Spencer on Nostr: Civil society is built on the technology of laws that allow humans to cooperate and ...
Civil society is built on the technology of laws that allow humans to cooperate and resolve conflicts based on sets of rules, rather than resorting to physical force. Clearly, there are huge advantages to cracking the code for figuring out how to cooperate civilly with each other rather than resolving everything with physical force.
Bitcoin is the next major advance in civil technology for exponentially better cooperation.
All other civil systems that have been built so far in order to help humans cooperate suffer from the same major flaw - the rules and the enforcement of the rules are physically separate. It's just a piece of paper that won't stop a bad guy from breaking the rule.
For example, in the case of physical property, it is always possible for a thief to kill and steal the property. A police force is then retroactively tasked with resolving the injustice. The rules of civil property rights and the enforcement of those rights are physically separate.
But with Bitcoin, a thief can kill and still not have access to the digital property, to the bitcoin. The rules of bitcoin rights and the enforcement of bitcoin rights are inseparable. Bitcoin is a set of rules that a bad guy *can't* break.
Yes, a police force will still be dispatched to catch the murderer, but bitcoin opens the door to making theft impossible, which removes a major incentive for violence. Great, you killed the dude, now what? You get nothing. You would have gotten more by cooperating. Now you are a fugitive.
Bitcoin is an amazing civil technology that not only creates a fair set of rules by which people can cooperate, but it also enforces the rules with astonishing power and efficiency - far more efficient than any police or military could ever hope to enforce any other set of rules.
Bitcoin creates the reality where anyone in the world, from the poorest to the richest, can literally hold and enforce their own property rights in their head, without guns, police, or armies. Bitcoin builds the reality of enforced property rights into the human brain. Crazy! I suspect society changes in amazing ways as the implications of this ripple out.
Bitcoin is the next major advance in civil technology for exponentially better cooperation.
All other civil systems that have been built so far in order to help humans cooperate suffer from the same major flaw - the rules and the enforcement of the rules are physically separate. It's just a piece of paper that won't stop a bad guy from breaking the rule.
For example, in the case of physical property, it is always possible for a thief to kill and steal the property. A police force is then retroactively tasked with resolving the injustice. The rules of civil property rights and the enforcement of those rights are physically separate.
But with Bitcoin, a thief can kill and still not have access to the digital property, to the bitcoin. The rules of bitcoin rights and the enforcement of bitcoin rights are inseparable. Bitcoin is a set of rules that a bad guy *can't* break.
Yes, a police force will still be dispatched to catch the murderer, but bitcoin opens the door to making theft impossible, which removes a major incentive for violence. Great, you killed the dude, now what? You get nothing. You would have gotten more by cooperating. Now you are a fugitive.
Bitcoin is an amazing civil technology that not only creates a fair set of rules by which people can cooperate, but it also enforces the rules with astonishing power and efficiency - far more efficient than any police or military could ever hope to enforce any other set of rules.
Bitcoin creates the reality where anyone in the world, from the poorest to the richest, can literally hold and enforce their own property rights in their head, without guns, police, or armies. Bitcoin builds the reality of enforced property rights into the human brain. Crazy! I suspect society changes in amazing ways as the implications of this ripple out.