Thanks to you and John for the reply here. I do not agree that oligarchy is either necessary or a good thing - almost all of the most evil actions we have seen on the Earth have been done by a state, which by the definitions provided by the alleged 'iron law' were the result of 'experts' and oligarchy.
In any case, as I understood the model being proposed, the ultimate decision made as a result of the matrix process is one that is not enforced on anyone and which simply directs the funds of those involved towards an outcome. So it seems the matrix is a way of organising and directing discussion towards an outcome, as opposed to being anything that can be compared to oligarchy, as such (provided the decisions are not of a kind that are intended to subvert the free will of others - such as might occur if a large number of fascists or nazis used the system to direct their resources).
The issue of anonymity is clearer with your explanation here, though I am not sure of a way that an application can be run to manage or host such anonymity that could not ultimately be tracked somehow by whichever entities have access to it's data. Even the anonymous browser 'tor' has been subverted to a certain degree since there is always a hardware requirement and always therefore an attack vector that can be exploited.
I will introduce my own 'iron law' here if you like. The more power gets concentrated into a system (centralisation), the more of a target it becomes for subversion and manipulation.
Power itself does not corrupt since power is only the 'ability to act' and is absolutely necessary for life to continue at all. The corruption comes in the form of heartlessness and denial that leads to false beliefs and rigid thought frameworks that do not respond to reality or accept reality as it is. There are numerous possible ways to resolve this problem, but it cannot ultimately be done with technology as it is a matter for the soul and heart of individuals and they need to solve it for themselves in their own right time.
This!!
Power corrupts no one. The corrupt seek power, and all power they gain they seek to use to increase their power. The absolutely corrupt seek to gain absolute power.
Lord Acton (IIRC) who originally authored the aphorism 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely' was corrupt, and sought thereby to mislead the naive to gain more power.
The actual truth is that 'The absolutely corrupt seek absolute power.'
Thanks!
Ah, yes - I agree. I wrote a post that even I thought was profound a while ago on STEEM that talked about this and why the belief that 'power corrupts' is one that 'the establishment' would want as many as possible to buy into! What a plot twist!
I'm not sure if you read this post https://peakd.com/hive-153630/@matrix-8/welcome-to-new-age-dapps-a-solution-to-what-ails-us in which John writes:
I think @openseed are working on a way to keep some data within a community (in this example it could be the user details) private within that community, yet still be able to within the community what is chosen to be shared and I guess each user would have their own set of private keys. I;m certainly not technically qualified to answer this. I'm hopeful however that we will find some people who will find the solutions. I've also referred this to John for a further reply. Thanks LOTS for your continued engagement. Edit: I just made a Matrix-8 Q&A post which includes a glossary and a link to this thread: https://peakd.com/hive-153630/@atma.love/matrix-8-questions-and-answers
@ura-soul
John's response to your last comment can be found here:
https://peakd.com/hive-153630/@atma.love/anonimity-in-matrix-8
@ura-soul - you might also like to view, and perhaps join in this in depth ongoing thread which offers some valuable insight: https://peakd.com/informationwar/@valued-customer/re-atmalove-q7zmj1
#matrix8challenge