I am not quite sure how to proceed this task, so I’m just gonna follow my mind flow and do a thought dump in a format of blogging.
And for some unknown reasons, many platforms in China suddenly started to pick up their passion in about talking Web 3.0/ blockchain and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
A content creator on Chinese video platform is trying to make some videos to educate people about ‘what is DAO’ and ‘what is decentralization’. He (Chiyannanhai, July 27, 2022) explained this concept by telling us an activity he recently been to. In recent years, urban people like to go out to the nature to do activities during weekends and holidays. However, a lot of them do not know where to go, how to get there with what gadgets. So a group of people work together in different positions to organize these events without forming any physical entities. One of them decides where to go, another one make sure everybody’s safety and one takes care of food. And this team shares the profit. In conclusion, this team doesn’t have a centralized leader or restrained by some body. Sounds like the plot of The first Avenger movie, but instead of recruiting super heroes, these people are recruiting people to have fun together and get paid for that.
I’m not sure how convincing this example is but there’s another recent example of this. Constitution DAO. According to Wikipedia (March 17, 2022), ConstitutionDAO was formed in November 2021 for the purpose of purchasing an original copy of the United States Constitution. This group raised $47 million in Ether cryptocurrency and was going to buy the constitution in an auction. However, they lost to another bidder with more money. Someone joked about this like ‘the billionaire knows how much you have but you will never know how much the billionaire actually has’. This ConstitutionDAO is no longer functioning and claimed to be in the process of making refund, however, the refund process is not easy. The donors have to pay gas fee to donate and pay again if they want to get their money back (Kastrenakes, Nov 24, 2021). So, there, as far as I’m concerned, there’s still a centralized organization, in this case, is Ether who is acting as a middleman and gaining transaction fee.
But this also opens up the path for us to see the possible ways of using crypto currency, ways of organizing organizations, and ways to share resources (like NTF). But let’s try to imagine this in 30 years with my limited understanding of this technology.
In the talk Alex Tapscott (July 12, 2016) gave at ‘Talks at Google’ he stated that a lot of people feel like their government does not act in their best interests, so what could blockchain do to help solve or lessen this situation.
“Well, imagine if a politician got elected with a smart contract that stipulated that they actually had to abide by their commitments, otherwise they wouldn’t get paid. Or maybe a little less severe, they don’t get the appropriations to pay for the projects they want to pay for unless they actually hit milestones that have been pre-determined based on their views of the electorate… It is to help empower individuals to have more active role in government, which I think is healthy within the context of democratic institutions.” —— Alex Tapscott
Utopian scenario:
I can transfer money from China to Canada without having to go through the painful process of any banks and all can be done within 10 minutes. And I do not have to show them any documents about who I am to do this. I’m very happy with the privacy and freedom I am enjoying.
As commoners, we are able to verify the president candidates’ histories without them being able to change the record before we vote. And nobody can alter the our votes other than ourselves. Someone like Donald Trump would not ever be able to make the claim about fake votes ever again.
What’s more, as a collective power, we are able to decide whether the government officers should get paid based on whether have they fulfilled their promises or duties.
Content creators do not have to share their income with any platforms to get the credits they deserved.
“So the interesting thing there is that intermediaries are not going away. Maybe intermediaries just change their name to originators, because someone’s got to start building this platform or rather moving assets into a native digital format.”
Dystopian scenario:
One day, I wake up and I notice that the street hasn’t been swept. Okay, no big deal. I bike to work and witness a robbery. I try to call the police, after all the robotic greetings no real human pick the phone. That seems unreasonable.
Then when I finally get to the office, I describe what happened to my colleagues and they look at me like in a way of ‘why are you still caring about that’? Later they tell me our government collapsed last night because less and less people are paying taxes so the government can not properly function anymore.
“We are here to pick up our stuff, go home and wait till something else happen”, some one says.
Other than this, the big companies who owns resources invested in the blockchain technology are the ones who issued the cryptocurrency. The government do not have the ability to regulate them. Government also do not know what their annual profit is, so there’s no way to set the right amount of tax.
Powerful incumbents can also buy in or sell out a large amount of assets to control the value of things. As long the society still works on supply and demand, the magnates will have ways to control it.
In my understanding, so far, cryptocurrency is built on a collective belief. But we need to ask ourselves a question: do we believe in each other more right now than 30 years ago? I don’t know, I don’t think so. Blockchain technology definitely has its potential and I’d like to see more people empowerment. But we do have to be aware and prepare for the potential hazards.
References:
赤.焰.男.孩. [赤焰男孩]. (2022b, July 27). 穷人翻盘靠上班？别做梦了！[Video]. Bilibili. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1j94y1D7Fh?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=80517be4f89cae4ad6ff961392f0ffb9
ConstitutionDAO. (n.d.). ConstitutionDAO. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.constitutiondao.com/
Kastrenakes, J. (2021, November 25). Almost Buying A Copy of The Constitution Is Easy, But Giving The Money Back Is Hard. The Verge. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/24/22800995/constitutiondao-refund-progress-steep-gas-fees-cryptocurrency
Kharif, O. (2021, November 20). Crypto Crowdfunding Goes Mainstream With ConstitutionDAO Bid. Bloomberg, Asia Edition. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-20/crypto-crowdfunding-goes-mainstream-with-constitutiondao-bid
Talks at Google. (2016, July 11). Blockchain Revolution | Alex Tapscott | Talks at Google [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdO7zVqOwc&ab_channel=TalksatGoogle
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, March 17). ConstitutionDAO. Wikipedia. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConstitutionDAO