We live in a world of division. Our society is fragmented and I believe that is on design. Essentially, it is unnatural which causes us a great deal of problems.
Nature is holistic. There is an connection throughout it all. For those who took the time to step back and analyze it, this is rather easy to see. Each appears to have a purpose although it is difficult to understand at times. What we view as "bad" is often a clearing out. Forest fires rage, destroying all in its way. However, that also produces a canvas for renewed growth.
@theycallmedan had an interesting interview with @andrarchy where he talked about the cooperation of open source as opposed to competition. Humanity is labeled nature as "survival of the fittest". This is based upon the belief that we are here to tear each other apart. After all, isn't that what animals do in the wild?
Of course, there is another way to look at it. When one animal attacks another for food, the prey is providing a service. Without the "sacrifice" of that animal, the predator would not live. Hence, when a pack of tigers take down an elephant, the result is the tigers get to live. On this level, it is a cooperative system.
Dan's point is that within the open source community, one development has far reaching effects. There is incentive to work within the different projects because that is to one's own benefit. Contrast this with the present system where each silo tries to maintain its own power through its knowledge base. Ultimately, it comes down to control; controlling one's userbase.
@andrarchy/interview-with-theycallmedan-co-founder-of-3speak-online
This is something entirely different. Control of the userbase is impossible. With open source, as the recent attack Steem showed, it is rather simple for the users (community) to relocate. The idea of control is changing.
At the same time, even within a particular platform, we see the ability to move around. Of late, more front ends are adding full capability to their projects. This means that, in addition to posting, commenting, and upvoting, individuals are able to claim rewards, delegate, power up, and a host of other functions. This means the user base has a lot more choices than it did. When it comes to controlling them, it is difficult since they can access the same information elsewhere.
It is an idea that we can see throughout the cryptocurrency industry. Many still feel it is "us against them". Hence, we see blockchain maximalists who believe "theirs is the best".
If we ponder this for a second, we can see how inane it really is. When we are discussing open source blockchains, community is based upon people voluntarily showing up. Thus, people are free to go where they desire. At the same time, there is no limit to the communities one can be in.
For example, what makes one part of the Bitcoin community? I would surmise it is simply being a holder of Bitcoin. How difficult is that? One simply can swap some fiat or crypto for BTC and it is done. If that is lacking, there are a number of faucets which people can get a steady flow of satoshis. Naturally, one will not be a whale but will be a Bitcoin holder.
The same is true for most any cryptocurrency. How many currencies are you holding? The average crypto holders is involved with many.
Of course, the more involved, the greater the benefit to the entire industry. While individual projects will ebb and flow, the entire spectrum that is crypto keeps growing. Not only are there more tokens doled out each day, we have more applications cropping up which offers more choices to people.
Each upgrade has an impact on the whole.
We are all looking for the "killer app" that takes cryptocurrency mainstream. The belief there is that penetration into the general population will benefit the entire cryptocurrency sphere. It only makes sense since it is all inter-connected.
There is still a win-loss mentality that is very prevalent throughout the world of cryptocurrency. This is something that is going to take a long time to change. We are so accustomed that for every winner, there has to be a loser. When one company, such as Amazon, dominates a sector, someone else, Sears, needs to lose. This is part of the scarcity system.
When we are looking at abundance, we see a different picture emerge. Often what is viewed as division ends up in growth.
Look at the Sun situation. Before that STEEM was trading at between $.10-.$15. That gave it a market cap of roughly $45 million. Today, we see the combined price of HIVE and STEEM at near $170 million. We saw the same thing with the different Bitcoin forks. The emergence if BCH has done nothing to alter the path upward of BTC.
Innovation is an interesting concept in an open source arena. Here we see the fact that ideas are not one's own. Sure they are during the development stage but as soon as the code is released, others can copy it and implement it into their system. Thus, the major innovation is spread to more than just that one application. It can echo throughout the entire ecosystem.
Businesses can operate from a win-loss perspective. This is because there is usually a limit to the market share that can be achieve. No matter what the breakdown, it is always 100%.
Markets and economies are a bit different since they are not zero-sum games. Growth can take place across the board, usually without limit. In other words, when one stock does well, that does not mean another has to fail. It is the same with cryptocurrency. The price of BTC rising will not automatically equate to ETH losing.
Economies follow a similar pattern. Even though we see a lot of attention to this idea with the US-China trade war, it shows how beneficial trade agreements are. When it comes to these, there are two facts that are usually standard. The first is that trade agreements are rarely equitable. One side usually benefits more than the other. Secondly, these agreements do tend to benefit both sides. In other words, both are better off because of the agreement as opposed to not entering it.
Cryptocurrencies have the opportunity to be economies. Since the monetization mechanism is in place, the community using any particular currency can form its own economy. This will help it to interact and grow other economies around it.
While the present system likes division, we need to focus upon the opposite. Opportunity is everywhere within the cryptocurrency industry. There is no limit to what can be achieved here. At the same time, due to the open nature, we can grow at paces that will make the present system drool.
Understanding how all within crypto and open source is inter-connected can help us to move forward in a rapid manner. The waste of time and energy that the existing system uses to "protect what is theirs" is not needed it.
Thus, we can be freed up to pursue endeavors that are more beneficial.
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