So you say you want a Revolution?
Words like Revolution are banded about far too easily — when appropriately used it can refer to a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favour of a new system. Not all revolutions are like this though. Some revolutions are inevitable and cannot be stopped by force, these type of revolutions assimilate the status quo and bring about a new normal — slowly at first and then suddenly.
The transition from an analogue to a digital world can be considered a revolution and one that has played out in several stages. For example, the first wave of the Internet democratised information, the second wave opened up new retail channels and the third wave brought a service layer with companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Just Eat. Each of these waves completely changed the way of doing things — and there was no resistance, each wave was inevitable.
We now stand on the verge of the next wave, and this one will look and feel like a tsunami, because it promises to take all the changes that have happened in the online Digital revolution so far, combine them, and multiply them by several factors. This wave will be about your finances, your money, your value.
The key aspect to this revolution is that it will be Decentralised.
The Currency / Money we use today is centralised. Central Banks determine the amount of Dollar, GBP, Euro creation — and this is set, during normal times, at 2% inflation — every year your Money is worth 2% less, by design. In abnormal times, those we live in right now — inflation can be far higher, and why wouldn’t it be given the amount of Money has just been printed out of thin air?
This money, lets think of it as legacy world money, is used as the method of online payment but the legacy world systems that service these transactions are slow and, crucially, expensive.
Blockchain technology and Crypto currencies offer an alternative to all of this.
The next wave of the digital revolution (Web 3.0) will be built on decentralised Blockchain platforms such as; Cardano, Ethereum, Polka Dot, Elrond — these platforms are designed to enable transactions to take place at speed and at a fraction of the cost. They also act as currencies in their own right, ADA, ETH, DOT EGLD, respectively — and will also allow other currencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin to be transacted too. These decentralised platforms will enable decentralised money to be used in all manner of transactions.
Crypto currencies, such as those already mentioned, have no central authority overseeing monetary policy, the code that underpins the currency is the law. In Bitcoins example 21M Bitcoin is the total that can ever exist — it’s the free market decides the ongoing value. Further to this, each have their own Treasury, a collection of a % of transaction fees — and the currency holders decide what those funds get spent on. All of this takes place outside the reach of any central authority or control.
Up until now the Digital revolution has been centralised, we have grown used to the idea of conglomerates profiting from the harvesting of our data and profiting from the transactions we undertake online. We may not be comfortable with it, but we have accepted it as a price that has to be paid to take our place in the modern world. Decentralisation changes this — our data will be ours and ours to profit from, if we should so wish, and our Money will be our money, outside the control or reach or manipulation of any Central Authority or Bank, and therefore ours to truly profit from, if we so wish.
As the song goes — “You say you want a Revolution, we all want to change the World”, with Crypto we can — the future is decentralised and it will be owned by you and me.
Originally published at https://www.thehodler.net on February 11, 2021.
