Chaos vs. Order
Let’s consider two main trends in the space:
Blockchain as a technology — there is a nuclear arms race for the next best blockchain.
Cryptocurrency as a disrupting force—this acts to destabilize and disrupt the world’s financial and state actors.
Blockchain as a technology is largely benign and community/consumer focused. It will serve to open up more transparency and collaboration in various world markets.
Cryptocurrency as a disruptive force is starting to emerge as an ancient narrative for the digital age—i.e. unregulated ‘chaos’ vs transparent order. This is the battle between community-based autonomy, privacy and anonymity— versus transparency, compliance and stately order.
In the United States we’ve seen this narrative play out since the 1800's:
States’ rights vs the Federal government
The autonomous and private individual vs government constraints
Global cooperation and financial compliance vs state and individual autonomy— we’ve seen this with organizations like the United Nations and the European Union
In other countries around the world this narrative is vastly more acute and important.
To date, global financial disruption has been constrained by things like real-estate, trade, shipping ports and the transparency and influence of the international banking system. USD $1M weighs 22 pounds and has a volume of 0.01282 cubic meters, or 0.45 cubic feet. Gold is heavier and more dense. Classic cars are much heavier and much less dense. Art is fragile and large. Real-estate cannot be moved. Sending an international wire for USD $50k is no small task. It is clear that value in the traditional system is highly constrained.
Chaos vs Order
The global community is the major player in crypto — and if global exchange value can now be decoupled from state-issued currencies and assets, while self-selecting and technologically savvy communities can autonomously dictate the terms and method of ideal financial exchange — it’s a revolution. These communities are breeding the most desirable cryptocurrency traits and making bold declarations about how money should be created, exchanged and how anonymous the process should be.
For the first time in history we see the possibility of financial freedom that is not aligned with the interests of sub-states, governments and global cooperatives. This will be the real narrative to watch in the next 10 years.
Moving forward it seems like governments will now only control a crucial piece of the puzzle—access to the Internet. In countries like China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, this seems simple enough. In countries like England, the United States, and Australia, access to the Internet seems to be have become a fundamental human right.
Continue reading:
https://hackernoon.com/chaos-vs-order-the-cryptocurrency-dilemma-2695835f59be