What is a nation?
According to Wikipedia a nation is: "...a large group or collective of people with common characteristics attributed to them — including language, traditions, mores (customs), habitus (habits), and ethnicity. By comparison, a nation is more impersonal, abstract, and overtly political than an ethnic group. It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy, unity, and particular interests."
One can certainly say that Steemit inherits many of these properties already. On top of that Steemit has its own currency and system of government.
But can blockchains evolve into full fledged nations?
Yesterday I read the white-paper for a project called Tezos. I am illiterate when it comes to code, but from what I gathered Tezos is aiming to be a smart contract platform like Ethereum, except with some wild democratic system that automatically updates the code for all of the users if a majority wants to change the code. The link just under this paragraph leads to a Youtube video attempting to explain what Tezos is:
/watch?v=7m7EU4JWI88&google_comment_id=z13lydg55xfvip52023jir1zuqimzt2nj (type www.youtube.com in front of it)
The point is that Tezos is trying to become an economy with its own currency where the holders can exchange goods and services to each others... All represented by contracts and tokens on the blockchain. To me this sounds like a country on the internet. There are also projects like Swarm City running on the Ethereum Blockchain. As I am sure you know Ethereum is also a smart contract platform. Swarm City wants to be a peer to peer sharing economy.
@Dantheman, the co-creator of Steemit is currently working on a smart contract platform called EOS. Smart contract platforms allows for cool stuff like having a deed exist on the blockchain so that people can buy and sell them over the internet, or your car registration documents and formalities. This means that you can probably sell all of your property and assets and buy... whatever you want to buy online, without middlemen, in the future. All thanks to services like Steemit and EOS.
Are we witnessing the birth of the first internet nations? Will what blockchains and communities you belong to, like this one on Steemit, define you the same way your birth nation does today? It is really up for us to decide.
Once no one controls our money, no one controls our future.
(Also, this is my first article. Welcome to @DatChannel. I much appreciate the time you gave me.)