Simply Adding Value to a System in the Moneyless Future of the World
This Steemit thing-- it suggests a very different future from the one we've all been programmed to create, doesn't it? Someone asked me what I thought the future of the world might hold, and my answer now is nothing like the answer that I used to give to that question.
I used to play along with the TV's dystopian nightmare, and the battlefield that I used to dream up through suggestive programming through the TV's influence was the same one that everyone else was creating; a world where money-printers cause perpetual scarcity of goods by controlling the 'money' supply, forcing generations of humans to fight for more of it, and to accept the system as it exists just to survive. Like everyone else, I survived that future just long enough to be taxed for it. We needed a new, different future, and we all knew it.
Creating Value
As it turns out, 'money' isn't just colored paper or promises of debt, money simply represents value. The information age has taught the world that value can be added to a system by anyone who has information to contribute, and the time to do it.
Instead of waiting for a banker or money-printer to print more money, anyone can now directly add value to the system by presenting valuable information. Either by curating the existing good information to the forefront of society's mind, or by creating journalism, arts and literature, and adding it and it's value straight into the system, practically anyone can help to increase the knowledge of humanity now. If such a thing is the future, then the future is Steemit, and it's amazing Steemian community of creators.
In the future, Steemians all add value to the system, they provide a service to the world, and a product which is needed-- information. Locked into an impermeable blockchain, the data is secure, and the world gains knowledge.
In the future, everyone will know lots of Steemians. Steemit can save the world, and all that we Earthlings will owe is thanks.
Thanks for reading along into the future
image by me, this art was entered into the @papa-pepper amazing WILD & STRANGE CONTEST - BONUS ROUND 2
be sure to check out all the art entries in comments at the @papa-pepper contest's link, or add a new piece of art to the comments gallery for fun and prizes.
Short, thoughtful and inspiring, wonderful post.
Money does represent value, if you check out http://www.bibocurrency.com you will see how profoundly true the statement you made actually is, if you didn't already know.
Too bad our money is nothing more than a commodity, and a commodity that hardly stores value or works in the spectrum of supply and demand like most commodities. The commodity we refer to as money has value because of the constant control the fed/imf have over it and the constant artificial manipulation which they do to maintain the system and keeping money form being worthless, if they would not manipulate it, and let supply and demand dictate it's value like every other commodity the whole system would crash and burn from runaway inflation.
All money is a commodity. The problem in our system is that by force certain groups monopolise the issuance of money. Steem distributes the new money to authors, curators and witnesses, which minimises monopolisation. Bitcoin has become partially monopolised, oligopolised, if you like, and highly concentrated where the chips are made that waste electricity rolling dice to 'randomly distribute' new bitcoins.
It's not really random if it requires oodles of silicon to be printed. Bitcoin production moved to where the chips were, and demonstrates the failure of the Proof of Work system in that it advantages those living next door to chip fabs.
http://bibocurrency.com/index.php/downloads-2/14-english-root/132-bitcoin-vs-passive-bibo-currency#bitcoinissues
http://bibocurrency.com/index.php/downloads-2/14-english-root/132-bitcoin-vs-passive-bibo-currency
All money is a commodity and that is the reality we need to make everyone aware of. When people realize that they are trading/bartering and not using money than the obsolescence of money as we know it will conclude. That is an understatement, because they are trading/bartering with torn sacks of value, each transaction effectively devalues the commodity and each new sack increases the supply thus devaluing the commodity. We haven't even gotten into inflation and it's multifaceted momentum, both in new money being created and in prices being pegged to that inflation.
I have to admit, I saw you in this particular room and thought 'fuck' are we going to have to have words...LOL, instead I just like you even more ;)
paul is one of the greats on steemit, who just doesn't get enough recognition.
LOL thank you for that compliment!
I love passionate people, especially those who are passionate for the truth. The ones who would choose the red pill every time. I don't have to ever meet you to feel your spirit blazing through this cyber connection. Here's an article of paul's I think you'd enjoy: https://steemit.com/writing/@therealpaul/conspiracy-theorists-were-right-about-everything-what-now
The post was wonderful, thank you for sharing it! Loved seeing the reaction to the experiment change as well, I want so say something inspiring, I think that post sucked it all out of me, so all I got is don't stop being you!
I appreciate it-- I'm always looking for a simple way to describe money, or to at least describe it in a way that makes it sound like a bad idea.
