Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are a hot topic again, as the most important coin of them all is moving upwards again towards its legendary all-time-high, pulling many altcoins with it. So it's quite appropriate to discuss the future of cryptos and blockchain, just as @ecotrain is prompting in this week's QOTW: How could blockchain tech help the people of this world?
Granted, I'm no tech geek, by any means, so my limited understanding of blockchain technology may not be 100% accurate. Still, I believe that the financial aspect of this amazing technology is just the tip of the iceberg, and the bits and pieces of info I keep hearing and reading about suggest that I may be right. So let me present some of my views on how blockchain technology could (and probably will) be utilized to make this world a better place.
Money, Money, Money
Right, so let's get the dirty things squared away first. By the way, why is money considered dirty anyhow? Could it be that the lower denomination bills are notorious for having human excrement on them, while the higher ones are covered in traces of blood and drugs? I'm talking only semi-literally here, meaning that we simply don't know where our cash has been, which in turn means we have no idea whose exploitative practices we're supporting. But the same thing could be said about credit-cards and other electronic transactions. Not so on the blockchain!
The all-cards-on-the-table approach we see on Hive, but also many other coins, seems like a great way to restore our faith in what originally was supposed to be a neutral means of exchange. In addition to this, it's a great benefit that our money is safe from being stolen, forged, or disputed whether a payment was made or not. It's all written irrevokably into the blockchain, for all those to see who want to know. But as I said, this is just the beginning...
Decisions and Policy Making
This second topic is what I believe to be the most important aspect of blockchain tech that could potentially revolutionize the future (which is why I'm also having my doubts about it, but that's another story): Direct Democracy, involving EVERYONE!!!
Let's think about our form of democracy for a second: We all have a voice, but we can't make decisions directly. Instead, we surrender our power to elected representatives, who in turn debate and vote on policies, supposedly in a way they promised their voters. But even if they do keep their promises, it only follows rudimentary the party program outlined during the campaign. And the only way to keep them accountable is ... well, by voting for them again, or not.
Most of us would probably agree that this entire system, with its expensive campaigns, infrequent elections, and huge lobbying influence, has become a far cry from the democratic ideal, where all the people get together to decide on policies together. And of course, there is the ever-present excuse, that there are just too many of us to involve us all directly. True enough, unless we make use of the blockchain technology, of course.
Imagine we voted on actual issues instead of representatives. The voting would be blockchain based, so no fraud would be possible, and it would involve all stakeholders, meaning everyone being affected by that issue. That way we could scrape the entire representative democracy, and focus only on what people want. Even the minority, outvoted on a certain issue, could come together to develop a policy responding to that issue dynamically, and eventually meet their needs, if it matches with the rest of the stakeholders.
Naturally, all this needs to be developed gradually, and tested, tried, and tested again, before it's ready for the mainstream. But from what I've seen during and before the emergence of the new Hive blockchain fills me with hope and excitement, that such a thing is possible! Let's make it happen, so we can finally face the challenge of that small fraction of people who would lose heavily if everyone actually had a say in how things are run (yes, that's the other story I mentioned...).
Hi, My Name Is ... Good Guy (Trust Me)!
Finally, here is another topic that keeps coming up when discussing the potential future of blockchain, which I simply can't wait for. It would help us give an honest introduction about yourself to anyone new you meet.
How can you trust people? Either you don't, and instead prefer to go through a long process of evaluation, where any new acquaintance would have to prove themselves trustworthy again and again, until you let your guard down. And even then you are not sure that you won't be taken for a ride. Or, you simply start out trusting everyone, setting yourself up for potential let-downs. Either way, it's not the best option.
On certain social media sites, such as couchsurfing, or my favorite warmshowers where the objective is to meet strangers in real life, the trust issue has been helped with reviews. If a user has tons of positive reviews it makes it a lot less likely that they will abuse your trust. But who guarantees that those reviews are real? Well, put them on the blockchain, I'd say!
Now imagine a list of all the things you've done for anyone, good or bad, compiled for everyone to see that you want to convince of your trustworthiness. Of course, nobody would be 100% good, or completely bad. But comparing them to each other, we'd get a great impression of the kind of person we're dealing with. So, while on one side I can see some people's criticism, that this way we'd be standing naked in front of the world, on the other side, I believe it would get rid of a good amount of bullshit that we're dealing with today in terms of getting an impression of people.
I hope these ideas make sense, and got you interested. If so, I would like to hear some opinions, pro and con, as I believe we are just getting ready to even imagine these applications, before developing and implementing them.