Bitcoin + DNA + Full Transparency = Radically less corruption, plus universal basic income. Heres another rumination on the future of currency. Many libertarians will hate it. Everyone who thinks government is inherently evil will hate it. But here goes. Assertions: 1) Current monetary system is unfair and concentrates wealth in the hands of the powerful. It leads inevitably to corrupted governments and oligarchy. It can be used as a club to destroy any reformers who threaten the powerful. 2) Many think bitcoin is anonymous, but it is not. Also, It is currently unwieldy for common people, and puts a large security burden on people who use it (hence all the rip-offs). Furthermore, it is inherently deflationary: people horde coins because they expect value to increase over time. 3) Global productivity and wealth is so high now that many are talking about Universal Basic Income as a way to improve human welfare, and productivity will only increase as we transition to the machine economy. However, in an inflationary fiat currency system, there will always be a tension between the wealthy and the poor over how much money to allocate to UBI. The wealthy will always fight cost of living increases in UBI, and the poor could quickly find themselves struggling to put food on the table. Proposed Solution: 1) anyone who wants one is granted a digital wallet with a private key is tied to their own DNA sequence. 2) A fixed number of crypto coins is issued to those wallets equitably. Thus, because the number is fixed, there will never be inflation. 3) each coin is nearly infinitely divisible. Thus, no matter how large the economy grows, there will always be a unit of coin that works. 4) at the end of a year, 10% of all coins are automatically removed from each and every wallet, and then distributed to the poorest 10% (or 20%, or 30%, whatever seems to work best to maintain society). Thus, people will have no incentive to hoard coins, and never spend them, because coins will automatically be removed each year anyway. 5) every single financial transaction is open for inspection to everyone. 6) Individuals are automatically granted first-class wallets. First-class wallets are eligible to receive annual distributions if they are poor enough. Government and corporate entities are granted second-class wallets, which are not eligible. The private keys of second class wallets are linked to a hash of the combined DNA of the major executives, officers, and managers etc.. Governments may legislate an additional tax on its citizens, but since all of its transactions are radically transparent, it will need to keep its citizens happy or it will be voted out (or overthrown in the case of non-democracies). Corporations will find it much harder, if not impossible, to bribe governments, and to commit crimes, pollution, etc.. (since the people whos DNA is in the key are directly accountable). Further thoughts: No doubt such a system would be hard to implement, but think of the advantages. 1) This would promote more productivity and creativity overall since to rise above the UBI you would actually have to work/create for a living, not just rely on financial engineering (a la wall street) 2) people would come to understand how government works and take an active role in self-governance because government would be truly transparent and accountable. Ultimately, people would decide if government or private interests could provide better services to the people. Currently, the wealthy try to brainwash the voters into believing that the private-sector is always more efficient than the public-sector. I think thats bullshit, but under this system, we would finally find out. 3) This system ensures that people will be looked after as we transition to the machine economy. Right now, it seems like all the wealth of AI and robots are going to go to a very few, and the rest of us will be kicked to the curb. Caveats: 1) This is all off the top of my head. Im sure there are glaring problems. However, it must be said that the current financial/currency system is absolutely insane. So, maybe we should be looking at alternatives. Show less
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 22:46:55 +0000
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