Hey Steemers, Free Trade Agreements are Decentralized Markets, Right?

We may have been here before. Many of the issues brought up in this modern day flurry of blockchain technology were also present during the time of this author’s participation in the NAFTA negotiations.

Anyone who was around in the early 1990’s may remember the mantra of modern globalization was that decentralized markets were good and centralized markets were bad. The mathematics supporting the efficiencies of the Comparative Advantage ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage ) economic model was, and still is, indisputable. So yes, decentralized markets are more efficient.

Unfortunately, decentralized markets were administered unevenly, disproportionately, and were only partially insurable, at best. Soon, it became clear that the act of trying to control a decentralized market eliminated many of the benefits of having one. Today, we may face a similar peril, except with a far more powerful blockchain technology. Looking back on free trade, if we get blockchain wrong, we are all just so royally screwed. The difference is that we also have the knowledge, foresight, and the profound responsibilities to get it right this time.

The DAO tells us that code as law is not going to cut it. There needs to be a human interface somewhere. This leaves us scrapping smart contracts and advancing the idea of adjudicated smart contracts. The next step is to decentralize the adjudicators, form byzantine fault tolerant networks from real people in real communities.

Steemit is pioneering in this regard. Up-votes are hard to monopolize unless people get together and form up-vote groups. But then, in effect, you have formed a group of people with a passion and interest in some affinity topic on steemit. Eventually, these groups will coalesce and form corporations that produce viable things that are upvoted by the makers and the market. So if a company want to build war machines and nobody up-votes that endeavor, it will fail.

There is, in my opinion, an opportunity to get a clear shot on the next economy if we are intentional in how we build out the steemit community and those that may follow. Ontology is important - the categories should match wikipedia articles so that we can use the linkages of wikipedia to integrate the communities. Here is a great video on a new type of resumé system that will decentralize adjudicators.

Please let me know if you have any questions