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Bitcoin is freedom technology, providing the ability for people to opt out of monetary systems that don't serve their needs. It's a technological-monetary-socia
by _9omd 5y ago
Bitcoin is freedom technology, providing the ability for people to opt out of monetary systems that don't serve their needs. It's a technological-monetary-social-political revolution disguised as a get rich quick scheme. The average person is no doubt in it to make money, but in satisfying their greed they are unknowingly fueling a technology which has a good chance of changing the world in fundamental ways.
You could also say it's like a trojan horse. Irresistibly beautiful, but inside lies the seeds of destruction that could free people from oppression and allow better and more efficient human organization. A Bitcoin moonboy in the USA fueled by their selfish greed is helping to empower someone on the other side of the world living under an authoritarian regime with hyperinflation and financial censorship.
I think this is a beautiful alignment of incentives. We accept that people are greedy, and provide them something that satisfies their greed, which is used to build a better financial system for the world.
Slightly tangential, but I'm generally fascinated by the idea of aligning incentives to create mechanisms that do good in the world. Instead of expecting people to be different than their base natures, change the game they're playing such that allowing them to follow human instinct effects positive change in the world. I don't yet have a clear idea how this could be applied to something like environmentalism, but it does make me wonder if it's possible. Is there a way to incentivise greed and harness the power to reduce CO2, clean the oceans, and restore ecosystems?
- rufusroflpunch 5y agoWell said.
- jimmydorry 5y agoThank you for putting this so eloquently. Something like a "Proof of Carbon Capture" would align the incentives of polluters and society. The problem is implementing it in a way that couldn't be gamed.
- _9omd 5y agoYes, a coin that's mined by "Proof of Carbon Capture" would be amazing, but I can't imagine how it would work. Decentralization and neutrality is hard/impossible once you're trying to interface with the real world. How could you verify the carbon capture without a centralized authority? I can imagine it would be possible in the far future with automation/robotics verifying the captured carbon in a neutral and decentralized way, but with current tech I can't see how it could work without being susceptible to being gamed. But maybe I'm just lacking imagination.
- mohanmcgeek 5y agoBitcoin is only fuelled by people's poor understanding of what money is. It's not changing the world except for when the next revolution really comes, people would be averse to it having lost so much money chasing this false gold.
- tuesdayrain 5y ago>Bitcoin is only fuelled by people's poor understanding of what money is. Citation needed. I majored in economics and BTC is a huge percentage of my portfolio.
- dbs 5y agoJust because you majored in economics it does not make you smarter than the average Joe. Au contraire.
- DemocracyFTW 5y agoyou forgot to end your post with /s
- singularity2001 5y agoExcept that participants unknowingly create the most unjust distribution of wealth the world has ever seen. If Bitcoin really becomes the money of the world, late entrants might have to pay millions per coin (or fractions of cause) whereas early entrants only had to pay cents. We make people billionaires who contributed nothing to society.
- jacquesm 5y agoThis goes just the same for any 'old money' and landowner group. Late entrants: those born to people not of means today are starting with a huge handicap. And the old money and landowner classes contributed nothing to society, they just inherited their wealth on account of the birth lottery.
- xiphias2 5y agoI don't see anything unfair with this. I tell my friends that they can either buy BTC for $60k now or for millions per BTC later, and they choose not to act, although I'm happily providing all the knowledge and resources to understand it. They prefer to own something that they can see and feel, and I respect it.
- kobasa 5y agoEverybody buys BTC at the price they deserve. If you wanna wait 10 years for it to get 'safe' and 'adopted' then you pay for the people who have taken the risk and contributed to its survival and growth.