Anarchy Today - Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain I
Anarchy Today - Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain I
"Anarchy in non-obedience."- charlie 777pt
Introduction
Whenever there is a dead-end in a political era because it does not have any solutions for its cancer and decay, always generates a crisis of values that demand new ideas to fix society and humanity.
“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” - Eric Schmidt
Anarchy is in a hype of revival with a myriad of new "anarchisms" from extreme individualism to leftist collectivism, and a lot of new "mixes" trying to integrate religions, nationalism, transcendence, and some anecdotical connections for all kinds of problems generated by these philosophies of "integrators", dispersing people from the real objectives of anarchy.
Anarchy is connected to self-conscious free individuals in real life, where there is no place for collective beliefs imposing rules and constraints on the "non-believers".
We can't be liberated individuals, while there are others around that are not, or when there is any kind of collective power or authority dictating human will and destiny.
Anarchy is always the voice of new ideas and ways of living, as an answer for the change and increasing complexity of social organisms, where the actual society based vertical communication systems (top-bottom) have no solutions because they can't even see the problem that was created.
The new horizontal forms of communication, brought about by p2p communication in the anarchic kingdom of Cyberspace on the Internet, helped by the source code that wanted to be free, have changed all conceptions of social life centered on state, laws and territory.
The Blockchain empowers a unique technology that can be used as a social tool to empower individuals to participate in the construction of a new crypto-economic society, with a free market based in decentralization.
"A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years". - Lysander Spooner
Anarchy is the last political philosophy that can change the laws of society as the alternative for the actual capitalist or collectivist centralized Structures (structure organization and connections) and its Functioning (reproduction of existing System), by bringing new Developments (transformation in new innovating systems) to change the socio-economic formation of society.
1 - Undermine the concentration of power with cyber-anarchy in the blockchain
Crypto-anarchism is the first example of a technological tool, to replace the old centralized systems of control, that can deal with the actual complexity of social organization, opening doors for total decentralization of power, allowing individual participation as the pillar for human liberation and constant innovation.
Some integrations like crypto-economy and crypto-anarchism are very important for the revival of the political philosophy of anarchy but this time supported by a technology, born in the anarchic and unregulated cyberspace, that allows its main creation goal that was to be decentralized and self-regulated and the only escape today is privacy and anonymity.
"While most people assume the commune is impossible, the neighborhood dead, and the alienating existence of mass society here to stay, anarchists reasonably suggest as a long-range goal an "organized anarchy"-a decentralized society of federated autonomous communities that would be better able to deal simultaneously with both global and individual problems at their source.
Refusing to consider anarchist perspectives and failing to question our own basic assumptions may ultimately lead to tragedies that could otherwise be avoided. " (2) - Dennis R. Fox, American psychologist in "Psychology, Ideology, Utopia, and the Commons" (1985)
At the same time, we need to create a global collective consciousness more focused on human valorization than on the value of money or material possessions, because there is no happiness and prosperity for each one when freedom is not a possibility for all.
The Internet and the Blockchain are designed to be anarchic, without centralized authority, allowing systems of governance by consensus, and it's not a way to overthrow the state but to show the decay and obsolescence of the hierarchic intermediaries sucking value between the people2people financial and goods transactions.
Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Smart Contracts and Decentralized Applications ecosystems, allow virtual communities as networks of autonomous individuals, in total transparency to outsiders, and even governments.
On the other at the individual level, it is resistant to censorship from the states, providing anonymity with encrypted messaging, political and economic liberation, and freedom of speech and trade using native crypto-currencies.
Timothy C. May in 1988 had already theorized it all, until Nakamoto releases the practical tool to enable it.
" Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re-routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation." - Timothy C. May - The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto in 1988.
People of all countries are now living in a global country outside territorial and physical conception of national sovereignty, where the platforms can be collectivist but under the individualist principle of freedom of access and participation, uniting One to All.
"Man's freedom, morality, and dignity consist precisely in the fact that he does good, not because he is ordained, but because he conceives them, wants them, and loves them." - Bakunin.
The technology of the blockchain materialized the crypto-anarchism ideas with a technological cradle, that supports a social revolution, based in the decentralization and consensus, where anarchist ideology totally fits as the only solution because the result of the other existing political paradigms, have evidently lost the capacity to resolve the problems it has created.
We are living in a complex society, and the idea that decentralization and community self-management is the best way to substitute “The Establishment” using features on the blockchain like electronic voting for a change of code, or crowdfunding open to all.
