i like this a lot, but am having trouble envisioning the various transition states between here and then.
a tokenized economy can indeed give a more distributed share of value, but if its value generation is still rooted in physical resource manipulation, it still is beholden to those that control the physical.
certainly we're seeing a wider and wider distribution of improvement and economic benefit, but with something so disruptive, a lot of parties will fight to keep their power.
i'm still very invested in the benefits of crypto, but even now we're seeing traditional institutions attempting to gain ownership, or control its path, and crypto tokenomics by themselves seem ill equipped to solve all the problems.
so is partnership with traditional systems the way forward? are governmental forays into crypto going to make steps forward?
i'm really just interested in more thoughts, if anyone has the time. thanks!
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This is exactly what always makes me wonder:
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies really are great, because they share the best of both worlds: they incentivize to be more productive, like a capitalistic system does, but they also allow for more fair distribution of the generated wealth. This is great.
The problem is that the crypto economy is still dependent on many factors: you need to have an electricity and an internet connection in order to be able to use it. Without any of these two you basically have nothing.
Apart from that, people still have basic needs, especially related to material needs: a place to live, something to eat and drink, and so on. Blockchain is a technology that is thousand layers above of these basic needs, and thus depends on them.
Although the above problems (or rather vulnerabilities) are not crypto specific, I am ware of that. Most of us no longer carry around too much cash, so without the electricity we would not be able to use our bank money as well. My point is that blockchain and crypto won't magically solve all of our problems.
I would hope not, but I doubt a world without governments is possible. Any system has to have ways of controlling it. You could say that the biggest and most influential witnesses on Hive are also a form of government. We'd like to think we Hiveans are completely free of any top governance, but the fact is that most of us lack the knowledge to run and maintain the system.
So it all comes down to having a government that works smoothly and transparently, without authoritarian tergiversations—so that you can influence it, and if you choose you can opt out of its governance without consequences.
I think this topic was somewhat touched (although in a much more metaphorical and philosophical sense) by Dostoevsky in his story of The Grand Inquisitor.
i guess the idea i was getting at with "government and traditional systems making steps forward" was that they will continue to exist with a large share of power for the foreseeable future, and their efforts in "the new economics" will have its impact.
there will be feedback between a DAO-ish mindset and traditional governance, but they will have different end goals.
but @taskmaster4450 rightly points out the current rate of progress, the disruption of various parts of the economy by new technology, and the general trend in satisfying human needs, which in some areas now include rights to Internet access. a fair number of these projects were undertaken by state governments.
South Korea comes to mind here, as an example of a techno-progressive Democratic, soft-Authoritarian state. the state invested heavily in Internet infrastructure in the '90s, recognizing the potential it could offer, and their citizens have certainly benefited....but they also have mandatory military service....
i'm rambling a bit, but i suppose i wanted to assure everyone that i'm not saying that centralized government will solve our problems. a socialist government's lag in comparative progress comes from an essentially parasitic bureaucracy extracting value. a capitalist government gains from progress made within its borders, but often lacks resources to do anything else with that improvement.
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Governments, or rather the people in them, act in their own self interest. There is no denying that. Actually it is almost all people so this will not be any different.
However, we have repeatedly seen what happens when the Internet enters a particular industry. Hence, when we look at the crypto equation, most are focused upon the financial. That is just one piece. What about the data and digital ID? And, probably more importantly, what about governance?
That is really where we will see the government disruption. Governance will simply be improved upon making the existing system obsolete.
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We need governance, not governments. And I see no reason to believe that Nation-States will last. They are close to being obsolete already. They were constructed in a time when we lived in a physical world. We are quickly moving away from that. Even what is now physical is in the process of being digitally mapped, sensored, and having a processor. This will move us to a completely different realm.
I think we are progressing toward networked economies as opposed to geographical ones. Where one is physically is getting less important each day.
After all look at your comment: it matters none where you were when you made it. The information arrived at its destination, can be processed and replied to, and your reward for the upvote will be in your wallet (which isnt physical) in 7 days.
We will see a lot more of that.
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Certainly they will. They are not going to just give up the power. Of course, didnt Blockbuster, record companies, and physical stores fight to keep what they had? How did that work out?
They are taking control of Bitcoin, not crypto. Digital assets are being created on a daily basis. They are coming in all forms, not only as "cryptocurrencies" as we frequently refer to them. Of course, even there we are seeing more tokens, more projects, more of everything. With so much already open source, the ability to fork makes it impossible to control it all.
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this is why i said "attempting". they have their limits.
yes, this is probably the way forward, increasing the scope of information and technological availability.
and i suppose real world incentives follow from these social incentives. like, i could have a factory in China make a bunch of mugs with my logo on them even if there is no value there, but that service exists because of the potential in value creation.
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