Why Human Rights Must Anchor Crypto Design

- Building Web3 requires embedding human rights to ensure true decentralization. - Core principles include self-custody, universal personhood, and privacy-by-default. On July 20, 2025, Cointelegraph published an opinion piece by Shady El Damaty, co-founder of Human.Tech, who argued that Web3 must prioritize human rights principles. He warned that without these values, the ecosystem risks replicating the same centralized power and surveillance it aims to dismantle. In his article, El Damaty outlined three foundational principles to safeguard digital freedom. The first principle, human-centric self-custody, addresses the challenges of current solutions, which often alienate non-technical users. Therefore, El Damaty called for new tools that balance ease of use with individual control. The second principle is universal personhood, a mechanism that allows individuals to verify their humanity without jeopardizing their privacy. As artificial intelligence and bots grow more sophisticated, he argued that decentralized and censorship-resistant identity systems must replace the current reliance on state or corporate platforms. Finally, El Damaty urged Web3 protocols to adopt privacy-by-default, advocating for minimal data collection and encryption as standard practice. He stressed that developers must ingrain privacy into systems from the outset, an approach that breaks away from the surveillance-driven model of Web2. The article warned that delaying these integrations risks forfeiting the chance to build genuinely decentralized technologies. To prevent misuse or political co-optation, El Damaty recommended transparency in design and governance as essential safeguards. According to CoinMarketCap, as of 12:00 UTC on July 20, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,106, marking a 1.8% increase in 24-hour trading volume.