Read "Blockchain Sociology" and "I Don't Invest"

"Blockchain Sociology: Reimagining Money, Media, and Democracy" and "The So-called "I Don't Invest", That's All in Legal Currency" These two books written by Mr. Gao Jianjian are the best in my opinion There is no such thing as an introductory book on blockchain.

Blockchain technology was started by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 by creating Bitcoin, a new type of currency with the ability to store value, and it has flourished in the next ten years. It is undeniable that most of the current applications and motivations come from money, and historically, this is a common law in the development of new technologies. But the imaginative space of the blockchain far exceeds that of finance. Its wonderful features such as immutable, decentralized, and verifiable by everyone have the opportunity to play a paradigm-shifting role in the progress history of human society. Kin's two books discuss blockchain technology under the vision of "designing an ideal society". They discuss many interesting topics in a very simple and technically free way.

Ten small concepts are selected below, so that friends who have not read the original book have a little feeling for the cool content in the book. Many quotes and rewrites from the two books "Blockchain Sociology" and "I Don't Invest" are based on the CC-BY agreement, and for the convenience of reading, the references will not be marked one by one.

price and value

The most important things are invisible to the naked eye. From the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, legal tender can only reflect the rarity of low-level needs. However, this is only an "anti-multiple", linear, and single measurement mechanism, and it is a helpless choice. ;In contrast, the value of most things in this world is not properly reflected by the price. For example, the salaries of graduates of humanities and social sciences are generally not high in Taiwanese society. This is not a problem of humanities and social sciences, but a problem of our society. Our current society cannot correctly reflect the value of diversity.

When the blockchain decentralizes the ability to cast tokens, a small community, such as a DAO, can use its own issued tokens to reflect the value valued by a certain community, and diversity has been recognized. possible respect.

X-to-Earn

X-to-Earn's X is viewed on a larger scale, which is a demonstration of the value it values in a community. For example, move-to-earn advocates the value of sports; write-to-earn reflects the value of creation; read-to-earn emphasizes the importance of reading. It is precisely because community tokens are decoupled from prices that they can go beyond the flimsy concept of price.

consensus mechanism

There is a saying: Those who gamble with their lives are often the most exciting. The X in Proof of X reflects what people are willing to bet in exchange for the trust of others to generate consensus. Behind the Proof of Work is the fact that I worked so hard, don't you believe me? Proof of Stake is all my money, don't you believe me? Proof of Authority means I'm betting on my credit, don't you believe me?

In the book, Kin uses the anti-extradition movement as an example. The protesters put their future and even safety on the line, and use their actions to prove their dedication to Hong Kong's love and justice. This can be called: Proof of Love .

False news

Fake news is a difficult problem in modern society. It is not uncommon to see a public figure on the Internet say something he or she never said himself, or complete statements taken out of context without authorization.

By means of digital signatures, a public figure or a person who obtains first-hand information can easily prove what the "original version" is, and block the possibility of false information from the source. Of course, it must be clearly distinguished that false information and wrong information are two different concepts.

inaction is also an act

When we laugh at the fool who exchanged 100,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas more than ten years ago, we are actually laughing at ourselves: because at what point in time, we can use the amount of two pizzas to exchange To 100,000 Bitcoins, but we did not do it, and inaction is also a kind of action.

When seeing injustice happening in the society, but using a mentality that thinks it is old enough to see through life, to laugh at those who insist on simple principles and strive for it, it is too young too simple, even if it is just a little bit, But it still makes the world fatter. You can ignore it but don't look down on it, you can doubt it but don't deny it.

Contradictions between fees and charges

Information naturally prefers to flow, and you don’t want to be blocked by anything; as a creator, you usually hope that your content does not have a paywall, so that your works can be seen by more people. But on the other hand, if the work is completely free and open, it will force creators to seek sources of income from advertising and distribution, and then they will inevitably fall into a traffic trap.

After thinking about this issue in the book, Kin proposed that the best mode for the time being should be: make the content open and circulated, and at the same time allow readers to easily provide small amounts of support, the so-called doing what they can, and taking what they need. What is lacking at present is a very small and convenient support channel. LikeCoin and BAT are both projects to solve this problem. As someone who occasionally writes amateurishly, I sympathize with this.

