You taught me a lot and I feel like this is only the beginning.
Dan Larimer has had a great impact on my life and this post aims at making his worldview more widely known.
I’ve list 5 main ideas and let Dan’s quotes and texts do most of the talking in the hope more people get to know and appreciate his work.
Below is the first part of Dan’s introduction post on Steem. I’m fascinated by how clearly he’s able to communicate what are his biggest concerns and how logical and far reaching his thinking is.
1. Don't do unto others what you don't want others doing to you.
The Silver Rule
As someone who attempts to follow the silver rule, "Don't do unto others what you don't want others doing to you.", I concluded that initiating violence against others is not an option. I know that I cannot remain rationally consistent while violating this rule.
The logical outcome of this belief is that using threats of violence to extort money from others for any purpose is something that is off of the table. This means taxes and everything taxes pays for is off the table. This means war and violent revolution is off the table, but that doesn't mean I want to sit back and do nothing!
Finding Free Market Solutions to Secure Life, Liberty, and Property
About 5 years ago I came to a realization that the solution to the organized crime syndicate commonly referred to as government must be born from the free market. Furthermore, any free market alternative to government that is unable to free us from the current government will not be strong enough to prevent a new government from taking over.
I also realized that the demand for life, liberty, and property is very high and anyone who could find a way to provide these things to the market could make a lot of money while making the world a much better place. It was at this point in time that I started looking for non-violent means of rendering violent forms of government powerless.
Start with Currency
I recognized that money is the root of government power and that use of money is entirely voluntary. No one forces you to be paid in dollars. The initial solution was to adopt gold and silver. I researched it and discovered that others had tried that approach and been shut down by governments. Governments have the power to seize property anywhere in the world. It became clear that the free market would require a form of money that is not backed by physical property.
I was attempting to engineer a digital currency when I discovered Bitcoin in early 2009. I instantly got involved with attempting to promote Bitcoin.
This post ends like this.
The Future
Going forward I hope to leverage the work here with Steem to build markets, insurance, mutual-aid societies, and justice systems that empower our community to disempower government. I believe that properly organized social pressures can be far more powerful than any standing army or government bureaucrat. Through blockchain technology we can organize ourselves and hopefully achieve our liberty.
Only by working together can we maximize the life, liberty, and property for all. Resorting to violence is a shortcut that can only destroy life, liberty and property. I am honored that so many of you are here and helping me realize this dream. [1]
His blog's header describes some of the same sentiments as above.
My mission in life is to find free market solutions to secure life, liberty, and property for all. The purpose of this blog is to help create a free society by encouraging people to join our community which is centered around Bitshares, a next generation fully decentralized crypto-currency exchange. I use Austrian Economics to engineer the economic incentives which make freedom and non-violence profitable.
Bitshares
Bitshares is a cryptocurrency Dan created.
Not only can Bitshares process 10,000 transaction per second, (theoretically 180,000+) while Bitcoin can only process 3.1, (theoretically 6.8) [1] and other cryptocurrency doesn't come close to processing the number of transactions Bitshares can but Bitshares also have a built in decentralized exchange, no transaction fees, pegged assets and token creation amongst many other features most other cryptocurrency don’t have.
Bitshares and Graphene the name given to the technology that runs Bitshares and Steem really are blockchain in their own class.
2. The goal has its importance. But the doing is what is truly fulfilling.
Dan's post ” Why do we fight to change the world” is his most profound and most thorough description of his philosophy. I just read it for the third time at least and I can’t say enough good of it. Now that I re-read it I’ll try to live by the truths shared in this post. Here’s how it starts.
Why do we fight to change the world
What are we working toward and why does it matter? How do we get there? Should we give up comforts today in pursuit of an elusive utopia that we hope to bring about? These are the questions that need to be answered and understood at a deep level if we actually want to change the world. Will changing the world actually make our life better? Wouldn’t it simply be easier to just make as much money as we can, have as much fun as possible, and take the easiest road? Why bother with anything that could bring unnecessary pain and suffering with little probability of reward?
