Money

Root of all evil, or integral to our nature?

Paradigm: Money is Time

• "time is money"
• money is time
• time is scarce
• money evolved naturally

Paradigm: Money is Speech

• voluntary transactions express values
• involuntary transactions do not
• free market = free speech
• money monopoly distorts social values

Paradigms of Money

• store of value (time)
• medium of exchange (speech)
• unit of account (time & speech)

Past

Limited use due to limited productivity

A Short History of Man

• book by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• natural resources & land scarcity
• population growth & productivity
• per-capita income & intelligence
• agricultural revolution
• family & private property
• industrial revolution (life w/ surplus)
• money & the state

Money in Past

• hunter-gatherer style money
• natural resources (shells, gold, etc)
• barter (direct exchange)
• taxation through direct payments (extortion)
• time paradigm: tech & intelligence limits leisure
• speech paradigm: equal but minimal voice

Present

State monopolies capture increased productivity

What has Gov't Done to Money

• book by Murray N. Rothbard
• private property & ethics
• free society needs law and order
• money & state (as money goes, so goes state)
• state monopolizes money through deceit
• gold as free-market money
• gold confiscation & legal tender laws
• taxation through inflation

Money in Present

• state-provided (monopoly) money
• fiat (money by decree)
• corporate (state-regulated) payment processors
• taxation through inflation (fraud)
• time paradigm: excess, but stolen productivity
• speech paradigm: monopoly money, monopoly speech

Future

Technology empowers individuals to reap societal productivity gains

Bitcoin: A P2P Elec. Cash System

• white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto
• scarce, private, secure digital asset
• peer to peer, no central authority
• fast, low-fee transactions
• "code is law" system of governance

Money in Future

• free-market (competing) monetary system(s)
• well-engineered money (scarce, secure, fast, private, easy, etc) 
• built-in payment processor
• no/voluntary taxation
• time paradigm: holder reaps rewards of societal efficiency gains
• speech paradigm: maximal expression of societal values

Future Starts Now

Future technology is here; need education & adoption

Past/Future Analogs

• code is law
• monetary system breeds governance system
• population must be informed
• technology is just a tool
• corruption exists in technology
• know your principles
• exercize your power

Blockchain legislation

• follow law =~ run code
• hard & soft forks (user activated / miner activated)
• industry agreements / accords (HK & NY)
• BIP 9 - require 95% vote over 1 difficulty period for activation
• BIP 141 - segregated witness (segWit)
• BIP 148 - ignore blocks not signaling for BIP 141 (UASF)
• BIP 91 - pass segWit with 80% miner vote
• BIP 102 - conditional hard fork to 2x block if BIP141 passes

Blockchain State

• blockchain project ~= state
• holders ~= citizenship
• developers ~= legislative branch
• miners ~= executive branch
• nodes/users ~= judicial branch
• everyone wants more control!

Summary

All this talk, so what?

Economic Laws

• Grescham's Law
• Metcalfe's Law

Key Take-aways

• your money is your time
• exchanging your money is speech
• money & government are evolving
• new technology requires education
• all the old principles apply
• translating principles into actions can be hard
• your individual choices determine society's destiny
• choose wisely

Extras

Slides you don't plan to use, but want handy just in case

Sub-topic (right)

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Table

1. Reference notes