The future isn't something that happens to us. It's something we start, together. To build the next web, we have to see where it really lives: not in the cloud, but in real life, in real social networks made of people who actually meet, trust, and act. Our tools were built for watching, not for starting. So this is an invitation: connect for real, and try decentralized technology as a tool for exactly that. Social and technical protocols only evolve together, and it starts with a ritual as old as trust itself: the handshake.

Identity is not a possession but a recognition: I am because we are. You cannot verify who someone is, only that you met and what passed between you. Identity is what grows from those verified encounters.

This is what Web of Trust makes real. Connection is the protocol: you control your own key, and a trust network grows from the people you actually meet and the attestations you receive.

We will use the Web of Trust demo to create your own decentralized identity, set up a profile, verify others through an in-person QR handshake, and write your first attestations for one another.

After the hands-on part, we'll sit together in a short circle to share what emerged.

The session is for both technical and non-technical people. You only need a smartphone or laptop. The technology is introduced entirely through hands-on use.

You leave with a working Web of Trust identity, your first verified contacts and attestations, and a lived sense of how local-first trust can grow from real encounters and support real communities.