My Mission in Life
I have long held that my mission is to find free market solutions for securing life, liberty, and property. This mission is deeply rooted in the belief that initiation of violence is not necessary to live in a well ordered society and that everyone’s life would be better off if it could be achieved. This is a belief I choose because there is insufficient evidence to prove violence is necessary.
Many detractors claim non-violence solutions are not possible, but their arguments ultimately fail due to a fallacy known as argument from ignorance. In effect, they claim that because there is no known non-violent solutions (that they believe will work) that it is impossible. They decide to stop looking and/or working toward non-violent solutions. In other words, they choose to believe violence is necessary. In both cases, an individual’s belief shapes their reality and in both cases it is an article of faith.
My mission is a dangerous mission. If I am successful I will make enemies in the highest places of violent power. My very life is at risk the moment I discover any solution that is perceived as a real threat.
Changing the world is a mission that is bigger than any one person. It requires building a new social structure that binds all of society together in a non-violent way. It requires persuading a sufficiently large minority to organize an effective non-violent resistance to government violence. In short, it requires convincing people to take on some of the same risks I face.
If I am to be successful in convincing others to take these risks, then I must face my own demons and conquer my own fears. I must find and articulate an argument that is powerful enough to bring millions of people into a movement. I would be dishonest if I said I don’t struggle with these things. It is because of my own internal struggles that I sat down to organize my thoughts in this article.
The rest of this post can be read here. I highly encourage everyone do so. This post is one of the most spiritually grounding thing I've ever come across.
3. The goal of money is to move physical resources to the highest purpose the most efficiently.
This insight have had a profound effect on me.
I need to explain this one as I feel a lot of people might miss what he meant based on some of his other writings. Let’s take land for example. Land is a resource. Let’s say, blueberries are the most efficient healthy food this land can produce, then there’s a need for the best robots to sow and harvest the blueberries and then the best redistributors and best markets etc. Making this happen in the most efficient way possible is the purpose of money.
4. The goal of decentralized governance is to reach a “consensus opinion” on everything.
Steem is the best model of governance ever devised. The short quote below explains why.
Decentralized Governance
To build a system of decentralized governance all people must have some direct control over the allocation of public resources, the editing of laws, and the rendering of opinion. Furthermore, all people must take a risk of loss with every act of governance they take. Without the risk of loss no true measurement of value can be made and no opinion can be trusted. You cannot even trust your own opinion unless you take actions that risk personal loss if your opinion is out of alignment with reality. The greater the risk you are willing to take the stronger your faith in your opinion and the greater your resulting profit or loss will be.
It is through the iterative process of taking risks and realizing profit and loss that truth can be distilled from the mass of dissenting opinions. Those who act wisely grow in influence, those who act poorly shrink. Overtime the Darwinian process of survival of the fittest takes over and the aggregate outcome of the governance improves in quality, quantity, and efficiency just like what happens in the free market.
There are two key elements to decentralized decision making:
Each individual gets to take direct action to effect change Each individual is exposed to the risk of profit and loss as a result of their actionThis plays out in the market with price discovery. Anyone who wants to do something buys the resources they require to make it happen. The result of their direct action is to simultaneously make something happen and expose them to the risk of profit and loss. If the value they realize from making it happen is greater than the cost of the resources consumed then they profit, otherwise they lose.
The goal of decentralized governance is to reach a “consensus opinion” on everything. Wikipedia is a close approximation. Imagine if all the laws of the land were maintained on a giant wiki along with everyone’s criminal record. A decentralized government would allow everyone the ability to edit everything provided they took a financial risk. A decentralized government would allow everyone to spend some money from the treasury and to make some decisions on who to tax. So long as every act of spending, taxation, and revision of the laws carried with it the potential for economic gain and loss tied to whether or not those actions were in alignment with public opinion then market forces and social pressure should produce a truly voluntary, non-violent, and decentralized governance.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia adopts a hierarchical and centralized governance model. New systems will need to be developed to support a truly decentralized governance model over the wiki editing permissions. [1] (The rest of this article isn't necessarily a must read)
4.1 Further thoughts on decision making
The 3 comments below made by Dan give more depth to stake based model of governance and their rational.
