At Fortunes CEO Initiative summit in Palm Beach, Fla. last Thursday, a panel of business leaders discussed the ways companies can lead with purpose, even if they cant make everyone happy all of the time. Citing events ranging from the death of George Floyd to the state of Georgias controversial 2021 election law overhaul to the more recent repeal of Roe v. Wade, the panel didnt lack for real-world examples of situations in which companies felt compelled to take a position on an issue of societal importance.

The takeaway: No matter the circumstance, companies that have clearly defined their reason for existing and communicate that purpose across their organizations fare much better than those that attempt to walk backward into social responsibility after a crisis erupts.

Just stating a purpose is absolutely not enough, said Jessica Orkin, CEO of consultancy SYPartners, noting thats just the beginning. While companies do need to establish a reason for being outside of their balance sheets, they also need to develop and implement processes for integrating that purpose into company operations and decision-making across their organizations. Doing so ensures that the companys actions align with its words.

This is where companies often fail, said Janeen Gelbart, cofounder and CEO of Indiggo, the maker of an A.I. solution that helps companies implement strategies and purpose-driven initiatives across their businesses. When it comes to implementation, especially at scale and across geographies, things break down because theres a lack of strategic clarity at scale, she said.

With different things residing in different corners of any organization, it can prove nearly impossible to imbue all employees or processes with the companys core principles or to have them make decisions that reflect the companys core values. That breakdown can lead to bad outcomes, in some cases the kind that make the evening news. 

Companies today have more data and more insight than ever before into the places where the scaling of an organizations culture or values is breaking down. But in an era characterized by heightened public expectations for business and a social media environment that can quickly turn on an individual or company, business leaders are often pulled into socially or politically charged debates by current eventsa problem for which there is no technology solution. In those instances, Gelbart said, theres no substitute for honesty and clear communication.

I think that its really important for an organization to very, very, very clearly articulate their DNA, what their values are, what they believe into make sure theyre not just leaves blowing in the wind, trying to please too many people or trying to be popular, Gelbart said. I think if you can stick to that in the most neutral, central way, then its easier to defend your choices and what you believe in.

All of the panelists agreed that companies that enter a crisis with a clearly defined purpose are in a much better place than those that try to define their positions on societal issues when things are already going sideways.

If youve done work on this stuff beforehand, you get a lot more credibility and grace from your shareholders than if you get caught out on something and its not something that you have done anything about or cared about, said Matt McDonald, president of Penta, a provider of data-driven solutions for stakeholder engagement. Youve got to do the work when no ones looking.

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The new project, Andiami, is the brainchild of Anthony Di Iorio, who like Buterin hails from Toronto and is best known for financing Ethereum in its infancy. Today, Di Iorio is rich thanks to proceeds from his early stake in Ethereum and other crypto investments, and, if his new venture succeeds, it could be a key pillar in achieving the elusive goal of a decentralized internet known as Web3.

Lets go together

On Monday night, as part of the kickoff to the W3B summit, Di Iorio took to a stage in downtown Toronto to formally announce Andiamian Italian word he coined that translates as Lets go together. The project launch will be a multiyear affair that involves tokens and a new protocol but, at its core, revolves around shipping 3,000 console units known as Cubes to people around the world who will be chosen at random from a white list.

In an interview with Fortune, Di Iorio explained that the Cubes, which he describes as Xbox-like devices, will be fundamental to solving what he believes are the two major problems impeding Web3: The paradox of centralized decentralization and the persistence of Web2 business models.

The term centralized decentralization refers to the phenomenon that important components of Ethereum, which is nominally supposed to be free of any central authority, are increasingly being operated by a handful of big players. These include Alchemy and Infura, which supply infrastructure that help companies interact with the blockchain, and more recently the likes of Coinbase and Lido, which are responsible for validating transactions under Ethereums new proof-of-stake system. Meanwhile, these big players are relying on the centralized servers of Web2 behemoths like Amazon and Google to carry out their operations.

Di Iorio believes the solution to this is to empower individuals to supplant these centralized blockchain actors by deploying their own hardwarehence the Cubes, which will operate as decentralized servers capable of storing 12 terabytes of data and which will be able to interact with any major blockchain, storing copies of ledger histories and validating transactions.

The Cubes will be plug-and-play full nodes with indexed blockchain data for any chain, Di Iorio explains. You cant have a user-controlled internet if the user doesnt have their own server.

To further promote decentralization, he says that those who sign up will not need to provide any identifying information beyond a first name. He suggests those chosen to receive one use a P.O. Box and says Andiami will then destroy that information so as to preserve anonymity.

The Cubes, and accompanying kit, will sell on a sliding scale from $300 to $5,000 with the cheaper ones intended for low-income participantspart of Di Iorios plan to cut out the venture capitalists who, he says, have been big contributors to centralization in the blockchain realm.

Tokens, a quest game, a lengthy rollout

Di Iorio, like many in the crypto community, is a lifelong fan of games and puzzles so its no surprise that Andiami has a heavy gaming element. Those signing up for a Cube first will receive a Quest for Liberty kit that requires them to solve a series of physical and digital puzzles in order to receive Digital Life Tokens.

The tokens will be used in the economy of a future node-sharing protocol that Andiami is building, letting holders participate in a marketplace for allocating resources to various blockchain operations. Cube owners, who will connect to one another via the future protocol, eventually will receive the tokens as rewards for hosting and sharing node data.

Di Iorio told Fortune that Andiami has not decided on the nature of the tokens but that they will like come in the form of a so-called Layer 2 built atop Ethereum.

