Monday, March 21, 2022

The Blockchain Challenges Assumptions

The Blockchain is nothing but the Internet gone deeper. The user interface looks no different to the end user and should get even easier. It is early innings. It is being built. Heck, the Internet is still being built. When we went mobile, it was still the Internet. Now it was mobile. The Internet is an added intelligence layer. The air around you now has intelligence. It always did. But now it is physical. It is in the four dimensions you are aware of. It is limited. It is spotty. But it is there.

The Internet challenged assumptions. The Blockchain is challenging deeper assumptions. It is challenging money. Money is pretty basic. It is said money might be the most mentioned word in the Gospels. Money seems to be fundamental to how human societies get organized. Money used to be conch shells. Money has been digital for a while now. But we still have had to think paper money, or gold. It seems money is just trust. It can be conjured out of think air. If we can just learn to trust each other more, we can have more money. The Blockchain is the vehicle we are building to load up on that trust.

If we could add intelligence to paper money, say if every bit of cash were connected somehow to the Internet Of Things, we might not even need to get rid of it. With purely digital money, bookkeeping is baked in, it moves at the speed of light. It is here, suddenly it is on the other side of the earth where it is night time. It is teleportation, not of us, but of money. We have no need for teleportation, but money does. There are too many poor people on the other side of the world.

The promise is that fundmental problems will be solved. I grew up in the Third World. The fundamental problem is that of identity. Vicious political battles are fought in countries that primarily export people as to who is and who is not a citizen. The truth is, everyone is. It is a fundamental human right to be a citizen. Every single person has a right to be a citizen of some country. I ask, why not every country? The Blockchain could add 10 trillion dollars to the global GDP overnight by simply making every single human being a citizen of every country and it could do that. Without asking for permission.

After identity, there is the problem of the bank account. Banks shush shush most people. With the Blockchain, your bank account is automatic.

And then credit and pay. In a knowledge economy we are now in, it makes sense to simply pay every single person a basic living wage, and then build a robust economy on top of that. Not having to worry about your next meal does not make you lazy, or 99% of the people, over 99, in the rich countries would be lazy.

And theft. Poor countries are poor primarily because the local corrupt loot and move their money to rich countries, and rich countries are hand over fist. The Blockchain could make all that transparent. And then regulations could kick in. As in, maybe you belong in jail not in the Swiss Alps.

Cisco was one of the companies that built the Internet. And it made money. Everybody who buys a portion of a Bitcoin is helping pay to buid the Blockchain, and is investing in it to reap rewards. The Blockchain went IPO a long time ago.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Which Coin To Hold?



Right And Wrong And The Blockchain

We would rather be talking to Satoshi, but he is nowhere to be found. He might not even be a person. It might be a pen name. It might have been a group of people. He has not surfaced. Even Deep Throat finally surfaced. Perhaps Satoshi will. In the mean time, we have Vitalik Butarin.

Time magazine did a profile on him recently. And he looks helpless.

The genie is out of the bottle. And the greedy people are having a have at it. That is the picture that emerges. The Blockchain so far is just another club of filthy rich white men.

The Blockchain is not supposed to be trickle down. The very promise is bottom up. So far it has not happened. The promise is there. But if all hope is on the technology, the hope will not be realized. There are human choices to be made.

Right and wrong is not on the blockchain. The blockchain is neutral. Right and wrong is in the spiritual domain. Right and wrong is inherently human.

It is being said Blockchain bookkeeping will be triple entry, as opposed to double entry as has been, and that will allow regulators and ordinary investors to monitor a company in real time.

I firmly believe a Decentralized Autonomonus Organization (DAO) that brings together all Afghans in countries with free speech will wrestle that country away from the Taliban.

If you believe in democracy, organize the diaspora. Let them get organized. And Facebook Groups don't cut it. You need sophisticated organizations. You need a DAO.

There is plenty of orgaizing to do inside the US itself. The idea that property taxes should pay for schools is insane. The poor kids will never catch up. I am for socialism in education.