Why am I seemingly gravitating more and more to the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain?
Is it because I want to go to the moon in my lambo? Or because with every passing day I am able to imagine in greater clarity and detail a rich variety of alternative visions of global society?
Well, both are, as you might expect, somewhat equally exciting prospects... But I'm not fooling myself; if I ever do end up driving, much less owning my very own crypto-funded-lambo, I know it won't be because I happened to be a lucky speculator, but rather because I found a way to capitalize on an incredibly innovative idea and make a cool couple million from it.
And to be frank, I don't want a lambo, just like if Beyonce wanted to marry me, I doubt I would go for it either... It's a sexy fantasy but would it really be as great in real life as it is in our heads?
Though my interest in crypto began with Bitcoin a few years back, I have to admit that I didn't quite see the incredible numbers of ways that cryptocurrencies has the potential to change the world we live in. More and more, such as with the advent of Steemit, and other kinds of Dapps that are coming out, my vision of cryptocurrency has been evolving beyond "Waow, cool, people can get dimebags delivered to their front-doors"; to "Holy Shit! This is how we're going to change the world for the better..."
I believe part of the reason why I'm gravitating to the world of cryptocurrency is that the blockchain represents a completely new and innovative way to operate a ledger; or system of accounting... Precisely because this ledger, this accounting system which is blockchain, is by its very nature broadening the potential applications that currency can play in our lives, by taking the issuance of commonly-used currency out of the hands of central bankers and government "regulators" and placing this sacred power of "controlling the supply of currency" directly into the hands of the communities with an interest in re-appropriating the flows of currency with their economies, in a symbiotic manner with the greater emerging global catallaxy... (Which I have discussed in previous posts such as these 😈)
Obviously much of the monetary, "real-world" value of our cryptocurrencies is "derived" from the fiat dollar system but in reality it needn't and most likely will not be for much longer...
Max Keiser pointed out the fact that the market cap of Bitcoin had the potential to be over a 100 trillion dollars, aka all of the fiat money in existence, and more, since eventually, dollars will become worthless toilet paper coveted by collectors and museums, while Bitcoin (or any alternative of humanity's choosing) will become the new de-facto currency...
I'm not saying I want or support cryptocurrency to "essentially replace" the fiat dollar system, and for humanity to essentially stay in the same paradigm, except everything is digital cryptocurrency rather than fiat cash/credit/debt (and worse than that, for these cryptocurrencies of tomorrow to be centrally controlled by the powers that be in an Orwellian control-and-surveillance grid)
Rather I believe that in this era we are redefining our most deeply-entrenched and well-established conventions on what constitutes currency and its potential usage and applications...
I don't see why, for example, and to stay in line with the spirit of this article, we couldn't have "carecoins"...
THE PREMISE
Carecoins - A voluntaryist-enabled gift-economy of mutual-aid
The idea for a Dapp-enabled cryptocurrency that rewards altruism has been germinating in my mind.
This coin does not necessarily have a dollar/fiat monetary value, rather it is a kind of social-credit system. The way this coin gets mined works on a kind of airdrop model. Everyday, participants in this eco-system are allocated a small number of this coin, whereby in this social credit system, a small-quota of coins can be air-dropped for the purpose of rewarding good social behavior in our environment and communities. These new coins are only actually created when they are gifted to others. In addition, there are coins which we have accumulated that have been gifted to us by others. So new coins are only created when they are gifted into existence based on the meritocratic-basis I'm going to attempt to outline, and we can stack these coins by receiving them as gifts from others.
The concept follows as such: for every good-deed that is performed for us or someone around us, we can reward the good-deed by gifting the good-deed doer with our daily free quota of carecoins, or by sending them coins from the amount of already-created coins that were gifted to us by others.
Here are a few of the user-cases I imagine these coins being used in.
Imagine I see somebody sweeping the road, picking up trash, sparing some change for a homeless person, standing on a soap-box spreading flyers, volunteering to take communal matters into their own hands... It could be anything positive for the community...
The idea is we have a Dapp, this Dapp has a wallet, and that wallet is linked to an ID of our choosing. All I would need to do is walk up to the person whom I would like to thank or pay my gratitude and appreciation to: all I would need to ask is "what is your Carecoin ID?" - Then I would hit a button on my Dapp that says "gift carecoins"... I would then enter their ID and select the number of coins (the air dropped ones within my free-daily quota of coins to gift, or from my own personal balance of coins I've received). It should take all of about 30 seconds: either using this ID system or having a QR-code scanning function.
The primary philosophy of these carecoins would be to create this social-credit system to radically re-imagine our conception of charity, by decentralizing the actual structures that make charity possible (taking power away from NGOs, Churches and other institutions that do charity) and promoting immediate and direct engagement and involvement with charity.
Eventually, people seeking to get involved in charity and volunteering their time to perform good deeds and actions that would help other people, the community and environment, could do so by capitalizing on the resources made available by this intricate cryptocurrency ecosystem.
This system would be primarily inspired by the paying-it forward ethos... When somebody does something good for us, and we thank them with a carecoin, we are then incentivized to do good-deeds for others in order to increase our balance of carecoins...
Eventually, this Dapp would allow for the spontaneous organization of a complex network of givers and receivers of good-deeds...
