Can Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin Strengthen Global Economy? Video b4in.org/g5GB Patrick Byrne proudly wears the label “The most hated man on Wall Street.” In addition to his day job as CEO of Overstock he is a keynote speaker, thought leader and proponent of the Austrian School of Economics. He also has triple degrees from Stanford, Cambridge, and Dartmouth. His position as one of the most important supporter of Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was cemented when Overstock became the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin. Recently Byrne was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Bitcoin conference. There he shared his thoughts on how Bitcoin fits into the development of liberal philosophy. Two Key Books Snowcrash is a cyber punk novel that had a visionary view about the way the internet would develop. It invites us to look as civilization as an operating system. History is essentially a petri dash where these systems are in a constant struggle. Another book on the same idea is Francis Fukuyama’s “Trust”. The book posits that you can see societies as operating systems to solve one problem which is trust. In low trust societies you cannot trust outside of your family which limits the size of businesses. In a high trust society you can build at scale and create much larger organizations. The Development Of Liberal Political Thought Five hundred years ago a collection of ideas started to develop that the “consent of the governed mattered”. These ideas began in Netherlands. These ideas included tolerance, pluralism and constitutionally protected freedom. In 1600 dissidents came to the belief that society based on these ideas could be developed. But they were dismayed by licentious nature of Netherlands and its corrupting influence on the young. Consequently the pilgrims decided to emigrate to America. At the University of Salamander these ideas were applied to economics. The possibility of socialist calculation, quantity theory of money, and entrepreneurship were at its heart. These ideas went to hibernation for 150 years until being rediscovered by the Austrian School of Economics. The Great Philosophical Mistake There is a great philosophical mistake which has been inserted into the operating system of liberalism. Rousseau introduced the idea with the “social contract”. French intellectuals believed in the “general will of the people”. This stated that there may only one person who understands the will of the people. His will should be the law. True freedom is found in submission. Kant extended the idea with the idea that freedom is found in understanding the historical process your are part of. Marx interpreted this idea of submission to historical processes in terms of economics. These ideas were continued by Nazi’s and Maoists. All had in common the argument for centralized institutions. More with video b4in.org/g5GB
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 21:29:06 +0000
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