The implications of this are tremendous and profound, a world where the nature, function and form of the technologies that shape our lives are born not of states and companies, but of humans cooperating directly with other humans.
This leads to a world where the majority are unable to shape or influence the tools and technologies they use in their day-to-day existence in a way that better suits their circumstances or alleviates their problems. Instead, they must choose from the options made available to them based on the preferences of a select few, be that in regards to clothing, construction materials, food, tools and machinery or medicine.
Although the technology of the nail of today is nearly identical to that of 1800, its relevance to the economy has reduced drastically.
It is the swoosh, the branding of what Nike represents and symbolizes for those that wear them that command the higher prices than what are objectively similar quality shoes available from a budget retailer, or why someone would want to own multiple pairs of what are generally speaking, the same item of clothing.
This was all accomplished by capitalizing on the massive productive potential that can be tapped simply through an increased ability to gather, process and share information, driven into overdrive thanks to the proliferation of the internet.
The capital production economy still very much exists and fulfills a great economic demand.
Many of the barriers that constrained the productive capacity of the majority of the world’s inhabitants stemming from the dominance of the industrial production economy apply less and less with each passing year.
An ever-growing amount of what is required to turn an idea into a good or service no longer requires a large amount of capital, extensive machinery and large amounts of manpower; a personal computer worth several hundred dollars will suffice.
Happening in lockstep with this democratization of the means of production is how the internet exponentially increases our ability to communicate and collaborate on a scale never before imaginable.
The politics and hindrances on effective cooperation inherent to these hierarchical organizations, the complication of timezones, much of the need for physical proximity, the logistical hurdles to redeploying talent where it is needed within hours or even minutes all no longer prevent us from being optimally able to utilize untouched and unharnessed economic and productive potential.
Wikipedia, the largest and most-read reference work in history, is the result of millions of small contributions by millions of people.
The same large businesses can also capitalize on these changes in production, produce information products and dominate the market based on capital and their size, as has happened in the industrial production model.
No matter the brilliance of the idea, its importance to a person’s values, or the depth of need for the benefits it bestowed, if that person could not organize its production into the continual generation of profit, then production could not occur.
Now, amongst the millions of deeply interconnected human beings that populate the planet, if someone wishes to create something within the ever-growing realms of what is possible with a computer and their imagination, they can do so without gatekeepers or permission.
Living with this condition means diligently monitoring your carbohydrate intake at a per-gram precision to precisely calculate and balance insulin levels — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Although glucose monitors could provide accurate data on timing and dosage required, these proprietary devices could not interface with each other and allow those who had Type 1 diabetes to automatically regulate the administration of insulin based on the monitor’s data.
This project, whose slogan is “#WeAreNotWaiting to make the world a better place,” made freely available to everyone the code, instructions and component list that allowed even non-tech-savvy Type 1 diabetics to assemble a medical rig that not only was able to automatically administer insulin, but also allowed the user to customize the settings utilized in line with their personal circumstances and body response.
As was the case with the gradual influence of internet-based businesses, an unfathomable amount of productive capacity that has not been able to find expression within the confines of the current paradigm will gradually start to dominate the world’s productive output via the collaborative economy.
This should be familiar to those who play music, participate in sport or are involved in any number of other hobbies in their part-time.
Bitcoin is the first money born out of this social shift, an open-source monetary network born in response to human problems rather than a market opportunity to generate profit.
However, as anyone from a country unable to access first-world banking services, or even a Canadian trucker will tell you, their fundamental problem is that they are closed networks, controlled by firms whose existence is centered on generating profits and excluding anyone who jeopardizes this bottom line.
Instead of the control and monopoly on creation that comes from the need to protect profits in the traditional proprietary market model, collaborative models are now giving the ability to create to those for whom the need, motivation, and creativity is greatest, those who would voluntarily create for free, or even pay to do so.
He used this amp to record the song “You Really Got Me” in 1965, which reached number 1 on the Official Charts Company list in the UK and reached a much larger audience, inspiring an entire generation of up-and-coming musicians to copy the sound of the distorted electric guitar.
Its resilience, popularity and longevity come precisely because it is not a proprietary product created to ensure a revenue stream but instead an idea owned by anyone and no one, and which anyone is free to reinterpret or improve on; this is something that includes, rather than excludes people.
It changes it from a closed system whose levers are only in reach of a privileged few to an open one, dependent solely on shared resources that are free for anyone to inspect, modify or interpret.
We individually and collectively can decide how Bitcoin is used, and if the existing options do not suit us, we are not limited to those presented to us on a store shelf by a corporation or state; we can make our own, in collaboration with anyone anywhere in the world.
Samourai, Wasabi and JoinMarket have, without the permission of anyone, given everyday users the tools to use Bitcoin in a more private fashion and to cooperate to improve their anonymity.
NO2X and BTCPay are clear demonstrations of how easy it is for motivated users to deny corporations and well-resourced cabals the ability to dictate how we must use Bitcoin, to filter its utility and meaning through their lenses or co-opt it for their own needs.
The decisions made in the design of that software, what they incentivize or allow and what they prevent or discourage, subtly influence the conversation, whether that be in words themselves or the economic language of money and value.
In the context of Bitcoin lobbying a senator, asking permission from a bank or corporation to open an account or add a feature or creating a company with the correct licenses and regulatory compliance make as much sense as asking a school teacher in 1965 if you can have permission to play in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
Bitcoin will succeed not just because it is the best monetary technology, but because it speaks to something fundamental about the human condition — the need to freely, openly, and directly express ourselves and connect with other human beings.