5. Property rights are the cornerstone of a peaceful society.
In a series of posts which I linked below Dan details what is the fairest economic system imaginable, some of the reasons fair economic system should inevitably be sought out and some hints as to how this system could be introduced. Below is how the first post of this series begins.
Property rights and Basic Income - A viable solution is possible
Basic Income is perceived by many to be a socialist utopia fundamentally flawed due to economic incentives that encourage consumption without production. What if basic income could be compatible with the selfish profit seeking behavior of free individuals? What if basic income could be implemented without taxation and without price inflation? What if basic income were to be a necessary precondition for securing life, liberty, and property in an increasingly automated industrial society? These are the questions I plan tackle in this article.
Property Rights
Property rights are the cornerstone of a peaceful society. Without property rights there is no basis to resolve disputes aside from violence. Furthermore, without property rights there is no incentive to generate a profit. The tragedy of the commons is the logical outcome anytime society attempts to ignore the necessity of property rights. If we are to consider any concept for basic income, then it must be fully compatible with the concept of property rights.
As time pass, as he goes on to explain, more and more good and services can be produce by an ever small group of people. For example one person can harvest way more blueberries with the giant blueberry harvester than prior to their existence.
All of society benefits when technology enables us to produce more with less. Profit is the result of converting natural resources (and lower level products) into higher level products of higher value. Profit shows up as an increase in the resources owned by the producer.
Free market competition naturally selects for the most profitable activities and those that are not profitable end up owning fewer and fewer resources. The process of natural selection is what directs the scarce resources of society toward their highest use and minimizes resource utilization that lowers our global standard of living.
The value of Labor
Human labor has value because of its ability to generate a profit by converting resources of lower value into resources of higher value. Not all labor is equally valuable because not all individuals are equally skilled nor gifted with equal ability.
Automation increases the virtual supply of labor and therefore reduces the market value of unskilled labor. Eventually, this process causes unskilled labor to be valued below the cost of living.
Market value of Life
The free market solution (i.e. non-violent and voluntary) is for unskilled labor to rely upon donations from those who value the life of another individual more than they value an incremental increase in their own wealth. Absent voluntary donations, someone who is unable to produce more value than they consume will starve (or live in extreme poverty).
A starving individual will resort to violence and will not be concerned with the philosophical position that they should just die.
He then goes on to argue that basic income is a necessary precondition for securing life, liberty, and property in an increasingly automated industrial society and sure his model is without taxation and inflation all the while respecting property rights.
- Property rights and Basic Income - A viable solution is possible
- Hypothetical Price Stable Crypto Currency with Basic Income
- How to Allocate the Worlds Resources Fairly
- What would a legitimate basic income buy?
I feel the third article is the best at explaining his views on his fair universal basic income system.
The First Time
The first time I remember learning about Dan’s philosophy was through this video which I shared on the blockchain a couple months ago here with the transcript. What this quote describes is one of the most profound thing I’ve ever heard about cryptocurrencies and one of the most profound quote I’ve ever heard period. Here’s an excerpt from it.
So I can envisioned up the blockchain technology will allows us to create a world where the forces that incentive for being part of the bitshares community, of the blockchain crypto-community, the efficiencies you gain are so strong that your profits are so much higher that being rejected or shunned by that community forces you to do with people outside it.
…
Those start to see a growing snowball effect until it gets to a point where no one dares be a government official because they would be excluded, because they would participating in the initiation of violence against others. So these things are possible.
…
I believe that good people don't have to resort to bad things, just because bad people exist and I'm not going to rest until we figure out and solve those problems.If you have the faith and you're willing to not give up until you found a solution then you will find the solution. People didn't give up on flying until they figured out how to fly. Now we fly all the time but before people flew, people said it was impossible.
