Weekly Crypto Reader 0001

My training was in evolutionary biology, ecology, and psychology – so my interest in all of this is from an ecological perspective, understanding what this means in light of human history, and human social evolution as an aspect of “Big Story.”

Cryptographically secured distributed ledgers, and all they can empower, seem to me like the killer apps of a new Internet 3.0, or even why we built the Internet in the first place. The evolutionary process is now happening in real-time right before our eyes, and as a lifetime student/lover/monk of evolutionary science, I am grateful for a chance to learn in this live laboratory with you, and participate in something so historic and significant.

Here are a few articles and a podcast (plus related introductory info links for newcomers) that I think should set the tone. I’m not an expert and I’m definitely not an investment adviser, but hopefully I can find and relay some valuable insights to you.

Reach out to me anytime at [email protected] – and if you're interested in more Big Picture thinking, check out my podcast, Future Fossils.

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0) Some blockchain primers for people who need them – or who need to share them with puzzled loved ones:

Richie Etwaru’s TEDx talk, “Blockchain Massively Simplified”

Bettina Warburg explains blockchain to a 5-year old, teenager, undergrad, grad, and expert on WIRED:

https://www.wired.com/video/2017/11/expert-explains-one-concept-in-5-levels-of-difficulty-blockchain/

My friend Noah Lampert’s special Intro to Cryptocurrency episode of Synchronicity Podcast:

https://syncpodcast.com/cryptosynchronicity/

1) New Blockchain Possibilities in 2018

https://www.fastcompany.com/40502720/2018-is-going-to-be-a-massive-year-for-the-blockchain-the-tech-behind-bitcoins

Some things to watch for, basic use cases and growth areas.

“In 2018, blockchain could be adopted for a slew of other uses, including health insurance, medical data, cleaning up the advertising industry, voting, improving food safety, renewable energy, enabling refugees to own their digital identity, helping the homeless, and even orchestrating a universal basic income (not to mention a whole load of important applications in the financial services industry).”

2) Ecological Succession in the Crypto-Verse

https://twitter.com/proffaustus/status/935832752615804928

Reality check from the infamous Craig Wright about adoption curves.

Also pertains to ecological succession and phase changes between states of matter. J curves don't exist in nature. S curves do, though. So we’re headed not into a “vertical novelty slope,” but into a new and comparably stable normal. The new normal will feature, among other things, completely renovated social contracts – and new psyches emerging from those new agreements.

3) Building Responsible Cryptocurrencies

https://medium.com/h-o-l-o/building-responsible-cryptocurrencies-d45d7d2173ed

An excellent introduction to currency design from Arthur Brock of HOLO, one of the silverback economy hackers who’ve been envisioning an ecosystem of complementary currencies since before it had a platform:

“Imagine a currency backed by an asset which can pretty easily be delivered by a loose network of providers who accept the currency in payment for: electricity from solar panels, computing power from idle computers, rides from passing drivers, stays in empty bedrooms, etc. A currency tuned to kilowatts or computing power would have a strong enough internal value to serve as center of gravity and common economic need.”

This piece is vital to a sense of the bigger picture and how we can engineer a better society, but it’s a pretty high-level discussion. I’m very curious to know what people new to cryptocurrency think of this piece…

4) No Use Case For Blockchain?

https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100

While I don’t agree with a lot of this article, I agree with enough of it – it’s the most articulate takedown of blockchain hype I’ve seen so far. I added some inline comments, but he makes too many claims without citations for me to be sure about some of them.

That said, we all deserve to consider the dissenting views. All revolutions worth a damn can handle criticism…AND, there are actually some great investor ideas in this document. Clear areas of future growth potential.

Blockchain tech isn’t going away. See the first article in this newsletter for evidence of this. But it’s still right to check the bipolar hype slavery at the door, when you’re playing the sober long game of social transformation…

5) The Potentials of Cryptocurrency on Future Fossils Podcast

https://www.patreon.com/posts/15918488

I sit down for a special episode with Jennifer Sodini (EvolveAndAscend.com) and Michael Phillip (Third Eye Drops Podcast) to cut through the technical jargon and discuss the economic, cultural, and even spiritual implications of blockchain technology.

We discuss:

• What the blockchain economy is teaching us about how to surf exponential change;

• The democratization of financial and legal literacy, and how decentralization can nourish a planet-wide renaissance of non-coercive institutions;

• The urgency of a decentralized Web 3.0 built on blockchain and mesh networks, to keep a Free Internet alive;

• What we can learn about the social construction of value from Dogecoin;

• Can understanding blockchain help liberate you from the ego??

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