Will the Blockchain Topple Political Borders?

Sitting here, watching the migrants massed at the southern US border; watching news clips of people fleeing war torn nations and living in squalor in tent cities waiting for entry into European nations; reading headlines of Venezuelan refugees straining the Brazilian economy; I am left wondering why we have artificial borders at all.

It can't be something hardwired into our genes. Early man wandered freely, going where the food was easy to get, fleeing bad climates, or maybe just to see what was on the other side of the mountain. Nomadic tribes in Africa and parts of the Middle East flourished because they could travel and follow the water and the animal herds from one season to the next.

Yet somehow we have become a world of borders and countries and artificially created territories. These borders are not in answer to any deeply ingrained need, in fact, our entire history is one of freedom of movement across landscapes, stopped only by the borders Nature has erected. What is this seemingly overwhelming need of the political animal to erect man-made lines of demarcation that scream "this is MINE - keep out!"?

There is much talk of tribalism in the news today. People only hanging with their "own kind", those who share the same belief system, look the same, have a set of societal norms that are the same. Yet don't constructed borders force a false tribalism on the people who live within those borders?

We are facing the possibility of the extinction of mankind on this planet. Not in a millennia or two, but in a handful of decades. Aren't we all part of this planet? At the base of it, one single tribe? Are artificial borders that seek to keep out those who are "different" standing in the way of solving this monumental problem?

It's hard to work together for trade, for the economic well being of everyone on the planet, for the end to poverty and hunger when this false tribalism takes over. Borders lead to wars - "I want what you have on your side of this border" - type of thinking. Make no mistake NO war anywhere at any time was ever waged without there being some sort of economic issue somewhere in all the excuses for the war.

War like tribes and peoples have existed almost since the dawn of time. But rivers, oceans, mountain ranges - those things formed by nature provided a natural line of demarcation. It was easy to know what you were fighting for when the pillager army was at your doorstep or trying to take over your tin mine.

In today's world, we send young men and women thousands of miles from their homeland to fight shadowy figures for a political end. These "others" must be defeated at any cost. But yet the "others" often looked like the same people the armies were fighting FOR. How could you tell the difference between a North Vietnamese soldier and a South Vietnamese soldier? Or a North Korean vs a South Korean? They were "North" or "South" because of a political border and an ideology.

It is impossible in today's world to travel freely between countries. You can't hop on a horse or hitch a ride in a truck and travel from one place to another if that destination is within a different "country". But people are resilient, and don't always listen to their political leaders and bow to their will. They instead create things like the blockchain and cryptocurrency that is global, borderless, and community driven rather political tribally driven.

Could the greatest disruption the blockchain and crypto brings about be the eventual elimination of artificial borders? It is possible. Consider this - that which is feared is hated and fear is bred from ignorance of something "different". On the blockchain, because of it's very global ness, it's almost impossible not to get to know other cultures, societies and people. Add in a global exchange of value tokens - cryptocurrency - and you begin to take away the underpinnings of the war rationale. Artificial political boundaries would be the next thing to fall.

While the blockchain and cryptocurrency were not initially setup to accomplish this toppling of walls and barbed wire, it is a very possible, and potent side effect. Decentralized disruption has no boundaries. We could, after centuries of land-made borders and wars fought over the resources and ideas within those borders finally get back to our true roots - free movement and problem solving across the globe.

_{All images courtesy of Pixabay}