Ideally, though this system would have a digital-component to it, it should also function as a paper-ledger as well. Let's say for example I've been helping homeless people in my neighborhood get set-up with this system, and have given them a little card with how to use this system without the need for a digital device. They could have a personal code which others can type into their phone which then allows the person to get gifted the coins on his phone. So the homeless person tells you his ID, then he gives you his secret-code which allows you get a carecoin for buying him a sandwhich or whatever. The transaction can be done that way.
So I've been in an altruistic mode and just been helping people around me in need. Then suddenly my roof starts leaking, and I don't have enough money to hire a roofer, or maybe the soonest a professional roofer can come is in 2 months, but there is water leaking on my daughter's bed. So I put out an offer saying "Need somebody who knows how to fix my roof: 200 carecoins". Somebody in the neighborhood checking for geolocalized people in need of help in his neighborhood, he's scrolling down the calls for help based on how far away they are from his home. He sees the title of your offer, upon clicking on it, sees the little description of your circumstances and thinks to himself "Oh, I can definitely go over to this person's house, climb on their roof and fix it in a matter of hours, and I'm free this Sunday". So then he can accept the call and send you a message "Hey, I can fix your roof, here's my number, call me"
So basically, a platform gets created whereby members of the same community can start helping each other and doing favors for each other, aided by the carecoin platform and the idea that doing good-deeds and helping around the community increases our social-credit rating (by accumulating these coins...) Then, next time I have a problem... Say I can't afford medical care, but I'm feeling really sick and can't go to work, I can put out this asking for assistance, and somebody will be glad to come help me for 300 carecoins, and I've accumulated tons of these by being of service to others when I could...
The idea then is that a bigger and bigger amount of "strangers" can all be brought together around this idea of participating in this gift economy, where no fiat/centrally-controlled money is actually exchanged... Rather people are just trading in good-will and a desire to help other good people who deserve this help.
Because this money just gets issued on a kind of good-karma basis, rather than debt-slavery instrumentality, there's really no limit to how much generosity and giving can be done... It all depends on what's up...
Really any kind of project I want to set up: "I'm organizing a teach kids how to paint day in the park, or teaching tai-chi to people from the old-folks home: need people who can drive cars, or need people who can cook some food, or need people who can x, y, z"
Any good idea or initiative can attract the amount of volunteering necessary based on the merit and social-credit of the person instigating the idea...
Somebody with a billion care-coins would be somebody who had harnessed the social-power of bringing communities together and organizing incredible events where everything is paid for in an emergent gifting economy... The old Marxist maxim "To each according to his ability and his need" would start making a little bit more sense, as there would be no need for hierarchy, central-planning, or anything like that... Everything could be organized and negotiated on the cuff...
"You bring the food, I'll take care of the decorations, he can DJ the music, everybody who attends gifts 20 carecoins to the pot..."
Drawing up smart contracts for services received and offered would be easy...
Eventually, this system comes to completely redefine the way that people are able and incentivized to work together and participate in the community...
At first, it just starts out as a "do something nice for somebody and earn a bit of this new crypto"... Eventually, we can help the sick, house the homeless, feed the hungry, build facilities for the community like playgrounds for kids, skateparks for teens... Everything can be organized based on what people are willing to give to the community in exchange for this social-credit coin.
Somebody who had accumulated billions of "carecoins" being the equivalent of a Mother Theresa, a Martin Luther King, a Gandhi, or any other kind of saintly and altruistic figure you can imagine...
It wouldn't be like a normal contractual transaction in terms of "commerce", but much more in line with the idea of gift economies based on volunteering, aiding and abiding based on need...
Sure, some may think in our current paradigm that the idea of "monetizing" compassion to be a strange concept, but in a radically different form of human and global society, this could actually really help to realign interest and place focus on solving problems, rather than creating them out of "economic and fiscal necessity" and bottom-lineism.
I believe the future of our societies are radical transparency, openness, and eyes on everything...
In a sense, we could envision whole societies where the best, most generous, caring and giving individuals are those who are anointed with the most responsibility and leadership; as opposed to our current paradigm where the most rapacious, violent and sociopathic of us are promoted to positions of power.
Well, I'm just glad that we're all thinking about these things...
I think this is a really fascinating concept, the idea of redefining currency and how we use it to interact with each other...
I know that doing good is a reward in of itself, but when we have actually quantified and accounted for all the good that certain people in our community have actually done, it makes it easier for ordinary people to know who they should follow, who they should help, who the best leaders would actually be.
Add on a reputation system, a comment and rating system (maybe not stars or points, but something along the lines of a gradient that goes from "selfish prick" to "altruistic saint" and have it be based on the ratio of how many coins they are receiving versus how many coins they are giving for others to help them...
A net-positive balance of coins would indicate that somebody is giving more than they are receiving, which in this Universe, is literally the definition of "Good."
Give more than you take, and the Universe will reward you with all the positivity and inner peace you deserve. And with this kind of a system, a world that resembles the dream of utopia that has the potential to be if humans were to simply choose it.
Fuck 5G, fuck transhumanism, fuck surrendering our minds to artificial intelligence, fuck Ray Kurzweil and fuck the smart-grid...
The coming revolution has to be a bottom-up, voluntary and spontaneous solution that comes from the good will of all the individuals that make up this collective evolution... If it comes from these Anunnaki Secret Order of the Snake types, we will lose our humanity in the process...
Let's all take responsibility for dreaming up the practical ways that we can all get involved in healing and transforming our world.
Peace and Love,
Hae-Joo
Pixabay Picture Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10