A bit of history about the most popular crypto currency
The book about bitcoin was written 12 years before his appearance
In the distant 1997, two authors, an American and an Englishman, published a book entitled The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age.
Most likely, then James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg hardly suspected that they had written a historical book describing the near future. The authors of the book persuaded the readers that humanity expects great changes. In bold and strange descriptions, they, in fact, managed to predict the idea of a crypto currency, with frightening accuracy embodied in today's bitcoin.
Bitcoin predictors
"The advent of the Information Age entails a revolution of money," - thus begins the chapter of the book "Sovereign Personality" published in the 90s.
"The beginning of cyber-trading will inevitably lead to cyber-money. A new kind of money will change priorities, reducing the ability of world states to determine who is a sovereign person. An important part of the changes will be the release of rich people from the compulsory alienation of property under the influence of information technology, "the book says.
Lord William Reese-Mogg was a famous writer and master of his craft. Even with the advent of computers, Mogg continued to write his books by hand and refused to drive. He wrote a lot about the economy and was a supporter of the gold standard.
At the time when Mogg and his co-author Davidson wrote "Sovereign Personality", he was 67 years old.
"Soon you will pay for virtually all transactions on the network or the World Wide Web using cyber-money. This new digital form of money will play a key role in cyber-trading.
The money will consist of encoded prime numbers in a set of hundreds. Unique, anonymous and reliable - they will ensure the implementation of larger transactions. In addition, they can be divided into small parts. This money will function ... in a multi-trillion market that knows no boundaries, "the authors of the book told.
Accuracy in Detail
American James Davidson was much younger than Mogg, and he was famous for his economic forecasts, which, however, did not always come true. He predicted the economic crisis of 2008 in the United States.
Davidson and Lord Reese-Mogg met at Oxford almost forty years ago, and their joint work spanned decades.
"New cyber money will be denationalized. When Sovereigns can act between borders, in a space that does not have a material reality, they will no longer have to tolerate the government's favorite practice of reducing the value of money through inflation. Why? Control over money will pass from the power elite to the global market, "the authors of the book said about twenty years ago.
Free money - free people
Otherwise, Davidson and Lord Reese-Mogg believed that in the 21st century there would be a clash of interests in Western civilization. The government conducts a dependent way of life, taking away money from producers and distributing them among selected groups. Governments were able to occupy a niche of an intermediary, choosing winners and losers according to the "right of the purse". If there is a general acceptance of the digital currency, it will lead to their inevitable death.
People's lives will change radically. Having freed themselves from the power of the government, producers will be able to organize the supply of goods and services in completely different ways.
As a result, the main reason for the existence of the government institution - the monopoly on violence - will practically disappear.
Liberation of money involves the release of people. Writers explain:
"With each transaction, we will transmit coded prime numbers in a set of hundreds. Unlike paper receipts tied to the physical money issued by the state, (...), the new digital gold standard (...) will be almost impossible to counterfeit (...) - hardly anyone will be able to unravel the sequence of prime numbers in the discharge of many hundreds ", - so the authors of the book described the modern crypto currency two decades ago.
"New digital money The information age will regain control over the medium of exchange in the hands of their owners (...) and take them away from national governments."
"The use of new cyber-money will free citizens from state power" - this phrase has become almost anarchistic thesis of the authors, who nevertheless still give governments a role in the economy.
It should be noted that for the functioning of bitcoin, all the above conditions are not required. It works on several levels, whereas governments can adopt one version and limit the ways of distribution and physical transmission through certain procedures.
Bitcoin is really capable of becoming a way of avoiding some government machinations. However, governments are still strong.
Whatever it was, the "Sovereign Personality" can be called a genius work, which, of course, is worth reading.