Well today people say it's impossible to live in a world without a government backed by violence and I say don't give up. Instead join us and help us innovate the solutions and adopt them. It does matter what it is, whether you worried about pollution or child abuse or roads and highways, all these things that people act it up, well you need the government for this that the other thing. Don't give up we can find a solution. Let's work together. [1]
3 Comments Dan Made on his Resignation Post
Other Quotes
"In 1-2 years I would hope to see Steemit operating on a scale similar to Reddit and its top competitors." Dan Larimer [1] [2]
"If Steem had Facebook's user base the Steem token would be a global currency larger than most countries and it would trade at market caps well in excess of Facebook." Dan Larimer [1]
Conclusion
I love Dan. I love his philosophy and how he has put it into words. Yet I don't agree with everything Dan says. Heck I don't agree with anyone all the time, heck I don't even trust myself all the time and that's why we need Steem and each others and maybe some day we might all realize that what really counts in life can't always be Steemed or quantified into Steem, bytes and data but it might as well be.
This article is appendix 4 of my book “The Ultimate Steembook”.
Image: Hopefully Dan's own the copyright to the first picture use in this post as he has successfully pointed out in is latest post that copyright are counter productive to society at large and thus I don't think he'd care me using it.
Please consider using this link if you share this post outside of Steem. (http://bit.ly/Thank-You-Dan-Larimer)
Other posts (I've read 95%+ of Dan's writings on Steem)
- Today I submitted my Resignation to Steemit, inc
- Who Really Controls Bitcoin? (Far reaching thoughts on Bitcoin, must read.)
- Perception changes Everything - Is Taxation really theft?
- How to Process 100M Transfers / Second on a Single Blockchain
- Decentralized Proof of Unique Individual (Must read)
- Steemit Releases Groundbreaking Account Recovery Solution (Ground breaking)
- Steem Dollar Stability Enhancements
- Steem Dollars have Limits
- Making Steem Really Open Source (The original post can be access here)
- How to Launch a Crypto Currency Legally while Raising Funds
- The Currency Distribution Problem
- Against Intellectual Monopoly - Chapter 1
Hello @teamsteem.
Well, I'll say that truly this is just exceptional. I guess I now know where you adopt your
Of a truth, I do agree with most of what Dan says but not all especially the Christianity aspect where he said if we need a book to tell us our morality then it's inconsistent. I'll say that truly, humans have done a lot of evil under the umbrella of Christianity, but the onus is on us to search and find the truth and the truth for me is that God still lives and will reward us accordingly according to his words.
Firstly, his vision of having a free market and decentralising the offline is a dangerous mission.
Dan said it all in the above quote, but it's what makes it more enjoyable. The higher the risk, the higher the rewards. And I believe that together we can achieve this and implement the non aggressive/ non violent principle towards life.
So much knowledge laid down right here, I'll be bookmarking this great compendium of knowledge as I see and now appreciate more of Dan's vision. This knowledge needs to be shared with the world and I believe that together we can create a non violent principle towards life.
I'm happy Dan has the never give up as one of his quotes. If there's anything I learnt from watching Naruto, it was his urge to never give up even in the face of the most impossible of moments and I believe solely that everything will be alright. Never give up.
This is me saying a big thank you to Dan for his vision and to you Guillaume, hope I got that correct, for compiling such inspirational quotes into one piece. Remain blessed forever.
This post is so underrated. I regularly come back to this post to be inspired by Dan's spirit of freedom.
I couldn't agree more. I'm not saying this because I wrote the post because in fact in just putted Dan's writing together in a meaningful way. This post is so awesome because Dan wrote most of it.
Right friend.i always follow your post
Bro are u interested in delegating steem power??
@erode, How does it work?
When you go to steembottracker.com you can delegate your steempower for a lease you can regain yourself your voting power, so what am asking is "Are you interested in delegation?"
Proof Of Good Governance December 2017
Does Freedom Require Radical Transparency or Radical Privacy? December 2017
You're getting me all emotional. I miss Dan already.
Me too man!
Me 3!
You know..... I honestly think I have learned more about Dan the human being, in the last few days, here and there in great posts like this --- than I knew about him or learned the whole 7 mths I blogged alongside him as one of our
#SteemitDads
And that is a shame. I knew inside there were some great things I was not seeing with my physical eyes.
I think the barriers connected to some forms of success and things like being a founder of something large, gets in the way of connecting with people maybe.
