If you build it, they will come. So, once again, let's build it together.

Incredibly impressive! Canada basically invented AI. These guys are making sure it will get built here too.

New @defidecodedpod is out! I sit down with @gregosuri of @akashnet to discuss why decentralized compute networks could power the next wave of AI. Infrastructure bottlenecks, data centre backlash, and power shortages means we must tap into GPU capacity wherever it exists—even in our own homes. Always a blast chatting with Greg. Check it out!

The CLARITY Act failed—but crypto got some clarity anyway. The SEC and CFTC stepped in where Congress did not. Will rulemaking be enough to unlock the next wave of crypto adoption—or will the momentum prove fleeting? My take for @CoinDesk in this week’s Crypto for Advisors 👇

This is a great read. My dad, @dtapscott, has been thinking deeply about the best way to steward and govern emerging technologies for decades. His thoughts on the future of AI 👇

New @defidecodedpod is out! I sit down with past guest and industry leader @luigidemeo who is now heading up BD at @aave His ambition is to build the infrastructure for global credit markets. Can Aave eat Wall Street, and remake finance for the better? Find out! 👇

Every 20-odd years, the boundary between humans and technology gets redrawn. The first era of the internet was PC-based: static, read-only content. The second was smartphone-based: rich media and user-generated content. Now, roughly 20 years after the iPhone, the internet is entering a new era. In my book, Web3, I argued that this next era would be defined by the convergence of three technologies: 1. Blockchain and digital assets 2. AI 3. Wearables, including VR and AR Wearables—and VR in particular—have always felt like the technology of the future. And perhaps always would be. But this $META announcement feels like a watershed. All three technologies have now reached their tipping point. The next era of the internet has begun.