The Utopia in the Digital Age——Read "Blockchain Sociology"

country of writing

I don’t know if there is anyone like me, who has been bow-headed since elementary school, and it is not the mobile phone that they read, but the novel under the table. Every time I change classes, my classmates come and go, but I can always find my bosom friend because of the book in my hand. We talk and write books after class, try to write things that can’t be put on the table in class, imagine that the exam papers are novels, parents and teachers force us to read every day, and threaten us to enter the workplace, how words will torture people, only reading, writing and insight can make us stand.

If this fantasy comes true, people who don't like to read novels will have to protest, just as many people are now dissatisfied with the single value of the market. This is why reading "Blockchain Sociology" is so touching. The author starts thinking from value, all the way to money/currency, virtual and physical world, to the community of country/nation/imagined, and attempts to use blockchain in the digital world. The establishment of a country opens up the imagination and possibility of the coexistence of multiple countries.

LikeCoin is not just money, but also a key

In the second half of the book, the author uses the independent country LikerLand as an example to write down the vision and practice of "creation is valuable".

If you also participate in LikerLand's ecosystem (Matters, Square, Pathfinder, Wordpress, Independent Media, Stand, Medium, Blogger, Ruffian, etc.), I believe you can feel the power of writing, as long as readers like our creations , press five likes, we will receive the creation fund LikeCoin (cryptocurrency), if there is a reader subscription or single support, we will also receive LikeCoin or LikeCoin transfer every month, if we get LikeCoin, we will You can go to one to several exchanges to exchange for fiat currency.

In addition to the price that LikeCoin can be exchanged for fiat currency, it is also a proof of value. We who have entered LikerLand are attracted by the "value of creation", which is a pre-set consensus. We look forward to reading good content and writing good creations, and for works that meet our aesthetics, we turn praise into appreciation and clap our hands through The system distributes LikeCoins to creators as a proof of "creative power".

What's more, LikeCoin is the key/pass to enter LikerLand governance. Just like representative politics familiar to Taiwanese, we elect people’s representatives through elections, support motions, legislate or question administrative units in the Legislative Yuan, we can use LikeCoin to promote the establishment of the motion ( Liker deposits a deposit for the motion ), we can use LikeCoin to entrust validators ( delegation LikeCoin ), through delegation, support the validator's position on the proposal or the contribution to the ecosystem. If we do not agree with the validator, we can transfer the delegation at any time, instead of waiting for four years each time like an election, we can also directly implement the proposal. Voting ( direct voting by stakeholders ), participation in governance through LikeCoin is more immediate than voting in representative politics, which the author calls Liquid Democracy .

Blockchain under current affairs

In the book, the author has repeatedly mentioned the situation in Hong Kong under the pen. In the face of increasingly strict content censorship, in the face of increasingly obscure truth, the decentralization and immutability of the blockchain allows the truth to be Escape scrutiny and pass on to another person. Although I have no direct experience in Taiwan, facing the same threat, the slogan of the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014 is the most appropriate: "Today's Hong Kong, Tomorrow's Taiwan", let alone today when Chinese military planes entered Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone. New technology can be established, naturally it is the trend of the times. Without Lehman Brothers in 2008, people would not think that the financial system with the authority of the government would collapse, and then lose trust and promote the rise of Bitcoin.

In addition, I like the author's explanation of the two characteristics of decentralization and immutability. It is easy to understand, presumably because the author often answers the confusion of technical idiots like me. The author uses no big platform to explain decentralization. In other words, there is no large institution in charge of hardware (storage, transmission) or the content of transactions and transmissions. It also shows that the definition of this term varies from person to person. The book tends to Buterin's statement: multi-point structure, decentralized control, and consensus. In other words, decentralization is not decentralization. In addition, many articles say that the blockchain cannot be changed, and some articles say that blocks/transactions can be destroyed (burn), which is confusing to me. Transactions can be changed, but they are all recorded.

