The Future Economy

Digital Currency & the Decentralization of Money

Paradigms of Money

Past, Present, & Future

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

Thank you

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