That'll punch some people in the gut, and I'm sorry for that. Cryptocurrencies are popular with, and have been popularized mostly by libertarians and anarcho-capitalists who, most of the time, want nothing to do with socialism. Not even remotely.
source: Wikimedia Commons
That's so strange to me. You see, I'm a socialist, and as soon as I got to understand what bitcoin is, what it represents and how it operates, it made my socialist heart beat faster. Actually that shouldn't be surprising at all, and I'll try to explain why in this short post. But first, let's have some historical context that may lift the veil just a little bit; libertarianism and anarchism were left wing, even socialist ideologies originally. It's really simple to understand in principle: there can be no true freedom in a power hierarchy. That's it. That's all one needs to understand to know why libertarianism and anarchism were the purview of socialists and communists. Capitalism, dear reader, inherently leads to the kind of power hierarchy where classes are divided in a small group of "haves" and a large group of "have nots." Just look around. In the process of competition and elimination of those who are not profitable enough, there's always just a few left standing at the end of that process, always leading to the late stage capitalism we experience right now.
A key component of libertarian socialism, or anarcho-socialism, is decentralization; here's where the relation between socialism and cryptocurrencies begins to take shape. What we have right now, and what's inherent in the capitalist structures we've come used to, is a top-down organization of workplaces as well as politics. Again, this is inescapable within the framework of capitalism and the capitalist mindset. I wish anarcho-capitalists understood that anarcho-capitalism is a contradiction in terms. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency open up the road to decentralization of political and economical power. They make possible decentralized structures of political organization and true workers' self-management trough decentralized democratic processes, both within and outside of the workplace.
Capitalism leaves large groups of people without a chance of ever living a decent or fulfilling life. Nationally there are homeless people next to empty homes and hungry people next to giant waste of food. Internationally the first or developed world, lives next to the third world. And both aren't coincidences, but necessary to keep the system afloat; capitalism can not exist without exploitation, it's built on it. Socialism on the other hand brings with it dreadful visions of boring, grey societies where everybody has exactly the same; some jokingly say that under socialism we'll all be equally poor. But that's not how it works, or how it would work. I believe Terry Eagleton said it best in his book "Why Marx was right": "Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone's different needs." And I ask you: what better way to insure everyone getting the same attention, than the open source algorithms that power blockchain-based cryptocurrencies? They have no bias, no profit incentive, no competitors to beat.
Take a look at how decentralized exchanges work, and you'll see many analogies to the socialist ideology; everyone contributes to the liquidity pools according to their ability, and everyone takes according to their needs. It's almost exactly the slogan popularized by Karl Marx: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Scary, isn't it? ;-)
Another key concept in libertarian socialism is "universality." Well, again, look no further than what cryptocurrencies do for the billions of "unbanked" people in the poorer parts of our planet. No longer are they completely unable to access financial services; if you have a mobile phone, a laptop or a tablet, you can start earning cryptocurrencies. And with a bit of luck you can even become relatively rich. But that's not important here. What's important is that access to blockchain-based money and services is universal. I said years ago that the true crypto-revolution would begin in third world countries, and I still believe that. The challenge we have is to convince all those who are already "banked," to liberate them from their fiat-addiction.
What I also said years ago, is that the advent of bitcoin, ethereum and the thousands that followed, won't solve any of the fundamental problems we have as a species. It won't solve climate change, it won't solve poverty; for that we need a more fundamental change, which is, in my opinion, to get rid of capitalism. Cryptocurrencies won't achieve that either, but they provide us with much more fertile ground to begin the change we need than the hard dry ground of fiat money and the centralized power of banks. And I hope we will collectively make better decisions this time around than we did with the previous industrial and information technology revolutions...
But living under capitalism, Adrian points out, it’s easy to tell the direction this digitized technology database for the real estate industry is likely headed. One ultimate conclusion is smart locks. “In a dystopian capitalist blockchain world, you’ll likely see real estate being tracked on blockchain,” he says. If the tenant hasn’t paid their rent or mortgage payment for that month, the bank or landlord can use this technology to make sure the house is kept locked until payment is recorded on blockchain (the specious argument from libertarians is that using this blockchain technology to enact evictions is less violent than calling the cops).
Adrian, however, is suggesting an entirely different approach — a socialist use for this same technology, effectively swapping the lock for a key that grants a person’s right to a home. “I’m no techno-utopian,” he says. “There has to be social change that goes along with this process.” But, he says, “we cannot stop the progress of innovation in technology. We need, instead, to think of alternatives using that same technology.”
source: Mel Magazine
Alright, this has been a free-form mind-dump by your average crypto-brother. Thanks for hanging on until the end, and I hope you are well. Stay healthy and stay safe!
The Blockchain Socialist Podcast Introduction
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