Hello fellow Steemians! Thanks for stopping by to check out this post. If you don't mind, I thought I would get my nerd on and go on a speculative adventure today. My hope here is to ponder the concept of Virtual Nations aloud and maybe elicit some thoughtful conversation in the comments below. To get started I guess we will need to set the framework so we are all on the same page.

Definitions

Virtual (for this context):

1. temporarily simulated or extended by computer software. (source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/virtual?s=t)

Nation:

1. a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own. (source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nation)

Government:

1. the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc.; political administration

2. the form or system of rule by which a state, community, etc., is governed
   *(source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/government?s=t) *

Clarification

With the boring clarification stuff out of the way, now we can get down to it. So a Nation is essentially, a large group of people with a government. Ideally, Government, is tasked with performing administrative duties on behalf of each citizen. This allows the majority to spend their time addressing other matters while the custodian acting with the capacity and agency of citizens addresses matters of state.

Problems

1. Corruption and Authority - Governments seem to have a way of quickly becoming corrupt and exceeding the authority granted to them by the individual citizens. They assume power that no one individual would have had and in such could not have granted to another party.

2. Extremely Limited Representation - Opinions on how to manage state affairs and other governance issues very widely. However, options are often limited to choosing between candidates presented by only a few parties. These candidates often have no "real life" experience as they have spent their entire career working within government.

3. Central Bank Influence - Personally, I 100% believe this is the source of most of what is wrong with the world today. Central Banks are running ponzi schemes and the practice of fractional reserve banking is poison that devalues investments. This debt based monetary system engineers losers in to the solution instead of picking something that would simply serve everyone. The purpose of this is to leverage control over populations.

4. Humanitarian Issues - The list here could get very long. This is everything from stealing property to actual violations of individual sovereignty. What the hell, let's put legally treating corporations as people who have limited liability in this category too.

In short, governments fail to do what should be their primary task which is protect the rights of the people they represent first and often use violence and cohesion to exercise control.

Needs of the People

Lets face it, with todays technology, we have very few actual needs to government. Most of the responsibilities they have assumed or we have given them they handle poorly. From my experience and interactions with others, this appears to be a global truth. That said, there are still a few things governments have done that may provide value to citizens.

1. Identification - This covers passports, drivers licenses and personal identifications.
2. Protection - Police, Judicial Processes, Legal Representation, Military, and Trade protections
3. Infrastructure / Large Projects - Roadway systems, NASA, and the like

Would Virtual Nations be a Solution?

Decentralizing Everything!

Let's be clear, I am not advocating for a single virtual nation... I am advocating for choice by way of MANY different Virtual Nations. Let's take a quick look at how this could work in the future by exploring current technologies.

1. Currency - check this one off. We have this in the bag today with Cryptocurrencies. It would be possible to do trade with and process transactions with any number of cryptocurrencies.

2. Identification - put it on the blockchain! Privacy by default, verifiable, and solves issues with data breaches as you no longer have to worry about companies with bad security storing your details because of some law. There are projects working on this very issue now.

3. Borrowing, lending, infrastructure projects, etc - Smart contracts. This technology may be new, but it certainly could be leveraged to handle most of these types of things, even between nations. Next.

4. Protections - After a population of a digital nation reached a sufficient peak, protections could be given to citizens through trade sanctions and bad publicity. Obviously, there will still be a need for arbitration of some sort to settle disputes between citizens and possibly even some sort of corrections system for those who have been proven to be a legitimate threat to others (crimes where there was a victim). Moneys to address these kinds of issues could be handled by a decentralized autonomous organization (similar to how DASH.org works now).

Pie in the Sky

Think about it for a minute, how great would it be to tell your current country that you didn't recognize their authority and would not pay taxes to further their agendas. Sure, at the moment, you would become a martyr (no one wants that fellow Steemian). However, I doubt the same outcome would occur if your virtual nation had 1 million+ citizens who leveraged their collective influence to back you!

What if citizenship was a choice and you could change your citizenship as you grew or your opinions shifted?

What if giving people the freedom to choose their involvement ended wars globally by defunding nations who didn't respect the rights of individuals?

Questions for my Fellow Steemians

1. What issues or challenges do you see with such a premise?
2. What do you like / dislike about the idea of Virtual Nations?

Please have fun blowing holes through this idea. It's just that, a short mental adventure made to outline a different line of thinking!