Blockchain and the power of nation-states

There are two primary ways that a nation-state can control the lives of people who live within its borders: corporeral control and economic control.

Corporeal control involves physical restrictions on a person, and can include borders and blockades, threat of physical violence upon a body, and incarceration, to name a few. The classical idea of an authoritarian state involves roadblocks, arrests and disappearances in the night, and often pain and capital punishment as deterrents. All states use corporeal control in some aspect, but higher uses of it can lead to a state being shunned as brutal, particularly if the physical control being used falls heavily on a particular group.

Economic control can be subtler, but no less violent in its effects. Denying particular people or groups the means to access the resources they need to survive and thrive can be as deadly as physical control, but responsibility can be much harder to track. A state has many way to privilege certain people over others, including direct taxation (goods, services, property and income), allocation of resources to one community over another, funding of education, and the balance of rights and responsibilities between employers and employees. The state can also control the economy through its currency, which is where the most direct challenge from cryptocurrency comes in.

Cryptocurrency has the possibility of upending state control of currency, as long as it doesn't become controlled by states itself. By providing an alternate way for people to exchange currency directly with others for the goods and services they need, people can circumvent a number of state currency problems, like hyperinflation, excessive taxation, or restrictions on who they are allowed to buy from. The main problem that I see is that cryptocurrencies are currently a niche market for investors and those who are fluent in technology, and therefore the widespread adoption that would allow people to subvert economically repressive governments seems far off. This is why growing developers with ties to diverse communities and countries is so incredibly important, so that this new technology is built with an eye toward being accessible to the people who could most benefit from it, as opposed to speculators.

I am also incredibly interested in imagining the possibility of the blockchain to subvert corporate control through the elimination of corporations as a middleman. Net neutrality has made many Americans aware of the fact that ISPs like Comcast have inserted themselves in between a person buying internet access and the higher level network, and that these ISPs have the power to favor certain traffic over others. But there are middlemen everywhere - think of Visa and MasterCard, who not only exact fees on buyers and sellers alike, but also are mandated by governments to collect information from people who want to use their services. For people that a state has declared to be "illegal," gaining access to a convenient form of payment can be difficult. Cryptocurrency networks - as long as they remain hard for states to regulate - can solve these problems by allowing people to bypass traditional networks and exchange directly with each other.

I am looking forward to more research, more reading, and more conversations with the people doing this work, and sharing those insights here. I welcome your thoughts and comments!