As I first became a libertarian in college, I happened to study Moore's Law, and other indicators of exponential technological advancement. I hopelessly began to think about how governments would surely use it to further their exploitation of the masses. But what if the tech could be used for good, I thought. After much thought it became clear that the "tech-race" would be a complete "hit-or-miss" for the future of humanity. The same technological growth used to enslave humanity could potentially be used to free humanity from violent monopolies who seek to extort and control us.
One of the biggest mental obstacles about fully embracing libertarian philosophy in its truest form, (voluntaryism, anarchism, etc.) and the idea of organizing an orderly & peaceful society without government, is the inability to imagine specific free market replacements for functions that throughout most of history, only governments have provided.
Of course, the most infamous being,
- "But who would build the ROOAADDSSS?!"
- Additionally, "Who would hold people accountable for rape, murder, theft, and fraud!?"
- "Who would provide for the poor?"
- .."Teach our children?"
... you get the point.
Most of us understand that we cannot begin to speculate on which mechanisms would replace and outperform these government services should the market be allowed to compete. I mean, how could we? Who are we to predict what the free market would come up with when incentivized appropriately?
That's where blockchain comes into play! A technological movement on behalf of freedom is emerging!
Even the least technical of us have a basic understanding that cryptocurrency is a major threat to government power. Afterall, the ability to control the money supply allows governments to enslave the public on a much greater scale than they could otherwise get away with. And while EOS certainly has the ability to combat this as yet another competing currency with numerous advantages over others, its potential goes much beyond that.
Because EOS is first and foremost a platform and not simply a currency, its potential extends to much broader applications than just competing with government-issued currency. The EOS platform's offers a unique mechanism to host decentralized apps. Its governance model is designed to facilitate honesty, transparency, and accountability, while hosting a system for which innovators can implement their own solutions to many problems, some of which include those that we have been taught to believe only governments can solve.
Even the vast majority of the public knows our current systems of government is broken. However convincing them they're better off without any government at all is a tough sell when they think that essential services could only be provided by a coercive monopoly. Yet increasingly with real solutions EOS could potentially host, people don't necessarily have to understand the philosophical objections to government in order to embrace the solutions that can render it obsolete. When these innovations are finally given the opportunity and environment to come to fruition, I believe, we could begin humanity's technological "take-off" that can render many government monopolies obsolete, and give us prosperous, non-violent societal change.
Fields of interest for development on the EOS platform specifically mentioned by EOS creator and CTO, Dan Larimer include:
Non-violent, rather than coercive governance models
Dispute resolution mechanisms
Verifiable identification/ reputation systems
Other applications that are already developing to launch on the EOS platform include:
-Everipedia, an open-source, decentralized online encyclopedia, similar to wikipedia with many improvements
-EOS.io Storage, A system of digital data storage with no net cost to users, only a returnable deposit of EOS tokens based on usage.
- & much more: a list of developing projects can be found at eosindex.io
Even after hours of reading and watching videos, I am by no means an expert on EOS, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this very well could turn out to be an extraordinary tool to advance freedom through blockchain-based technologies. The more I learn about EOS' potential solutions, the more I want to learn and participate in furthering it. I encourage anyone who cares about advancing freedom to look further into its potential. Plus, you might even make a few bucks along the way ;)