The word “dharma” has multiple meanings depending on the context in which it is used. These include: conduct, duty, right, justice, virtue, morality, religion, religious merit, good work according to a right or rule, etc. Dharma has the Sanskrit root dhri, which means “that which upholds” or “that without which nothing can stand” or “that which maintains the stability and harmony of the universe.” – Rajiv Malhotra
The world today has become small village, ideas flow faster than light. Positive aspects of Dharmic civilization (comprising Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) which were omitted from the global stage including: yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, eco-sustainable solutions, animal rights, eco-feminism have been appropriated by various cultures and become norm for the 21st century. The success and failures of these appropriations is a separate topic of discussion. I want to focus on the next significant dharmic idea which has given birth to the global technological revolution, ‘Decentralization’, ‘Openness to self-organization’, ’Autonomy’ aka Blockchain. Internet generation is embracing this idea with open arms in the hope it could bring prosperity, transparency and fairness in the system. This technology could put an end to the current hierarchical structure, establishment, elite, status quo kind of setup. The “killer app” for the early internet was email; it’s what drove adoption and strengthened the network. Bitcoin is the killer app for the blockchain.
In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea of first decentralized digital currency, Bitcoin came into existence as a system without a central bank or single authority. Cyberpunks, cryptographers, few economists, technologist saw this beyond just a currency. It’s not just here to solve the “double-spend” problem of currency on the internet. It is here to solve bigger problem than that, trust mechanism. It is here to free the world from authority. I want to take you exactly 100 years back from this invention, in 1909 Gandhi wrote a book called ‘Hind Swaraj’ or ‘Indian Home Rule’, he suggested that decentralized democratic political system is the only means to resolve the worldly problems. Gandhi was profoundly influenced by the dharmic idea of civilization. Fortunately, or unfortunately, India never adopted that model instead bosomed the soviet and western model of power structure. I say fortunately because if it was adopted as a political system, it would have been appropriated and distorted by now. Now blockchain is coming as a technological revolution, this technology has no political orientation, color blind, knows no boundaries, completely neutral, transparent, and open belonging to everyone requires no qualification to access the system without any control. It just rewards who follows the protocol and punishes who doesn’t. Rules without a ruler!
The similarities between Dharma and Blockchain
Decentralized
Dharma bases decentralization at its core, Gandhi emphasized decentralized democracy based on non-violence must consist of groups settled in small communities or villages in which voluntary co-operation is the condition of dignified and peaceful existence. Pyramid and hierarchical forms of social setup concentrates the power in the hands of small group of people. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! By design blockchain is a decentralized technology. A global network of computers uses blockchain technology to jointly manage the database that records Bitcoin (or any other crypto currency) transactions. That is, cryptocurrencies are managed by its network, and not any one central authority like corporations or governments. Decentralization means the network operates on a user-to-user (or peer-to-peer) basis.
Open Architecture
The spirit of openness is deeply embedded in dharma. The culture is constantly being reworked based on numerous innovations which emerge in unpredictable ways and places. Alternative offerings are always subject to argumentation and change. To participate in dharmic values you don’t need to have qualification, or should know the history. For example, Yoga is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the west, there is no one claiming for IPR. Dharma brings such level of openness to the system. Like the dharma, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are driven by advances in core technologies along with a new, open architecture - the Bitcoin blockchain. This technology is designed to be decentralized, with “layers,” where each layer is defined by an interoperable open protocol on top of which companies, as well as individuals, can build products and services.
Consensus Mechanism
“Dharma weaves multiple narratives around the central motif of cooperative rivalry between order (personified as devas) and chaos (personified as asuras). A key narrative shared by all the dharma traditions — the ‘churning of the milky ocean,’ or ‘samudra-manthan’ — shows the eternal struggle between two poles. The milky ocean is the ocean of consciousness and creativity, which is to be churned in order to obtain amrita, or the nectar of eternal life.” – Rajiv Malhotra
Similarly, blockchain network lives in a state of consensus, one that automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes. A kind of self-auditing ecosystem of a digital value, the network reconciles every transaction that happens in ten-minute intervals. Each group of these transactions is referred to as a “block”. Two important properties result from this:
- Transparency data is embedded within the network as a whole, by definition it is public.
- It cannot be corrupted altering any unit of information on the blockchain would mean using a huge amount of computing power to override the entire network.
Dharma achieves consensus without central authority. Consensus is not achieved explicitly - there is no election or fixed moment when consensus occurs. Instead, consensus is an emergent artifact of the asynchronous interaction of millions of independent people, all following simple rules of dharma. For example, Kumbh mela amply demonstrates that diversity can be self-organized and not anarchic, even on a very large scale. Held every 12 years, this is the world's largest gathering of people, attracting tens of millions of individuals from all corners of India, from all strata of society, and from all kinds of traditions, ethnicities and languages. Yet there is no central organizing body, no event manager to send out invitations or draw up a schedule, nobody in charge to promote it, no centralized registration system to get admitted. There is inherent consensus and trust mechanism built into the dharmic system, probably this is the first 'smart contract' invented by the mankind. DAOs at its best without any help of AI :)
Many thanks to Rajiv Malhotra
Nice post Rajiv! You can thank Tejasvi for bringing me here ;)
Thanks Jackson. Oh, you are technical writer @ETHLend. I like that coin and its purpose.
Yep! Thanks! glad to hear that!
Fascinating read. I can definitely see the parallels. Anarchism, which is embraced by many blockchain enthusiasts, is all about small, self-sufficient and self-governing communities with no central government. Very much like that espoused by Ghandi I guess. The blockchain is certainly a step in that direction. Will be interesting to see where it goes.
Thanks Shawn.