Lesson 52: [SERIES] Satoshi Revolution – Crypto-Anarchism and Civil Society – Technology is the revolution

Satoshi Revolution: The Revolution of Hope
Section 5: Saving the World through Anarchism
Chapter 11, Part 3: Crypto Anarchism and Civil Society – Technology is the Revolution
Author: Wendy McElroy

Democracy is not only mysterious nonsense, it is also immoral. If one person has no right to impose his will on another, ten million people also have no right to impose his will, for initiating the use of force is wrong (and the consent of even the overwhelming majority). is never morally permissible). Opinions – even those of the majority – cannot create truth or change the truth. A crowd that arbitrarily arrests is democracy in action.

– Morris Tannehill, from “The Market for Freedom”

The simplicity of anarchy is beautiful: live and let live. Do not use violence against those who are persecuting their own lives.

Most people are anarchistic in the way they lead their daily life with family, co-workers, and strangers. With or without prosecution, most people behave peacefully and violence never happens to them. It’s not because a police presence results in people waking their children for breakfast or greeting neighbors on the sidewalk. The law doesn’t convince them not to kill strangers. It was civil society that won them over. It manifests the natural harmony between interests between people as they interact and separate to pursue their own interests.

Violence is the main obstacle to the functioning of civil society, especially violence in the form of the state. Just as society is made up of individuals who cooperate to achieve their own ends, so the state is made up of individuals who use violence for the same purpose; they want wealth and status without having to earn it themselves. That is the main difference between the two forms of social organization. In a partnership, both parties benefit from an exchange that would otherwise not take place. In the event of violence, one party benefits at the expense of the other; it can violate people’s right to enjoy their own bodies and possessions.

In order to continue the flow of services “without having to earn money”, a state must continue to use violence or intimidation. A successful state will do two things: institutionalize violence; and they mimick civil society by monopolizing services of competitive and economically viable value, such as dispute resolution. The character of the monopoly is an act of violence against competitors and so-called customers. The two maneuvers enabled the state to infiltrate and legitimize its power. Individual consent is gradually being replaced by state coercion and the principles of civil society are gradually being eroded.

Individuals are vulnerable to institutionalized and organized violence by the state. This is a paradox.

The state exists only because individuals produce the property that the state confiscates and regulates. How can an “ineffective” state retain individual power? Why can’t people say “no”?

Part of the answer is the concentration of state violence to intimidate people and the mockery of ongoing collaboration known as compliance. State violence focuses on institutions that coordinate social control; that is, they control individual exchanges and any beneficial results. In contrast, individuals are decentralized; Most people go to work and sleep in their beds at night. They only join together to form larger homogeneous groups if this offers an advantage, such as the production of goods or the joy of community. To focus together against state violence means that the violence has become too strong for people to disturb their own lives and risk injuries in order to ward it off.

Modern technology in this case is not just a game changer; it is a game changer. And cryptocurrencies are a prime example of this. The state centralizes control of wealth through institutions such as central banks and has a monopoly on the services they provide. Crypto decentralizes power down to the individual level; it gives them control over the exchanges in which they participate. Remember: civil society is the totality of the individuals in it; The state is the collection of the use of force to control this exchange. Technology brings the individual back into the conditions of civil society without giving up his interests or fear of violence by the state.

Decentralization of the revolution

Through three revolutionary steps, each of which resulted from a radical decentralization of power, civil society was empowered and state violence made impotent.

Encryption gives privacy back to the individual. Cryptography is at odds with the vast amount of data that countries have hastily created. Centralized data enables the state to regulate all activities in society; Gradually, society and state merged into a unit called the state as a whole. But people who control their own data can also control their own lives.

The effects of this decentralization are far more than the economy. It’s not just about getting rid of tax status and other sources of income. Technology in and of itself is a political revolution. Let’s look at an example. Modern technology – from encryption to blockchain to 3D printers – has exceeded the geographic boundaries used to define a state; in particular, a state is an organization that claims monopoly or jurisdiction over a particular territory. Its jurisdiction is protected by strict border policies and tariffs, as well as military force when necessary or opportunistic. But what if individuals can jump from continent to continent at will to conduct the daily exchange of information and property? What if you do this privately and without permission, just at the push of a button? Borders have become meaningless. How long does it take for the state to comply with the petition?

The founder of crypto-anarchism, Timothy May, considered the crossing of boundaries important enough to become the opening paragraph of his key work from 1994, “Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities”. In it May wrote that “the combination of strong and unbreakable cryptography with public keys with communities in cyberspace will bring about exciting and profound changes in the nature of economic systems.” And socially. Crypto-anarchy is the cyber-realization of anarchist capitalism that transcends national boundaries and allows individuals to make the economic arrangements they wish to synergize with. “

This technology has left trusted third parties aside. The state controls through monopolies that the individual must comply with if he wants to participate in the rest of civil society. The central banking system is an example. The state and banks work in partnership to create a monetary policy that is enforced by draconian laws; Some countries punish forgeries with death. The money monopoly offers the state more than economic benefits such as taxes and inflation. The data collected by banks are the main basis of social control in two ways. Information and detailed records of every financial transaction are shared with the state and used for social control. Those who avoid the banking system, as well as those who are denied access by the system itself, are excluded from important aspects of civil society and from the “services” of the state. they become secondary citizens. This is also known as social control.

Here too, peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is the game changer. It overcomes the problem of trusted third parties by offering banking services without an intermediary. Individuals become bankers who exchange assets through their own wallets and an anonymous network. If a complex currency exchange is desired, a banker can hold some funds on a reputable and decentralized exchange for as long as the transaction requires. Privacy is maintained and control of certain assets is temporarily removed in exchange for benefits. It’s almost like cryptocurrencies need a trusted third party. And ideally, the decentralized exchange is trustworthy, like a private lawyer who brokered a contract.

Bypassing unwanted intermediaries is the intent behind blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto has this feature in the first few lines of. announced White Paper 2008, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” Satoshi writes: “A pure peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that allows online payments to be sent directly from one party to another, without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures are part of the solution, but important advantages are lost if a trustworthy third party is still required … “

Freedom no longer requires consensus or basic support. This is an unknown aspect of the crypto-revolutionary effect: the decentralization of the network down to the individual level. During the traditional revolutions, masses of people took to the streets after …