For government politics, decentralization in the actual centralized systems is a kind of con or prank because there are no decentralized systems that have limited autonomy, but politicians like the word and they are cheating people with a false concept of "centralized decentralization".
Privacy and anonymity is the basic foundation of freedom of expression, information, education, and communication, building the pillars of our freedom of choice.
" Combined with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property". Timothy C. May - The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto in 1988.
The Blockchain is a technological utopia that expands the limits of the possibilities of combining People, Objects, and Links (influences), improving the scalability of traditional communication, but at the same is a living evidence of the limitations of each human being to interact with infinite peers and objects, and it is naturally limited by the capacities of men like a species (150 maximum by community).
Anarchy for all is not a realizable utopia, but anarchist communities are creating self and collective educated people by mutualism and consensus, that is helping to spread colonies of realizable non-paternalistic social utopias happening now on the blockchain.
Steemit is a good example of a blockchain platform that is decentralized and collectively owned and accessible, but it is open to centralized and corporative interests of developers like Steemit Inc (best and biggest) and other smaller players and developers but at the same time it allows to own property and unequal possessions creating a gap on the individual power to participate.
As this article is getting too long, so the second part will be published in the next post.
The Dialectics of Liberation: Anarchism, Existentialism and Decentralism.
Published Posts:
Introduction to the Dialectics of Liberation: Anarchism, Existentialism and Decentralism
I - Anarchism
- What is Anarchism?
- The History of Anarchism
- Part 1 - Pre-Anarchy - Social Revolution
- Anarchy: Revolution Against The State
- Anarchy Today
- Part 1 - The Era of Extremisms
- Part 2 - Crypto-Anarchism
- Part 3 - Anarchist Tools
- Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain I - This post
Next posts on the Series:
I - Anarchism (cont.)
- Anarchy Today (cont.)
- Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain II
- Part 5 - Today's Anarchism
II - Existentialism
- What is Existentialism ?
- The "Existentialims"
- Humanism and Existentialism
- Existentialism and Anarchism
III - Decentralism
- What is Decentralism?
- The Philosophy of decentralism
- Blockchain and Decentralization
- Anarchism, Existentialism ,and Decentralism
IV - Dialectic for Self-Liberation
- The Dialectics of Liberation Congress
- Psychoanalysis and Existentialism
- The Anti-psychiatry movement
Clearly, your thoughts on blockchain anarchy are as well-thought-out and organized as a textbook. Have you already written a book? I'm going to have to make time to read all of your posts in sequence to catch up.
What you've said here reflect my own perspectives, but I've arrived at my worldview intuitively, relying on my personal moral code (Golden Rule Plus, or something like that) and then contemplating/analyzing conditions using a typical problem-solving pathway.
Fundamentally, if we want civilization to work for the benefit of the masses, individuals must receive the full yield of their own labor and manage the distribution of their own wealth and power for themselves. The major obstacle to such a utopia is the necessity of consensus. Such a system works best when all are committed to participation and willing to cooperate to maintain it. I suppose the lure of civilization at its origin was the opportunity to transfer the burden of intellectual responsibility to representative government. Civilization is the biggest mistake our ancestors ever made, if you ask me!
Thanks for your "proof-of-brain" comment, the food of steemit growth.:)
Anarchy is a self-destructive-restructuring inner voyage until we find our natural born anarchist self that demands vigilance (consciousness) and continuous unfolding and peeling the onion of social indoctrination.
For this voyage, there is only one unique path - our own - but the formula may be "know yourself".
I'm trying to finish my third book on Steemit.:), and today I finished writing the first long chapter about Anarchy.
Her I try to share my path of the Dialectics of Self-Liberation as a tool to help the ones trying to cross the line of blindness and enrich the knowledge of the ones that already did it, (of course, I get a lot of knowledge back).
I've seen a lot of utopias that were realizable(blockchain is one), and we are the first communities that are learning to deal in practice, by education and participation Steemit is one of the best places to engage in the "Attention Economy".
Consensus like anarchy is a long inner self-process of learning to deal with decentralization in action and this new kind of Group Dynamics in cyberspace where we are the first explorers. :)
Civilization is the History of the powerful and the blockchain is the possible realizable utopia to reverse this monster that was born after the initial little communities (maximum 150 people allows direct democracy without the need of leadership).
Big groups demand leadership and centralization where politicians are the "kings of today".
The blockchain can support a good system of consensus between several small communities.
Like Sartre said "man is condemned to be free" in a nonsense life, but he must find is own path to exercise it.