That link looks interesting, I'll check it out further, thanks
Money is simply a distributed ledger, it always was. Before electronic money arose, the ledger worked by using tokens. The tokens are hard to forge, so mostly the ledger stays true, but you could enumerate the tokens in such a system - just look at a game of poker or blackjack. The chips are like money and winning is like being paid and losing is like paying. You could leave out the chips and instead have someone write it up on a piece of paper or in a computer.
There was some good recent article about how in fact barter was not a precursor to money but just what people do when the coincidence of wants is direct (you have what your counter party wants, and vice versa). Before money, people just keep a track of it, and it's a part of what we call 'trust'. If someone takes value away from you, you don't trust them. In the ledger operating in your brain, they are in debt to you. If someone has given you a great deal of value, your trust in them is high and maybe you feel indebted like your ledger is in the red towards them.
It makes money a whole different thing to what most people think of it. Most people confuse power (force) and money. This is why criminals run the banks. Blockchains are the people taking back the the proprietary ledger that is run for their benefit but not mutual. With a trustworthy shared ledger, we increase trust in the whole of society.
That's a good way to put it, 'taking back the ledger', and it seems like it will change things in ways most never dreamed. I started imagining it after being here a few months.
Yes, debt in, debt out.
They used tally sticks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick
The problem with tokens is that they have moved from an abstract concept to a tangible thing that now acts as a store of value where something like a ledger has no value in it of itself, only represents value numerically, therefore tokens are only stores of value at that point.
http://bibocurrency.com/index.php/currency-money-systems-2
Yes but the point that isn't made is that steem and every other cryptocommodity that is both created out of a function or through exchanging other commodities for those "units" is that they (cryptocurrencies) don't allow for individuals to engage in unit creation, and cannot be called a ledger then, just a digital commodity that is subject to supply and demand, is mined/coined and exchanged, only stores of value/commodities function as such.
The monopoly on unit creation is what differentiates money from commodities that albeit digital, still work based on supply and demand, and not on keeping track of debt in debt out, bounded input, bounded output, through an abstract medium by which value is represented numerically by individuals, therefore individuals need the power to create the units, and being a system of measuring value there cannot be constraints on creating units. For example measuring of weight, length, temperature, speed, altitude, and all other systems of measurement are an abstract medium, as is a byte, or any other unit, and units are created freely to measure. They don't store any value, they are a yardstick for different attributes.
The next point that needs to be made is that trust falls in the category of credit and not money systems per say, money doesn't require trust because it functions off debt in, debt out, someone is either in debt or not, and if they are in debt and don't pay they either won't receive the goods or services, or if they have received goods or services then they basically are in debt for those goods/services. There's no need for trust if you aren't giving anything on credit/trust. You are creating a debt and the debt is canceled when payment is received. The payment being agreed upon doesn't necessarily require trust, it requires the person to garner the payment. If a person for example wishes to buy 5 sacks of rice from the seller/you, they have to come/enter into an agreement/debt for 5 sacks of rice, and let say you are the seller and therefore you have crafted the agreement for 10 barrels of fish to cancel out the 5 sacks of rice, the debt can be canceled on your own terms, but the money/ledger keeps track of the debt in and debt out, and lets say for this hypothetical situation that trust needs to enter the situation and the agreement is for a payment of 5 barrels of fish now which the person has and 5 at a later date, should the person owing you not deliver them then they still owe you 5 barrels of fish and you have every right to seek cure for your damages on top of those 5 barrels of fish for not paying when agreed upon, which could/should be agreed upon in advance or simply left open to interpretation and then the best course of action would be to seek a mediary to help secure impartial interpretation on your behalf for of the damages and also to effectively cancel out the remaining debt.
Great perspective. It's nice to think of all these various things we're putting on the chain adding value to the world. Very nice thought.
Yeah we practically make our own currency here, and when everybody does that, the power is back to the people. Sounds downright illegal, in fact.
"Sshhhhh..."
I know, 'nothing to see here folks, move along'
An idealistic philosophical perspective into which we here all subscribe mostly... yet on a more mundane level, I for one continue to struggle with adoption beyond participating in the steemit ecosystem (specifically https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@nik9/3-crypto-questions-on-fiscal-borders-restrictions-of-pre-existing-banking-systems-and-dependable-access-for-early-adopters ) - hoping its not totally uncool to post a link to my own question!
It's cool to share links here, adding value to the system again-- thanks
Steemit has planted the idea of alternative ecosystems for me, there will likely be other decentralized systems like this soon enough.
may it be so