Steemit is founded not just on the amazing technological power of the blockchain but it is also founded on a political ideology.
That political ideology can be summarized with the term "decentralization". Steemit as a philosophy represents skepticism towards governmental regulation and decision making by a central authority.
The whole purpose of Steemit and other cryptocurrencies is to release the stranglehold that governments have on us through their regulation of fiat currency. In other words, steemit is essentially founded on anarchist principles and seems to appeal strongly to people who lean towards anarchism.
Decentralization as a philosophical movement is all about making us stronger through what Nassim Taleb has called anti-fragility. Putting our trust into a few large nation states makes us more fragile to perturbation than, e.g., having many smaller city-states.
Crypto represents the same shift towards greater anti-fragility. Steemit takes that same principle but brings social media into the picture.
Clearly there is an underlying political ideology behind Steemit. Many of the early adopters of Steemit seem to have an interest in anarchism, libertarianism, and other movements that value human freedom above other principles.
This post is not meant to be an analysis of the political arguments underlying this political ideology. I will however admit that before I discovered steemit I was pretty skeptical about the real-world applications of anarchist philosophy. But having done some more research on crypto and steemit, it seems obvious to me that the potential of anarchist ideology goes far beyond mere thought experiments or wishful thinking.
The philosophy of anarchism is currently having an enormous real-world impact through blockchain technology. Blockchain essentially is the real-world manifestation of an anarchist vision.
It remains to be seen whether the principle of decentralization will ever be totally realized in blockchain technology - there are certainly worries about the centralization of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the vast majority of the wealth is held by a small group.
But as an idea the blockchain represents the birth of a political idea. Steemit is now taking that political vision to new territory.
My only worry is that in order to be successful going forward steemit needs to be more than just a safe haven for anarchists and libertarians. It needs to be a safe haven for all political ideologies. I worry that if the existing whales of steemit have a certain political bias it will be difficult for other political ideologies to get a foothold in the steemit economy.
I think this would ultimately hurt the growth potential of steemit. If steemit develops a reputation has having a certain political or ideological "bubble" that could prevent people from outside the bubble from joining because they will feel like their opinion is being shut down by the whales.
a steemit original
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