Let a thousand societies bloom
vitalik.eth.limo
Let a thousand societies bloom
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#2Much like the Hundred Flowers campaign led to the Anti-Rightist campaign, an Archipelago model makes it easier for the ambient sovereign power to crush and destroy the various micro-societies that interfere with its agenda.
Scott (redacted)’s original fictional instantiation of this theory worked around this problem, as I recall, by pretending no pre-existing sovereign power was around.
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#3What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems”
When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of control over a population”
The promise of crypto fundamentally misunderstands how humans work, relate, exchange, and negotiate energy and power.
Contracts are just an extension of politics, digital contracts are no different
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#4What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
At least in theory though on chain contracts could have value in that they could lower the cost of the transaction. Of course in practice it did not happen and it’s just speculation on the price.
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#5What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
> this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of control over a population
So, has trump coin and world liberty financial proven your friend wrong? What about El salvador or the cayman islands?
It seems that it was you who misunderstood human nature. Greed always wins.
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#6What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
> this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of control over a population So, has trump coin and world liberty financial proven your friend wrong? What about El salvador or the cayman islands? It seems that it was you who misunderstood human nature. Greed always wins.
>What about El salvador or the cayman islands?
What do these prove? some people dodge taxes?
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#7What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
> this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of control over a population So, has trump coin and world liberty financial proven your friend wrong? What about El salvador or the cayman islands? It seems that it was you who misunderstood human nature. Greed always wins.
TrumpCoin and WLF are obvious grifts by parties associated with Trump and not actually part of government policy, and the president is not a rational actor trying to maintain a capable government.
El Salvador's experiment was generally a failure for various reasons, and they agreed to start rolling back the policies as part of an agreement with the IMF for another loan.
These projects happened because, yes, greed wins and destroys everything in its wake.
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#8What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
> this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of control over a population So, has trump coin and world liberty financial proven your friend wrong? What about El salvador or the cayman islands? It seems that it was you who misunderstood human nature. Greed always wins.
> So, has trump coin and world liberty financial proven your friend wrong?
No:
1. That's not being implemented as a permanent replacement for typical currency, that's cryptocurrency as a specialized temporary vehicle for accepting bribes and fleecing the gullible.
2. Even if #1 were not true, it's rather hard for a democratic government to react when key positions in that government have (temporarily, I trust) been taken over by a cult that profits from the scheme.
> It seems that it was you who misunderstood human nature. Greed always wins.
That's an inaccurately nihilistic view of what "human nature" encompasses. If greed always won, nobody would have pets, charities would not exist, parents would enslave their children, life-insurance would just be an invitation to filicide, etc.
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#9Much like the Hundred Flowers campaign led to the Anti-Rightist campaign, an Archipelago model makes it easier for the ambient sovereign power to crush and destroy the various micro-societies that interfere with its agenda. Scott (redacted)’s original fictional instantiation of this theory worked around this problem, as I recall, by pretending no pre-existing sovereign power was around.
The current status of the music industry is a real world example
Re: Let a thousand societies bloom
#10What crypto purists don’t appreciate is that money, commerce and economic activity is all a social function they’re not “technical problems” When I first read the Satoshi white paper the immediate response I had as somebody who has studied political economics is that “this will never work because governments will never allow for disintermediation of their currency because it’s one of, if not THE, primary sources of c…
I agree as it relates to bitcoin: It's positioning itself as a store of value... and it kind of works as long as the collective delusion that it _is_ a store of value holds up. But that sort of self-fulfilling prophecy is kind of flimsy. Governments get to decide what money is based on charging taxes and demand how it gets paid.
Legal contracts are similar. They 100% are reliant on social and institutional forces for enforcement and meaning. But I think smart contracts are different because they are self-enforcing. It would be very difficult to use a smart contracts as a replacement for legal contracts in most circumstances. But when the contract relates to state and digital assets on the network then it's a great tool. And if you end up with a network that hosts a lot of these important contracts, then the native crypto asset (which is used as gas to power said contracts) has value as a commodity. And if that commodity also shares all the properties of good money (fungibility, durability, portability, etc.) then all of a sudden you have money.