I am 100% on board the crypto express (toodley-toot-toot) but something I am having trouble wrapping my head around is, while revolutionary - no evolutionary really, what is at the core of a financial system? What makes a system, what breaks a system? Even a good one? I see a lot of blame for corruption, theft, pillage and rape of citizens and their hard earned money on "the government" or "the institution" or this ideal of "the man", but what are all those things but a culmination of people, right? I mean, people started the first stock market, the first bank, they created the Fed, they run the Fed. They write our laws, they pass our laws, they partake in corruption, they exist as flawed humans. Human nature is human nature and I'm not sure it matters which humans are in charge.
I think that this new wave of currency is brilliant. It solves a lot of problems, it is theoretically the safest way to save/store/grow your money, but isn't it a little too idealistic to think that it will be that much better than our current system if people are the ones running it? There is a lot of debate even on Steemit about use and abuse by those with power on here, and it makes me wonder, if we are already seeing that on a smaller level, on just a blog where you can make a lot of money, what happens when crypto really goes viral? When it's what makes the world go round?
I can see the advantages of less taxation from a libertarian point of view, but I am not sure it is going to change people a whole lot. I think it will just bring different types of people to power, not necessarily better ones. (Though arguably the untraceable/untrackable part of crypto makes it enticing enough for me, though who knows how long the government at large will allow that!)
Anywho this is just all speculation in my head. I am kind of a debbie downer of sorts and usually anticipate the worst, so I will admit bias in my opinion of all of this. I want crypto to succeed, I want Steemit to grow. My heart and my time, and one day my wallet will speak volumes of my faith in this new system, though it is hard to see it the way you do, as a renaissance of sorts. Great, thought provoking article though. Thanks!
Excellent comment! Wonderful stimulating discussion.
While yes, human beings do create the systems - it may also be valuable to look at them as extensions of man's evolutionary development... As in, they are but a product of nature themselves, in a way.
Yes, people blame government, bankers, business magnates, etc - and there may be ridiculous amounts of cognitive bias in such judgements. It's near impossible to comprehend the larger scale of societal evolution and the vast interconnected networks of entities (economic, political, cultural, institutional, etc) and how they're all evolving as a product of this genetic code's simultaneous extract and programming.
It's easy to look back, pick out the faults of these systems, point the finger, and think "they" should have known better. But it's an ignorant stance, completely failing to acknowledge these systems were birthed in a completely different phase of human & societal development - and how they have served us in getting to this point.
Oh man, what a topic...
Thing is, part of the whole premise of the decentralization movement is the trustless component - removing middleMEN from the equation, increasing automation so as to take human emotion and manipulation out of the picture, level the playing field, etc, etc.
Of course, humans are still the ones programming it all, thus there is still room for the injection of flawed human logic and such. However, we are getting smarter, and the foundational basis for these new systems are largely mathematics and science - unbiased, unsusceptible to human B.S.
Granted, the evolutionary process is one that takes time, no ideal will be reached quickly, and we'll continually be balancing between these two worlds - moving towards one that is just, fairly objective as possible, and highly efficient, while continually evolving intellectually & emotionally, which shall no doubt influence the external projections of technological development.
Dang.
Quite the thought-provoking questions you posed! lol. :-)