Code is Law

The book mentions Code is Law , a small paper published by Lawrence Lessing in 2000. I probably read the original text and said that we already have legal norms in the physical world, but at that time the tentacles did not extend to the increasingly developed network, so Lessing said that code exists as a law in the online world and should be tasked with regulation. The author further said that Code is the norm before the incident, and it cannot happen if it does not conform to the agreement, while the law is more like an afterthought, making judgments based on the results, whether the law or the code, there are shortcomings, the law has bad laws, and The code has bugs.

The authors extend this concept in different chapters. First of all, using a blockchain does not necessarily mean democracy (decentralization). The architects who build the blockchain use a peer-to-peer structure, which has the characteristics of immutability, but it does not mean that it is a democratic governance method. In other words, blockchain is not an anti-system. Listening to this episode of Podcast , the application of judicial alliance chain ft. Investigator Lu Zhiyuan, Prosecutors Department of the Ministry of Justice , we can know that Taiwan's judiciary is thinking about how to use blockchain to improve the efficiency of proof and reduce the cost of proof. cost. The book also clarifies concepts such as virtual, digital, anonymity, and semi-anonymity, so that we can understand different arrangements and combinations in understanding blockchain applications. Regulations of various countries require users to verify their identities, and also reserve the right of the platform to delete user information. The author said, "Can these centralized processing methods coexist with the spirit of blockchain decentralization, and can overall reduce the stratospheric effect and false information? Waves", it is worth watching.

How do we think about blockchain

play tai chi

In the past when I was working in Xinchuang, the company liked to invite lecturers to talk about the culture of unlearn. In a word, in the face of new things, we should be like Zhang Wuji, forget all the boxing techniques, and not let what we have learned limit our imagination. In the face of the crowded blockchain creation gods, and in the face of all kinds of bad words and criticisms, we can try to understand, maintain the ability to think independently, and remember that imagination is our greatest asset.

Self-Publishing and Cultural Industries

What interests me outside of the book is the opportunities that blockchain brings to the cultural industry.

In the last article of the previous Benjamin series, Week 4: After the epidemic, the art museum where the light has disappeared? , we try to follow the ideas of Ben Yaming: he regarded the films of the new media at that time as an opportunity for the formation of mass art, rather than following the mainstream views at the time, thinking that the film cannot be the same as the painting, so that the viewers can feel the unique painting. . In the post-epidemic era, digital applications are used in more scenarios, art museums have begun to promote VR, and digital art can be published in NFT. Looking back at that time, Ban Yaming’s foresight was different from that of the times, because he was able to think independently and dare to imagine.

About creation is valuable

Received the weekly author data report of Matters today, standing at 189 days. At the end of the article, I would like to return to Matters, the platform most closely related to LikerLand.

In the past six months, every time everyone discusses the value of creation, I will make all kinds of angry remarks in Xiangte City. Before writing this article, I also asked a few questions around the fire, and wanted to hear everyone's opinions (see the world situation Bunt Cosplay Read Coffee Corner Picks: About Blockchain ). I really benefited from Likerland/Matters ( creation is valuable! My first 10,000 yuan in 100 days in Matt City ), but at the same time, it is a little question mark to see that a line of fitness text gets hundreds of shots, which shows that creation is valuable. Clapping is not a method without loopholes, just like the restaurant downstairs in my house gives 5 stars for side dishes, Google Map gets 4.8 stars, but the taste is normal.

Although I think every discussion has the edge of personal attack, on the positive side, Matters' framework is very clear, so everyone's discussion will revolve around clapping (of course it is also related to resource allocation), on the other hand, the platform also allows such discussions , will not exclude such discussions as being popular (the popular calculus method is public), indirectly contributing to the formation of consensus, in any case, the ideal practice cannot satisfy everyone, back to the book, back to LikerLand, if you leave When the consensus is too far away, and you feel that it cannot be changed through discussion or participation in governance, in LikerLand you can "copy open source, fork the government, and establish your own country." This is probably the author's most exciting move, and LikerLand's craziest move. (I want to join the support club too)