Thread by @alasaarela

What should we learn from Russia's criminal invasion of Ukraine?

One word: DECENTRALIZE. 🧵

1. Energy. Europe has learned the hard way that being dependent on imported oil and gas from an evil dictatorship is not a sound energy strategy. Germany imports 32% of its natural gas, 34% of oil, and 53% of coal from Russia.
reuters.com/business/energ…

Being dependent on a couple of major nuclear plants as a significant source of electricity is probably ok during peacetime but is a major risk during wartime, as we have seen in Ukraine. Only four nuclear sites generate 54% of the electricity in Ukraine.

world-nuclear.org/information-li…

The most resilient energy infrastructure would be the most decentralized one: every building has its own energy source. For example, solar panels on the roof with a storage battery in the basement.

A decentralized infrastructure can't be shut down by military means. It won't face large-scale blackouts either. If the infrastructure runs on renewables, it wouldn't require long-distance logistics, saving energy and reducing risks for disruption.

aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/27…

2. Food. We have made ourselves dependent on global supply chains of food and are now facing a grim prospect of a worldwide shortage of food. In Ukraine, Mariupol has been on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe because of a lack of food and water.

news.yahoo.com/russia-ukraine…

Russia and Ukraine produce 29% of global wheat exports and 80% of sunflower seed exports. The war potentially eliminates both sources at once. Losing these exports could lead to some developing countries facing famine.

think.ing.com/articles/russi…

Vertical farming is a known solution for food production in urban environments. With solar panels, it is possible to efficiently grow fresh food in any basement using UV lamps and a minimum amount of water.

Growing food locally reduces the need for food logistics and provides improved food security in times of crisis. Self-grown food is also healthy and fresh!

Vertical farming enables us to build the most decentralized food source: nutrient-rich food growing on the walls of every home, attic, and basement.
indoorhomegarden.com/vertical-farmi…

3. Financial services. The current financial system depends heavily on banks. Nordic countries have largely abandoned cash and pay everything digitally. If everyone rushed to cash due to war, the system would not be able to carry the demand.

sweden.se/life/society/a…

What if war makes banks a risky guardian of our wealth?

I recently talked to the leaders of the Finnish social security administration on how to build resilient public services that can withstand a war.

It takes a decentralized infrastructure with no single point of failure.

Finnish politicians used to have a strong anti-blockchain and anti-crypto mentality. Blockchain was seen as a threat rather than an opportunity.

With the war, an unstoppable, decentralized financial infrastructure is suddenly a compelling idea.

4. Leadership. The biggest weakness of a dictatorship is that the dictator usually craves ever more power and control over their population, centralizing the leadership and governance around a single individual.

The reason communism lost to capitalism was that central planning committees had no chance against capitalistic societies where anyone could innovate and compete for resources with their ideas and solutions.

Innovation and progress depend on decentralization.

By decentralizing power across the society, competing forces keep the decision-makers accountable and the participants honest. Everybody has an opportunity to be heard.

If any party gains over half of the vote, they have an incentive to rig the system for their advantage, opening the door to a slippery slope towards autocracy.

Hungary has been on such a path.

Such evolution should be stopped by any means possible before it is too late.

5. Media. Most autocratic dictators hate freedom of speech. They want to lie with impunity, which is only possible if the local media is entirely on their side.

China and Russia are autocracies where the media is a centralized propaganda machine for the dictator. In other words, China and Russia have effectively eliminated freedom of speech.

Even in free democracies, media tends to consolidate. A tiny group of people may be able to wield an outsize influence on the population, creating a dangerous opportunity for undemocratic power-grab.

opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/berlusc…

That's why we need also to decentralize influence. We need to allow a diversity of opinion and freedom of speech without opening doors to autocratic dictatorships to mass-manipulate people towards their evil goals.

I advocate decentralization in my public speeches and I'm currently working on a solution to decentralize influence with @heychainio. Now this work feels more meaningful than ever.

We have to fight for our freedom, and decentralization of everything is a key to staying free.