This was a great post by you, with a ton of great resources in it and I like Dan even more now.
I think I am gonna send this to Tone Vays who has been critical of Dan for some things. I think they have a lot more in common, than they don't.
And frankly, that goes for the rest of us all too. We let 2/10 things divide us, when we agree on the other 8 in life, liberty and property.
I hope I get to meet Dan one day!
dat lipstick
I think he could play some role in fantasy movie ;) Very characteristic face and little untrusty look ;)
Fantastic compilation. Very interesting and infomative. Thank you! :)
BTW show must go on :)
He'll be back. They always come back.
I'm glad you liked it!
I agree! The show must go on!
THANK YOU!
Have you revised any of your beliefs - either in Dan's philosophy, or your own, in light of his recent comments regarding crypto-economic governance and 'rent-seeking':
I could be wrong, but it's hard to imagine that he was talking about anything other than steemit.
He was primarily referring to EOS and more precisely talking about the fact that on the EOS chain he will be most active, he will incentivize block producer to not accept money in exchange to vote for their position as block producer but this also could be applied to Steem.
One very interesting comment from Dan about linear reward and Steem in general. One comment that doesn't seem to be well understood. I plan on posting about why linear reward are an illogical choice compared to superlinear.
Thanks for the reply. I've only ever experienced the linear reward system, so it's taken me a while to see the issues with it. I genuinely look forward to reading your post on this.
" The goal of decentralized governance is to reach a “consensus opinion” on everything. Steem is the best model of governance ever devised." thats it right there ) great post @teamsteem ) so cool to have all that compiled , we are all blessed to be in this rocket of steem heading up and beyond to a new and better world, designed and built by our very own @dantheman.
Its seems dan has had a deep impact on users here. I'm new so i don't fully understand the feeling as much but i am grateful to him and the steemit team. For making such a cool place that i could meet so many wonderful people in so little time.
This is great @teamsteem putting all this together Dan will be missed.
I'm glad you liked it. And I wouldn't consider Dan gone necessarily. Who knows...
I won the whale vote contest - watch out! Good things coming!
@dan is just what everybody needs. He's the future. :) so proud to be part of steemit but so sad @dan is leaving. I don't even know cryptocurrency untill I joint steemit. He's super amazing.
I couldn't agree more!
Keep working, stop paying, and all that economic crap is out the window because it can't cook a hamburger, but a worker can,....
https://thesocietypages.org/monte/2013/12/21/the-monkey-master-fable/
Not to take anything from Dan, the 'right' way exists, the guides are few.
I'm not sure what you meant but I'll eventually read what you linked.
I hope you take the three minutes to gain the wisdom of the ancient monkey master.
'What I meant' is that economics is irrelevant to distributing goods.
Yes economics is irrelevant to distributing goods. Goods are distributed and redistributed and giving it a name afterward does not prevent that the good's are distributed and redistibuted.
I believe that people will distribute goods anyway.
I.m.h.o. distribution is an effect or symptom of trade, swop's or swap's or how do you call it, exchange? or gifts
To put it in other words, to maybe clarify myself.
Distributing goods is not something I do. If someone would ask me, what it was that I did when I bought something/ exchanged something with some one/gave or received a gift.
I would not tell them I was distributing or redistributing goods, that was not the purpose of my action. I would not even say I made a trade. I would say I bought something/sold something, I gave or got something or exchanged something. I would also not say I was a participant in the economy.
I hope you get what I mean, still struggling with finding the correct English words for some things.
Ubuntu,...
I won the whale vote contest - watch out! Good things coming!
Instant resteem.
thx
You're welcome!
(nods)
:)
Brilliant post mate, resteeming this one :)
Contrary to popular belief, Dan doesn't do what he does to "just make money". He's had tons of opportunities to make money and run..
There is fair libertarian part of him that wants to leave a legacy behind, and do "what's right" that I respect.
He's built things, seen cash flow, and unlike most anonymous coin developers, put his real name out there...