Cube owners will also receive a physical authentication chip that, along with their phones, will serve as proof of ownership and identitya feature Andiami is calling NFPs for Non-Fungible Phygitals.

As noted, all of this is massively ambitious undertaking, even by the standards of blockchain projects. For this reason, Di Iorio has given himself a long timeline, with the tokens slated for distribution at the end of 2023 and the Cubes to arrive as late as the end of 2024.

Its too soon, of course, to know if all of thisor any of itwill come to fruition, though Di Iorio certainly has the resources to give it a shot. Its also worth noting that the projects launched by his compatriots from Ethereums early days, Hoskinson and Wood, now command multi-billion dollar valuations. Its not out of the question that Andiami can one day achieve the same.

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I think that the religion people had from 1946 to 2008, that housing prices always go up, is dead. My parents believed that it was literally inconceivable for [home] prices to go down, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman tells Fortune.

That religion of course came crashing down after the bursting housing bubble caused U.S. home prices to fall a staggering 27% from 2006 to 2012. Knowing that home prices can indeed fall, Kelman says, is why builders and flippers started cutting prices faster this time around. Once the market shifted, they wanted to get out first.

Folks [are] responding [in 2022] to that with almost PTSD, and they pull back much more quickly, Kelman says.

As of August, the lagged Case-Shiller Index showed that U.S. home prices had fallen 1.3% from their June 2022 peak. That marks the first decline since 2012. Its also likely well below the actual drop. Just look at the 7.6% decline in third quarter U.S. home equity, as reported on Friday by Black Knight. Thats the biggest home equity drop ($1.3 trillion) ever recorded, and the biggest percentage drop since 2009.

Just how far will home prices fall? It depends on who you ask.

Researchers at Goldman Sachs expect U.S. home prices to decline between 5% to 10% from peak-to-troughwith their official forecast model predicting a 7.6% drop. If it comes to fruition, itd surpass the 2.2% decline between May 1990 and April 1991. That would make this ongoing correction the second biggest home price decline of the post-World War II era.

Economists at Goldman Sachs Research say there are risks that housing markets could decline more than their model suggestsbased on signals from home price momentum and housing affordability, writes Goldman Sachs on its website.

That said, it could take a while for home prices to reach the bottom. In fact, the Goldman Sachs model estimates U.S. home prices wont get to that point until March 2024.

Researchers at Moody's Analytics are a bit more bearish.

It forecasts a 10% peak-to-trough U.S. home price decline, with prices bottoming out in late 2025. However, if a recession hits, Moody's Analytics would expect a bigger 15% to 20% peak-to-trough decline.

Of course, when groups say "U.S. house prices," they're talking about a national aggregate. Regionally, researchers acknowledge that shifts in home prices vary significantly by market. In bubbly markets like Boise and Nashville, Moody's forecasts a decline of around 20%. Meanwhile in Chicago, a relatively tame market during the boom, it expects a home price decline of less than 3.6%. (You can find their forecast for 322 markets here).

Why are home prices already starting to roll over? It boils down to what Fortune calls pressurized affordability. Spiked mortgage rates coupled with a historic 43% jump in U.S. home prices during the Pandemic Housing Boom has simply put monthly payments beyond what many would-be borrowers can afford.

When it's all said and done, Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi thinks this ongoing housing correction will push national housing fundamentals back in line with historic norms.

"Before prices began to decline, we were overvalued [nationally] by around 25%. Now, this means prices will normalize. Affordability will be restored. The [housing] market won't be overvalued after this process is over," Zandi says.

Want to stay updated on the housing correction? Follow me on Twitter at @NewsLambert.

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He laid off 50% of its staff last week, prompting public goodbye messages and hand-wringing about the services future after such dramatic cuts. His takeover coincided with a dramatic uptick in hate speech, and despite Musks promise to avoid turning the platform into a free-for-all hellscape, many advertisers worry about how hell police the serviceparticularly related to the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday. 

Now, Twitters former director of product management, says the layoffs could hamper the services handling of election-related issues. 

I really am concerned that it feels like the drama around corporate takeover is sucking up all the oxygen in the room, Edward Perez told Wired in a story published Monday, adding that the focus on the Musk drama is resulting in potentially inadequate attention on these election-related issues. 

Twitters civic integrity team, under Perez before he quit in September, worked to slow the spread of disinformation and misinformationwith the main goal of protecting the public conversation on the service about civic processes. As of Friday, Perez said he didnt know how many of the teams more than 100 members kept their positions. 

Cutting the companys staff by half, days before midterms, may leave too few people to do the very complex work needed ahead of electionsand that its hard to imagine that the layoffs wont have a material impact, he said.  

Its not entirely clear to meparticularly in the political contextthat Elon Musk fully understands the degree of social responsibility that rests on his shoulders, and the very real harm, political harm, political violence, and division that can come from social media platforms, Perez said. 

After the job cuts, hes unsure there are enough people left to analyze what Twitters machine learning-based policing system is detecting, if those models will work to identify harmful words in posts, or if they will flag questionable content. 

I dont know the answer to all of that, he said. But it certainly doesnt look good when youre cutting 50 percent of very talented employees, he said.

Perez added that the problem with the staff cuts extend far beyond election day on Nov. 8. 

It is a very, very challenging and complex problem to try to mitigate the harmful effects of all that disinformation, Perez said. And I cannot think of a worse time for Elon Musk to cut off Twitters resources at the knees.

As for Musk, on Monday, he gave his nearly-115 million Twitter followers his recommendation about which political party to vote for.  

Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic, he said, addressing independent-minded voters.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Fortunes request for comment.

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