Are distributed blockchain economies where technology is taking us now? originally appeared on Quora:
the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Paul Denlinger, worked at Forbes, on Quora:
Are distributed blockchain economies where technology is taking us now?
We seem to be heading in that direction, but there is something which has not been sufficiently discussed.
One of the underpinnings of government and the modern nation-state is a national currency and central bank. The blockchain and cryptocurrencies directly challenge this, and because the police force and military are directly aligned with the government, and are how the government exerts its authority domestically and internationally when force is necessary, removing them would have dire consequences.
The current discussion has not discussed these repercussions enough, and right now the discussion is all about only investment and algorithms. This is a kind of near-sightedness which borders on total blindness.
I believe that part of the reason the Chinese government, and more Asian governments, are moving against cryptocurrency exchanges is because they see how these are direct threats to governments and undermine their authority, at least in their current forms. If they are unleashed in their current forms, law and order would break down, and governments would fall.
I would be the first to say that the nation-state, in its current form, is far from perfect. However, it still maintains public order, and enforces laws that the vast majority of the public subscribe to.
Right now, we are going through a phase where the techno-anarchists propose anything incorporating new technology, regardless of the effects it may have, must be good. They ignore facts like higher suicide rates among youth, because they feel more isolated, not more connected, because of mobile technology.
They promote the view that any technology works to the good of society, while suppressing any discussions about what those effects may be. They promote the view that algorithms can be trusted, ignoring the fact that algorithms are written by people with their own very real prejudices.
This is the same view that earlier proponents of the coal and oil industries promoted: we should use these fossil fuels, and ignore any detrimental extraneous effects may have, because they are too far away into the future for us to worry about them.We are now in the future, and global warming is a problem.
Until the crypto-currency advocates provide a clear vision and roadmap of what is going to replace the nation-state and its legal system, I am going to take things very carefully, and with a good healthy dose of skepticism.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
More questions:
the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Paul Denlinger, worked at Forbes, on Quora:
Are distributed blockchain economies where technology is taking us now?
We seem to be heading in that direction, but there is something which has not been sufficiently discussed.
One of the underpinnings of government and the modern nation-state is a national currency and central bank. The blockchain and cryptocurrencies directly challenge this, and because the police force and military are directly aligned with the government, and are how the government exerts its authority domestically and internationally when force is necessary, removing them would have dire consequences.
The current discussion has not discussed these repercussions enough, and right now the discussion is all about only investment and algorithms. This is a kind of near-sightedness which borders on total blindness.
I believe that part of the reason the Chinese government, and more Asian governments, are moving against cryptocurrency exchanges is because they see how these are direct threats to governments and undermine their authority, at least in their current forms. If they are unleashed in their current forms, law and order would break down, and governments would fall.
I would be the first to say that the nation-state, in its current form, is far from perfect. However, it still maintains public order, and enforces laws that the vast majority of the public subscribe to.
Right now, we are going through a phase where the techno-anarchists propose anything incorporating new technology, regardless of the effects it may have, must be good. They ignore facts like higher suicide rates among youth, because they feel more isolated, not more connected, because of mobile technology.
They promote the view that any technology works to the good of society, while suppressing any discussions about what those effects may be. They promote the view that algorithms can be trusted, ignoring the fact that algorithms are written by people with their own very real prejudices.
This is the same view that earlier proponents of the coal and oil industries promoted: we should use these fossil fuels, and ignore any detrimental extraneous effects may have, because they are too far away into the future for us to worry about them.We are now in the future, and global warming is a problem.
Until the crypto-currency advocates provide a clear vision and roadmap of what is going to replace the nation-state and its legal system, I am going to take things very carefully, and with a good healthy dose of skepticism.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
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