Thinking behind LikeCoin and Matters

Many seemingly simple appearances have profound thinking behind them. Because I am an avid user of LikeCoin and Matters, I watched him write with Zhang Jieping when discussing and thinking about the development and positioning of these two products. In the original text, the idea is extremely clear:

The LikeCoin blockchain is a "trustless machine without a large platform", Matters is a "public discussion space without a large platform", and IPFS is "a large hard drive without a large platform" to form a decentralized content distribution mechanism. Matters stores all articles in IPFS, and writes the ISCN metadata to the blockchain to ensure that the file metadata cannot be tampered with. As long as any node of the LikeCoin blockchain can be read, the entire content index can be obtained. The blockchain is not suitable for storing large files, and only stores the ISCN metadata including IPFS addresses, while the main body of the files is stored in IPFS, distributed in all user terminals, and spread point-to-point. The more important the file, the more people will see it. The more people look at it, the more they can't delete it. The "Three Treasures of No Big Taiwan", in addition to partially responding to social issues such as false information and the stratosphere, more importantly, tries to fundamentally resist the Internet censorship of the authoritarian government.

better democracy

Voters in Taiwan must have felt this way: Too many candidates said the same thing before the election, but immediately changed their appearance after the election, and a bunch of political opinions were dead set. The reason behind it is also very simple: because of the high cost of elections, voting, and ballot counting, it can only be held once every four years. In Taiwan, where the threshold for recall is high, it can basically do whatever it wants for four years. is a rational equilibrium solution.

Imagine a situation where public opinion can be instantly reflected on any public issue, the cost of voting is close to zero, and vote counting can prevent any form of falsification. Sound far away? In fact, it is completely feasible technically. Simply put, it is the wonderful features of the blockchain plus the black magic of zero-knowledge proof. This concept, which has been implemented in many DAOs, is the liquid democracy that has been discussed for some time. Super flexible representative system, I believe you are as smart as you can think of applications on more levels.

Freedom means having choices

What is advocated in the book is not to replace the existing fiat currency with cryptocurrency fiercely, nor to use blockchain voting to completely subvert traditional paper voting. On the contrary, it is advocated to use the blockchain as a supplement. The fiat currency is used for daily life, but the right to choose to use encrypted currency for storage and transactions; paper voting is used for some situations, but a liquid democracy mechanism should be used as a demonstration Another addition to public opinion. The true meaning of freedom is to have a choice; to have a choice itself is more meaningful than a choice.

let's move

Marx said: "Philosophers just explain the world in various ways, but the key is to change it." Not knowing the technologies behind the Internet such as TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, etc. does not prevent us from using the Internet; , It does not prevent us from loving; blockchain technology is the same principle: do not understand consensus mechanism, do not understand Hash, do not understand cryptography, does not prevent us from using blockchain technology. Water can carry boats and cook porridge. Blockchain technology is a carrier, which is neutral in itself, and its value depends on the content it carries. It is necessary to look at the essence through the phenomenon, take action, and use it. After all, for the unarmed citizens, technology is a weapon.

I hope this brief introduction can arouse your desire to read the original book, after all, this article only covers a very small part of Yoshimitsu Kataha in the book.

Although this ideal decentralized publishing experiment is not mentioned throughout the article, the details can be found here . In addition, if you need the e-book "all in legal currency", please contact me, and you are encouraged to use this link to purchase. The whole sale is only until the end of November, that is, there are still five days left. Come and support this super ideal Publish experiment! Finally, I hope you can get the same happiness as me when reading.

PS If someone buys through the link, I will get 30% of the book's royalties. Please private message me, and it will be sent to your designated wallet in the form of LikeCoin. After all, "Middle Cup Starbucks" is still alive, and I plan to Continue to generate electricity with love for a while. The reason why I didn’t put the original purchase link is because this form of “ individual is the access ” is also part of this decentralized publishing. I want to participate :P