Thread by @IntuitMachine

Bitcoin is the fossil fuel that is driving the $2,000,000,000,000 cryptocurrency ecosystem. Just like fossil fuels, it is based on dead and unsustainable technology. #bitcoin

Money is just like energy. The difference is that money is a virtual abstraction and energy is real. The human economy and nature require money or energy to do anything.

At each layer of evolution, nature discovers new ways of harnessing energy to drive greater complexity. Emergent levels of complexity can be recognized by the different units of energy currency that are used.

Every level of emergent complexity has a layer below it that transforms energy into another kind of energy that is used by the level above it.

This is universally true for both nature, human civilization and cryptocurrencies.

Species, languages, cultures, and currencies eventually become extinct. But that does not mean that they were unimportant in the evolution of the present thriving ecosystem. It is a fallacy to believe what worked before will always work in the future.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the biggest company in the US stock market was Exxon Mobile. In October 2007 it was worth $93B. Apple is worth $2.2T today and XOM in nowhere in the top 10. But XOM still ranks in the top in revenues.

In other words, there are diminishing returns when harvesting or mining commodities. Evolution always drives towards the extraction of different forms of energy. As I stated in the beginning, money is a different form of energy.

It is in fact 'virtual energy'. Because it is virtual, it can transcend the laws of physics. Money like the other virtual technology humans invented (i.e. language) can transcend time.

Language that is preserved allows people to go back in time to read the thoughts of their ancestors. Money (in the form of credit) allows people to go into the future by deploying future earnings into the present.

This analogy reveals the true insight of money beyond being just a means for frictionless trade (i.e. better than barter). Contracts (i.e. programmable money) allows for mechanisms that accelerate progress in human society.

Prior to decentralized ledger technologies (i.e. blockchains), contracts were enforced through human mechanisms. But these new technologies allow for the automation of the enforcement.

The side effect of computer code enforcing contracts is that it prevents players from gaming the rules. It is a natural inclination for humans to find ways to game the rules for their personal benefit. Humans evolved to be very good at this talent.

It is ironic that in the biological world, species could not game the rules. Humans took over the planet by developing technologies that gamed the rules of biology. Now we are awash with incompatible technologies (i.e. plastics) that are killing the planet.

Where I see cryptocurrencies heading is toward an operating system for civilization that presents an equal playing field for all its inhabitants. Welcome to the new world of decentralization technologies.

In today's world, we have monopolies for platforms that exploit decentralized production. Uber and Amazon are examples of this. Where the platform reaps the benefits of higher margins while its suppliers are squeezed by shrinking margins of competition between themselves.

Imagine however a world where these platforms were decentralized as we see today in many cryptocurrency projects. A world where the rules are transparent and the profits are distributed to whoever wishes to participate.

Decentralized technologies lead to the real possibility of scaling profit-sharing enterprises. The problem with today's corporation is that it is hierarchical and profits only trickle down from the top to the bottom.

This is because it is human nature to game the narrative such that the administrators reap the greatest profit while they squeeze the profits of the producers. Why is it that university administrators get paid an order of magnitude higher than adjunct professors?

That's because there exists a false narrative that administration has greater value add than those who produce. But if administration can be coded in a decentralized ledger and automated, what value then are administrators providing?

Our civilization and our economy have always been built on the narrative that it must be run in a hierarchical manner. This is not in fact fundamental but rather a consequence of our limited technologies.

Limits in human technologies is also the same reason why humans are a cancer to the global biosphere. We are a cancer because we have not developed technologies that are compatible with biology.

Similarly, we have not developed organizational technologies that are in alignment with human needs. We fear the rise of AI because we know intuitively that the present mechanization of our civilization will lead to a majority of us being in chains.

The curse of technology is due to the human inability to create technologies that align with human dignity and biological compatibility. It is not because of technology but rather because of the lack of technology.

In the current political discourse in the Western world is a consequence of the 2008 financial crisis and now the 2020 global pandemic. Governments of the world have realized that they've run out of money!

The reaction to the 2008 financial crisis was greater austerity. In essence, depriving an entire generation of future financial opportunities. How is it we attempt to save the world from a future only to use a solution to destroy their future?

Now we have another crisis. The global pandemic. How shall government react? Will they go back to the unproven methods of austerity or do they come to grips with the true nature of money?

Money is a time machine. Let's employ this human invention to deprive future generations of financial independence.

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