Well, it seems not even Steemit is free of oppressors throwing their wealth around. Have a look at this post and my comment on it and also my comment on my comment.
https://steemit.com/contest/@bunnypuncher/they-just-haven-t-kicked-bunny-enough-yet
Do you see the problem? Even the "Attention Economy" at Steemit is being gamed for profit by delegating power to control wealth distribution.
Well, Steem blockchain is nobodies property, it is communal, but Steem coin has the normal distribution of wealth just like the capitalist society.
Buying or selling votes for shit content are making steemit like a gambling nickel machine deviating it from its main goal -good content and citizen journalism.
On the other way since I came to Steemit I found out that it is possible to ascend and possess Steem by building a strong Reputation-based in a lot of Attention and commitment to the platform, based in good quality content creation.
Just like any other human organism, we always find 3% of people in whales, dolphins or minions that assume negative behaviors.
Anyway, Steemit is the social media where you find less trolling an harassment.
Steem Inc will not solve all the problems in the community because only the community can find and discuss good solutions to find some consensual behaviors.
Yes, 3 % of the people with a lot of Steem have disruptive behaviors and abuse power by attacking people's personality instead of people's behavior and use flags out of the context this tool was created for.
If you can believe it, I found two more down-vote victims today. The delegate responded to one of them, justifying the act by stating that it was because the user posted tens of "spam" comments. There's no prohibition against "spamming" in the Terms of Service we all agree to. However, there is a Steemit authorized (assuming that, because it is listed in the official Steemit FAQ) named SteemCleaner. This is the delegate that flagged the first victim I mentioned.
Here's the issue @charlie777pt , if a post gets up-votes, using voters' Steem Power, what happens to their Steem Power once the post has been down-voted into a deficit? Is it returned to the voters? What happens to the contributor's reward?
Those questions apply to Steemit's SteemCleaner every bit as much as the self-designated flaggers. Are they stealing from voters and authors?
Well, this comment is out of the line of the post, and I would need a complete post to answer all these questions.
I don't use flags, but they were created for strict behaviors (spamming etc) and not to solve personal quarrels or disagreements.
I never mention people or their personal traits on communities, because we can point behaviors that are undesirable to the collective.
When someone is flagged, loses reputation and a part of the gains on that post, and the effects are proportional to the flagger's SP, but your SP, Steem or SBD will always remain intact and nobody can touch it.
Only a very low percentage of Flaggers use it out of context.
SteemCleaner and Cheetah(with little minor errors) are making a good job since I arrived on Steemit.
Well, I can't say the same about some Steemit police, that sometimes makes mistakes (I was a victim once), but the community can in the last instance be the final judge.
This ecosystem has fewer problems than any other I know, but it is a normal mirror of overall society.
Every day there is a pool of rewards ( the honeypot), and there are bees making good pollen with quality content and feed the hive, and the African bees that want to rip the hive.
Well, some want "To Be" and some want "To Have" like we use spirit or mater as the goals of life.
So the last longing path of creating good content is the way if we want a lasting long-term effect for each one and for Steemit.
Hope I answered some part of your questions, but Steemit is about learning a new world that we can make better and you have the risk of falling in love with the beautiful community of bright minded and generous people. The way Steemit works is normal this kind of problems for a brand new baby that we must learn to feed and raise.
We must separate the problems of steemit from the beautiful crowd.
We must never discuss the personal traits of victims or the perpetrators, but objectively point out the undesirable behaviors so that the community can flourish.
"I'm here for the community"
I found another victim. This one was flagged for copy/pasting invisible meta data tags multiple times on a single post.
This time I just picked a post out of a long list during an audit of SteemCleaners' rewards and transactions, using SteemWorld. Let's just say that the Guard / Cheetah / SteemCleaners activities are very profitable for a select few. Substantial STEEM (>$10k/mo.) rewards are transferred to bittrex from just a couple accounts. The figure above is from one account. Not a bad income, right?
I've suggested a Steem Community referendum. Ted Scott was tagged. He had been tagged in the comment thread, so I added him too. Who know what may come of the suggestion.
You're right though. The subject matter is out of context on this post. Haven't found the 'What do you do when you find the Steemit platform is being gamed?' post yet. I doubt I ever will. Cheers, Charlie.
good article, I'm glad you're writing again
Thanks, buddy.
Wish I had more time to write.
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There are some important points you made that showed clearly why we need the Blockchain Technology.
Thanks a lot.
Anarchy was never possible at the world level by lack of communication, but p2p and blockchain technology is the birth of a decentralized and nonhierarchical economy and society
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