Cryptocurrency And The Future Of Freedom
Since its creation in 2009, Bitcoin has experienced steady growth in popularity. We hear about how many people are becoming wealthy quickly as a result of it, as well as how much energy it consumes and how difficult it is to mine.
That being said, there hasn’t been much discussion of how Bitcoin can play a part in human rights, as well as how those who utilize it can gain more financial and political freedom.
Alex Gladstein heads the chief strategy office for the Human Rights Foundation, and spoke about why Bitcoin is important for the future of freedom at Singularity University’s Global Summit recently.
According to him, this is the first time in human history that humans have had the power to move money over the world without anyone being able to stop them from doing so. It is possible to claim that we are experiencing genuine censorship resistance for the first time in our history.
A Fork In The Road
Our society, according to Gladstein, has come to an impasse: we will either follow a centralized path in which our interactions are monitored and restricted, or we will follow a decentralized path in which our fundamental freedoms and rights are safeguarded and preserved.
The position of technology in this crossroads is somewhat paradoxical; some forms can be used as a weapon of control by governments or corporations, whilst other forms can be used to empower more individuals.
Gladstein pointed out that the Chinese government keeps close tabs on its citizens’ behavior, whereabouts, finances, and communications, among other things. In the country’s social credit system, facial recognition technology, smartphone apps, surveillance drones, and smart glasses are all utilized to collect information about people as they go about their daily lives. This information is then input into the system.
Obedient residents are rewarded with benefits and acclaim, whilst dissidents, intellectuals, criminals, and other non-conformists may be refused access to services or even expelled from their communities.
That’s not all, either. According to the Chinese authorities, predictive policing is a genuine thing today. If the government believes that your social credit score is suggestive of the possibility that you will do something illegal, they can arrest you even before you have committed a crime,” Gladstein explained. If this sounds like it’s straight out of “Minority Report” you’re not too far off.
He went on to say that while there are less dramatic examples in the West, they should still be cause for concern, whether we’re talking about our data being sold without our knowledge or consent, our elections being influenced by online platforms, or a reputation score being assigned to Facebook users in an attempt to combat fake news.
Bitcoin, according to Gladstein, can be of assistance — and is already doing so. Before Bitcoin, there was no method to transact globally without relying on a third party, according to the author of the paper. “There was simply no such thing as unstoppable money. I propose to you that Bitcoin represents a revolutionary advancement in the way humans communicate and network.”
Bitcoin’s unusual resilience can be attributed to the fact that it is owned by no one and is completely decentralized. It can’t be changed, stopped, or interrupted once it’s started. To transact with someone, you do not need to know or trust the person on the other end of the line. And even inside the Bitcoin community, power is spread; its “government” operates in the following manner, according to Gladstein:
Because they are competing for the opportunity to add another block to the Bitcoin network, miners are referred to as the executive branch. Coders are the legislative branch of government since they produce the script that allows the language to be upgraded. Furthermore, users have the ability to choose whether or not to install new blocks on their complete nodes, making them analogous to the judicial branch.
“There is no single entity that can govern Bitcoin,” Gladstein asserted. The need for consensus among three very diverse groups makes it extremely difficult to implement changes, according to the author.
In reality, a clue as to why Bitcoin was created was left in the code of the very first Bitcoin block, which was created in 2009. Governments creating more money in response to financial crises were criticized for doing so in this instance. Bitcoin has the potential to do to financial monopolies what the internet has done to information monopolies in the past (that is, disrupt or destroy them).
Gladstein used Venezuela’s current turmoil and skyrocketing inflation as an example of what he was talking about. According to the International Monetary Fund, inflation in the country will surpass 1,000,000 percent by the end of this year (2018), and according to one estimate, consumer prices have already increased by 46,305 percent this year.
According to him, “Bitcoin serves as an escape valve for people in Venezuela.” The ability to hold their money in a manner that their government cannot vaporize or inflate to nothing is extremely valuable. It provides them with a means of transacting value with their relatives who live in other countries. Remittances get the capacity to be permanent as a result of this upgrade.”
Bitcoin: Tremendous Potential To Empower People
It is in nations where people do not have faith in the government or the financial system that Bitcoin and other decentralized networks are most useful. It has been estimated that over 75 million people have used a cryptocurrency in the past year, or about one percent of the world’s population, according to Gladstein.
Nevertheless, he stated, “4 billion people, or about half of the world’s population, live under an authoritarian dictatorship.” “That represents a tremendous potential. It is entirely up to you whether this is a chance for human effect or for business impact.”
He emphasized the importance of distinguishing between open blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum and private or enterprise blockchains, which are closed, centralized, usually permissioned, and censorable, as opposed to open blockchains. Open blockchains are the new money because they provide users with anonymity and freedom of expression, as well as a means of using money without being traced.
In his tweet, Gladstein included a related comment from writer and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb: “Bitcoin’s very existence is an insurance policy, reminding governments that the last object they might control, namely the money, is no longer under their control.” We as a collective have an insurance policy against an Orwellian future as a result of this.”
Bitcoin: Wider Adoption
Despite the fact that Bitcoin has been available for nearly a decade, we are still at the very beginning of its development. Cell phones were expensive and difficult to use at first (poor design, short battery life, weak signal), but now people all over the world are using them for little or no money and using them for much more than just making phone calls, thanks to technological advancements. Gladstein believes that Bitcoin will follow a similar cycle of decreasing restrictions, enhanced user-friendliness, and wider adoption as other digital currencies have.
One of the problems with Bitcoin is that it was supposed to be sluggish; its developers sacrificed scalability and efficiency for security and censorship resistance in the process. In order to think exponentially and get Bitcoin into the hands of a billion individuals instead of only one million, Gladstein explained that another answer must be found.
What is his proposal? Lighting Networks, or systems that are similar to them. Lightning is a decentralized network that makes use of blockchain smart contracts to facilitate rapid payments between participants. Transactions are resolved off-blockchain, allowing for faster transaction times and lower transaction fees than traditional networks. Lightning has the ability to process millions of transactions per second.
Even if the Lightning Network fails, according to Gladstein, it will be valuable as a model for scaling decentralized technologies in the future. And, in his opinion, decentralized technology is the key to the future of freedom.
Concluding, he stated, “I believe we should do everything we can to pursue a course that includes some degree of decentralization.” “A place where we may keep our liberties and rights, as well as our privacy. That is something we will want for the future of our planet as well as the future of our race.”
