The coming digital anarchy

Long article on discussing blockchain technology which threatens centralized currencies, social networks, stock markets, even national governments. Are we heading towards an anarchic future where centralized power of any kind will dissolve?

A good overview of a lot of digital issues and how they might be impacted by blockchain technology.

Notes

• blockchain is very useful for public, decentralized record keeping
  • domain names
  • distributed file storage
  • decentralized market places, with escrow, and other advanced trust features
    • ex: autonomous vehicle that is its own company and puts its earnings to its upkeep, energy, etc (maybe even hiring human programmers or creating coops)
• liquid democracy
  • using anonymous coins to pay for voting
  • 3rd party control over votes
    • ex: spend specifically on areas you care about, entrust other votes to representatives
• Andreas Antonoloulos (CSO at Blockchain.info):
  • “Almost all regulation is really to stop one person with control over a lot of money from stealing that money. [Blockchain] technology makes it largely unnecessary. The end result is that you’re going to see some pretty big changes. Those changes will be because there are now better ways of doing things, and people will choose those better ways. There’s nothing particularly libertarian about that. It’s simply a recognition that you can achieve in software what regulation has failed to achieve… [C]entralised systems have one inevitable trajectory that has been validated throughout history, which is that as the people in the centre accumulate power and control they eventually corrupt the system entirely to serve their own needs”
  • regulation as a means to prevent competition
• coordinated shunning
  • unable to interact with other members of society; economic prison
  • “small town reputation on a global scale”