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Yes, the concept of a distributed unforgeable public ledger is brand new in human history. The monetary use is interesting in that it obviously made bootstrappi

Yes, the concept of a distributed unforgeable public ledger is brand new in human history. The monetary use is interesting in that it obviously made bootstrapping possible, but the long term impact is probably bigger than just trading bitcoins.

hosh 13y ago
One of the more subtle changes with this is, as people use the blockchain more, people's sense of authority shifts from traditional, centralized structures (institutions, governments) and more into a peer-to-peer accountability. I've been on the sidelines watching a group of people try to hash out trust networks. Those really have not taken off. And I think they have not because the tokens used for trading trust don't have purchasing power for material goods the way Bitcoins does. I'm guessing that, while we may be tempted to just use the blockchain without the monetary use, the monetary use also makes each transaction like this matter a lot more. It might be possible that the very inefficiency is what allows the public ledger system to work at all. In any case, I see much farther down the road where ... the big issue is not whether a nation-state actor's ability to issue currency is undermined by bitcoin, or even its ability to regulate it, but more that many other functions of government could eventually be expressed with Bitcoin or its technological successor. Patents are interesting. What about real estate? Closing and transferring real estate takes a lot of paperwork, with mortgages enforced by powers of eviction and repossession. I talked with a lawyer buddy of mine's about this subject a while ago. He tells me, the court system will be the last to convert over electronically. Legal papers have a gravitas associated with authority and control that is difficult to convert into electronic form. Ultimately (and maybe not in this generation), wide-spread use of the public ledger will undermine deep-seated social conventions, emotional attachments, and notions we have about 'authority' and 'institutions.' Or maybe it'll be like the Millennials. All the folk who grew up in a time before wide-spread public ledgers die off; notions of central authorities becoming a quaint chapter in human history.

hosh 13y ago

One of the more subtle changes with this is, as people use the blockchain more, people's sense of authority shifts from traditional, centralized structures (institutions, governments) and more into a peer-to-peer accountability. I've been on the sidelines watching a group of people try to hash out trust networks. Those really have not taken off. And I think they have not because the tokens used for trading trust don't have purchasing power for material goods the way Bitcoins does. I'm guessing that, while we may be tempted to just use the blockchain without the monetary use, the monetary use also makes each transaction like this matter a lot more. It might be possible that the very inefficiency is what allows the public ledger system to work at all. In any case, I see much farther down the road where ... the big issue is not whether a nation-state actor's ability to issue currency is undermined by bitcoin, or even its ability to regulate it, but more that many other functions of government could eventually be expressed with Bitcoin or its technological successor. Patents are interesting. What about real estate? Closing and transferring real estate takes a lot of paperwork, with mortgages enforced by powers of eviction and repossession. I talked with a lawyer buddy of mine's about this subject a while ago. He tells me, the court system will be the last to convert over electronically. Legal papers have a gravitas associated with authority and control that is difficult to convert into electronic form. Ultimately (and maybe not in this generation), wide-spread use of the public ledger will undermine deep-seated social conventions, emotional attachments, and notions we have about 'authority' and 'institutions.' Or maybe it'll be like the Millennials. All the folk who grew up in a time before wide-spread public ledgers die off; notions of central authorities becoming a quaint chapter in human history.