Capitalism grew out of the Black Plague. It's death might be as a result of the coronavirus.
What is going to enter to take its place?
I believe we are seeing the opportunity for crypto-economics to enter the picture. The development of Bitcoin provided the world with another alternative. Since that time, things have expanded as other projects came online. We witnessed a lot of innovation over the last decade with more to come.
There is no doubt the present system is not working for most people. Whether it is due to manipulation like the conspiracy theorists surmise or a natural extension of power isolated in a few hands, the result is a system where the masses, at least in the developed countries, are falling further behind.
The shut-down of the global economy is showing how close to the edge most are. With debt levels that never were seen before., we are in a situation where tens of millions are going to be pushed over the edge. As businesses close, revenues streams are drying up. This means that incomes are plummeting.
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My view is this situation is made even worse when we get past it. I firmly believe the business world is going to make a concerted push deeper into automation. The risk of employees was exposed to a great degree and is a perfect excuse for the mega-corporations to start reducing overhead.
This means we are going to see an even bigger distribution problem. The challenge with the current system is how the money is distributed. As they stand now, governments, banks, and mega-corporations are at the top of the distribution chain. Other methods of trickle down, re-distribution, and low interest debt failed miserably.
Crypto-economics offers an alternative. To start, it removes the creation of money from the hands of centralized entities. Under this system, anyone can create a digital asset. Thus, the prospect of distributing to whomever is up to the individual(s) behind the project.
Another benefit is new tokens, in many projects, goes to individuals. With the central bank system, any new money is distributed to banks who then determine where it goes. Often, the money does not go anywhere as the banks simply hold it and earn interest on it.
Rent seekers are the majority of the common economy. Everywhere you look, there is somebody in the middle of a transaction. This, of course, comes with a fee. Over time, as we travel through the different layers of the economy, vast amounts of money are taken out of individuals hands.
Bitcoin monetized peer-to-peer transactions. This established a system that was widely accepted where rent seekers could be avoided.
We saw a fork of Steem in the middle of the coronavirus. This created a situation where more money was "created out of thin air". This money was not distributed to banks but to the individual token holders. Here we see a stark difference between what is happening with the present system.
Anyone who has both tokens can do with them as seen fit. Since they were dropped into individual's wallets, the tokens are instantly owned. This built the wealth of those individuals. The exception is for those who had the tokens on exchanges. Much like the present system, exchanges carry the power of banks, deciding what to do with one's money.
As people's situations worsen, they are going to need another outlet. A cryptocurrency like HIVE offers a better distribution system. This is its real value. As we saw with some of the Steem-Engine tokens, this premise can just keep expanding.
This is one of the reasons why I think Hive and the associated applications can have explosive growth. There are many people who could depend upon what is being created here. It is always helpful to have a large market that is wiling to listen. When things are going well, few are apt to change. This all goes out the window when things take a turn for the worse.
Now that we are seeing reports that the one world government idea is being floated, the future of humanity is quickly coming to a crossroads.
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I've thought about the same thing. It will be interesting to see what the world looks like after this crisis.
@tipu curate
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I believe you are right on.
The potential of blockchain for transforming society is one of those moments in history like the printing press and electricity, but to an even greater extent than a spreading of knowledge or just an upgrade in the comfort or convenience of our standard of living.
The financial aspect alone has the potential for us to overcome the control and manipulation that causes the bubbles that affect all but the top of the wealth scale and keep all people oppressed and fighting each other for supposedly scarce resources.
The opportunities for individual freedom and the true ownership of our personal value has the potential to give us real tools for overcoming the system altogether and All Together!
Automation shouldn't mean that we have less value or are not essential to the machine of industry, it means we have more value and better things to use it on.
The crisis we are all facing at this time is a reality that will cause much suffering but with that and because of that, we will all be made to honestly assess our mentality about the world we all live in and I see this as a tremendous opportunity for the human spirit to prevail and usher in a new enlightenment.
I just got here and I'm still finding my way, but I believe the Hive community is fueled by that spirit of liberty that has always struggled against the darkness and oppression of this world, and always will!
That is the reason I am here, and I will use this as an opportunity to share it with as many as possible.
I'd like to see a rough roadmap from the hiveio account. Assuming SMTs (by whatever name) are on the way. Are we talking days? Months?