Why I’m talking about indoor air quality to crypto nerds

I’m at the Ethereum World’s Fair, one of the largest gatherings for blockchain and crypto experts and developers. As 15,000 people descend in Buenos Aires, I definitely feel like an outsider. I’m not a blockchain expert or computer science pro. I’m a scientist deep in the world of public health and pandemic prevention. Why did I come to Buenos Aires? I came to share why crypto experts should care about clean indoor air.

Your Brain Runs on (Clean) Air

I gave a talk titled “Your Brain Runs on (Clean) Air” on Nov 19, nestled between talks about open-source microfabrication, medical imaging tools, and the future of computing. It might seem unusual to bring indoor air quality to a crypto conference, but the connection is real: the air we breathe indoors directly shapes how well our brains function. We spend 90% of our time indoors, and studies show that air pollutants, high CO₂, and airborne viruses can meaningfully impair decision-making, reaction time, learning, and memory.

For a community obsessed with performance – whether it’s improving coordination, writing better code, or making smarter governance decisions – this matters. High CO₂ can reduce cognitive performance by up to 50%. And studies with airplane pilots found that as CO₂ ticks up to 2500 ppm (not uncommon in classrooms), the odds of making mistakes on plane maneuvers went up by 50%. Yikes! Particulate matter lowers test scores: adding air purifiers inside classrooms during a natural experiment in California showed that scores improved by about 8%. And test scores during big national exams were lower on days with higher outdoor particulate matter. Bioaerosols like the virus particles that cause Covid can have lasting cognitive effects. A large cohort study found that IQ dropped by 3-6 points after one symptomatic infection. If we care about clearer thinking and better outcomes, clean indoor air is one of the highest-leverage tools we have.

There’s also a natural connection to the Ethereum and d/acc ethos. Clean air systems include low-cost sensors, open-source filtration designs, and transparent real-time data – all of which can be decentralized, permissionless, and community-driven. They make the invisible visible, turning every room into something you can measure, verify, and improve without gatekeepers.