In a conversation over Blockchain philosophy, a question arose as I spoke about blockchain communities being able to change the world of current authority that was unknowingly profound to the person who asked it, Why hasn't any other community done it before?

The answer is of course very simple:

Money.

If we think of the revolutions of the past, there has been one thing that has hindered the efforts has been economic considerations, not necessarily the ideals themselves. Firstly, a revolutionary force needs to be funded which is a massive economic burden on participants and this has to be done in secret because that funding is under the control of those who are going to be overthrown. There are reasons that Wikileaks had its lines of economy shutdown, the lines required for funding, for payments, for survival.

This funding has to come from somewhere of course and that means that the participants must self-fund from resources that are part of the system that is being overthrown. This creates a massive amount of economic volatility and the people who have value to lose, are less likely to participate because they do not want to suffer the loss of what they currently have, even if they agree with the revolutionary ideal.

Because of this loss, revolutions are violent affairs as people will defend what they have from those who are trying to take it. It doesn't matter if it was 'fairly' earned or not, once it has ownership, people will defend their property by any means. Essentially, for the revolution to be successful, there needs to be a transfer of ownership of value from the controlling class to the revolutionaries - the spoils of war.

But, this time the revolution is independently funded and no one need give up what they have worked for to take part in the revolution itself and if anything, they will gain more once they have eliminated many of the middleman service fees and control mechanisms that have been imposed upon them. Nothing needs to be taken from the ruling class, they get to keep everything material they hold and especially, all of the money they possess, they can keep.

Of course, what they do lose is control.

What people still don't seem to recognize at this point is that the major feature of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain is the transaction value. Yes, this is quite obvious and we hear things like Bitcoin being Gold 2.0 but, what does that actually mean? If people haven't put it all together yet, gold is valueless in and of itself. The value that it has is that it can't be created from thin air and people are willing to take it as payment. Besides a few practical applications where gold could be used, that is about all that gold offers. This is what makes it a store of value.

The digital versions of gold can be identical except that it is much more practical as a payment system as it doesn't require carrying, weighing, melting, cutting and all the testing required to make sure it is actually gold, nor the protection of safes and vaults. What this means is that the digital versions don't have to take anything away to have value, they just have to be thought of as if they are valuable themselves. What happens if people decide to favor crypto reserves over gold reserves?

The crypto revolution doesn't destroy the current economy and it need not take anything away from anyone at all but, it will take away authority from centralized entities that hold the reins. Even the largest corporations need not suffer at the hands of the evil crypto as they can choose to participate by moving their activities onto the blockchains -this will of course come with a bit of a change in their business models that will make them more equitable for everyone over time, but they will still be able to do well and even thrive if they can offer products and services that are truly in demand.

No violence is required, no blood need be shed, the changeover could be a seamless shift from failing economic structures across to the new economy where more market forces much more accurately represent economic activity. This is unlikely though as while the people of control might say they want a more equitable future for all, the only way they see it benefiting them is through control of the masses by offering incremental improvement that will never increase from the bottom at the same rate as the top.

The difference in attracting participation now than in past revolutions is that before people would be asked to fight, asked to risk, asked to potentially lose it all. Now, they are being asked to use. That is it.

Just use it.

 
That sounds like a decent slogan for an advertising campaign.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]