Masterblox: Metallica, the blockchain, and mastering your own destiny

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Music has always been a big part of my life. I’d like to tell you about how I came up with Masterblox’s name, and why this masterpiece of heavy music inspired me when I first came up with the company. I like many kinds of music, but there’s something about the...

Masterblox: Metallica, the blockchain, and mastering your own destiny

Music has always been a big part of my life. I’d like to tell you about how I came up with Masterblox’s name, and why this masterpiece of heavy music inspired me when I first came up with the company. I like many kinds of music, but there’s something about the electricity of the heavy metal guitar that has kept me coming back for more since I was a teenager roaming around Lisbon playing in bars and small festivals. When blockchain tech came around, and money became electrical to, I saw a connection. This was a new way. A way of power, iconoclastic thought, and rebellion. Heavy metal isn’t just music. The shock and awe the genre caused when it first appeared on the scene in the late 70s and the early 80s isn’t just about the lyrical themes and dark imagery. It’s because it materialised the promise of rock n’ roll in its true dimension. We aren’t just playing instruments, we are playing electricity. It’s booming, it’s powerful, it’s loud, it’s larger and more intense than what came before. Jimi Hendrix understood this, but the technology wasn’t there for him yet. It was there, finally, for Hetfield and Hammet, when they created what I consider to be their magnum opus: Master of Puppets. Music powered by high-gain humbuckers and “hot” JCM800 Marshall amps.

Revolving faster

Everyone knows the lyrics to Master of Puppets deal with heavy themes of addiction and dependence. The beauty of strong words, however, is that they can resonate in different ways as they age. As I matured from young metalhead in training into an entrepreneur with big plans for the Web3 space, I had no doubt in my mind that I couldn’t lose some of the things that drove me when I was the most driven. Cryptocurrency, much as heavy metal, is electricity. Where in my youth, I became fascinated with how technology turned sound into pure electricity, now I saw the potential into turning money into the same elemental force. Money and value, electrified, loose, escaping the grasp of governments and big corrupt companies. Money that was ours in every possible sense of the word. The same freedom and rebellion, the same electricity, the same eagerness to enact big change. To do this, however, we needed to master this market.

Obey your master

Everyone knows the lyrics to Master of Puppets deal with heavy themes of addiction and dependence. The beauty of strong words, however, is that they can resonate in different ways as they age. As I matured from young metalhead in training into an entrepreneur with big plans for the Web3 space, I had no doubt in my mind that I couldn’t lose some of the things that drove me when I was the most driven. Cryptocurrency, much as heavy metal, is electricity. Where in my youth, I became fascinated with how technology turned sound into pure electricity, now I saw the potential into turning money into the same elemental force. Money and value, electrified, loose, escaping the grasp of governments and big corrupt companies. Money that was ours in every possible sense of the word. The same freedom and rebellion, the same electricity, the same eagerness to enact big change. To do this, however, we needed to master this market.