Things go wrong sometimes, but you have to look at the intent. I have no problem following Dan Larimer anywhere. My only wish, is that he doesn't get swayed by the disgusting realism of daily life to change his outlook.
He is already correct in his thinking. This sick world, and greed, works a little, but it doesn't work well at all. It's not scalable or sustainable.
Dan is a visionary and for that... it is really nice to see...
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I hope it appears in the next season of Mr.Robot !!!
xD
Haha! It won't. Steem is going to over take all mainstream media. They will try to keep Steem under wrap as long as they can.
I couldn't agree more, brilliant post, very emotional story. We will miss you Dan!
Thanks!
Very interesting and enlightening to hear the dreams of the founder. What I heard from this is that Dan was a visionary, an eloquent dreamer and an opportunist. And that he was your friend.
It also raises a lot of questions for me. This is the kind of thing that people should discuss. Philosophy is meant to encourage discussion and review. It is not like classic science and full of truisms. It should raise questions and we should be careful not to fall into "group think" while seeking consensus. I believe that we can only work together peacefully if we allow dissenting opinions.
I agree with the idea that our current fiat money gives undue power to the government and I agree to seek a non-violent solution. Other points need further discussion and elaboration... maybe for another time.
I don't know Dan and I certainly respect the product that he has created and the following that he has. It sounds like he was a free thinker and I try to be a free thinker too.
It's good to meet people in the know about fiat currencies and their vile consequences for the common.
Thank you for doing this post. Many of us haven't even had enough time to know Dan and to really absorb his ideas and thoughts and he left us in such a hurry. I am still holding a slim hope of him returning as just an common blogger. Now we have this great guide to keep knowing him better before that happens!
I agree. I think this guide will be very useful for quite a while.
Awww... He will be back!
I could not forget @dan because during my early days in the platform he voted one of my comments. Being a person of small personality and almost no influence in the community, being voted by him makes me so proud.
I totally know what you mean. Receiving a vote from Dan is something special. I'm glad we shared this experience.
Nice
:)
I'm still very new to steemit, but it is clear that you guys deeply respected dan. Thank you dan for everything you've done for this platform.
He's very smart indeed.
Wow really good post. Best of all are the comments as its through these that you see a side of Dan less seen in his long form posts. I dont mean that in a bad way I know long form is sometimes used as bad thing these days! :o/
I'm glad you liked the Dan's comments and my post. I too enjoyed Dan's comments.
Congratulations.
Good luck.!!
Wow! Thank you @teamsteem for posting this. This is why even I am a newbie, I think Steemit could become very big. Please give (link) this comment or post to my question: Do you think Steem could become bigger that FB or Twitter? Why and Why not. Thank you. https://steemit.com/steemit/@ola2/do-you-think-steemit-will-be-bigger-than-facebook-or-twitter-why-or-why-not
wow.. i gotta make a note of this and read this later... ty !
I think it would be wise to start a little repository that contains all of Dan's thoughts, not because they are going to get deleted from this blockchain, I know enough about the technology to know that is not the case. But because it would be valuable for many Steemians to have a place they can learn about Dan's ideas and his vision when he thought up Steem.
It's pretty easy today for the original message to get diluted among the spam, the bots and the casino games.
thank you for writing this I understand so much more now
I'mnew here in streammit
I must try to lean more
Thank you.
you are an inspiration to us steemit users. thanks for all the help and support i know we all are happy as heck with steemit. great work
Wow this is really helpful and the translation has been done really well
It's easy to get sucked into the Dan Larimer rabbit hole once you start studying his projects and lucky for us, we can experience his liberating inventions first-hand by participating in bts steem and eos
A great teacher must be forever remembered for given what can't be easily gotten. @dan is a man who believes so much in total human freedom. I wonder if he really sleeps at night or he keeps thinking how to make the world a better place. He is a man with great potentials and foresight. With the creation of EOS which has become a talk of the town, i see him becoming the next Bill Gate in no less time. Technology is moving the world to a greater height and crypto is making the new world become real.
He must have been a great mentor.
There are people who know the truth but hide it from thirsty soul and feed them with errors it's bad ther are lay down course in the scriptures for such people