The Crypto Enlightenment: Social Theory of Blockchains

Stanford, Palo Alto CA, October 18, 2015Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Crypto Enlightenment: A Social Theory of Blockchains

An Abundance Rethinking of Authority, Knowledge, and Organization

Melanie SwanPhilosophy & Economic Theory

New School, New York [email protected]

October 18, 2015Crypto Enlightenment 2

Melanie Swan Philosophy and Economic Theory, New School,

New York Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies Instructor, Singularity University; Affiliate Scholar, Institute

for Ethics and Emerging Technology (IEET); Contributor, EDGE

Traditional Markets Background Economic Theory Leadership

http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

Book: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

October 18, 2015Crypto Enlightenment

Thesis re: Cybercurrency Social Implications

3

Cybercurrencies (Bitcoin, blockchains, and decentralization) are not just about…

1) Digitizing and modernizing money, payments, economics, assets, legal contracts, and governance,

2) Accelerating the transition to the automation and actualization economy from the labor economy, but…

3) Re-exploring our reality, and specifying it as more internally-determined than externally-determined


AgendaBitcoin and the Age of Cryptocurrencies

Introduction What is Bitcoin, blockchain, decentralization? Stakes: Transition from labor economy to actualization economy

Crypto Enlightenment Rethinking Authority (Self, Society)

Philosophy of Immanence (open-ended upside) Theory of Crypto Flourishing

Scarcity as a social pathology Abundance theory of Flourishing

Practicalities and extensive blockchain applications

4


DefinitionWhat is Blockchain Technology?

5http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

A cryptographic information technology A software protocol; email (SMTP) runs on TCP/IP, Bitcoin

runs on underlying blockchain software The software protocol is decentralized: each network node

keeps the ledger (giant ‘Google doc spreadsheet’ of transactions); blocks (batches) of transactions posted sequentially to a ledger or chain

The software system confirms the transactions, independently confirming transactions as unique and valid without an intermediary (bank, government)

Bitcoin: digital money No double-spend


Evaluating Blockchain Ecosystem Risk

6

Network Infrastructure Organizational

Paradigm

Bitcoin and blockchain consensus mechanisms are the initial, but perhaps not final positions in the build-out of the decentralized value-transfer infrastructure

Decentralization

Consensus Mechanism

Blockchain-based Distributed Ledgers

Cryptocurrency Value-exchange Token Bitcoin

Platform Level: Current Leader:



Getting to Scale in Human EndeavorMoments in Artificial Intelligence & Computing

7

1. Biology becomes a math problem

2. Simple ML algorithms over

large data corpora

3. Deep-learning algorithms: real-time image & video processing, lip-reading

transcription


Blockchain-class problems

8

Million-genome repositories (largest is 3700 currently)

Peter Turchin (U Conn), complexity, cliometrics, measure liberty available in a political system over time

Brain as a DAC; neural modeling of utility functions Oculus Rift – connectome integration:

experience sharing


Blockchain technology (distributed ledgers) allows a serious move into the Automation Economy, via secure value transfer previously unavailable with the Internet

Fair and orderly transition from the Labor Economy to the Automation and Actualization Economy

Bigger Picture: Automation Economy

9

Information & Entertainment Manufacturing Health Economics &

FinanceGovernment &

Legal

Internet: Transfer of Information Internet: Secure Transfer of Value

Sectors


Enlightenment Theme: Rethinking Authority

10

“One ought to think autonomously, free of the

dictates of external authority”

- Immanuel Kant

Kant, I. "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" (German: Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?). 1784.


Traditional Definitions (philosophy)Immanence: from within

11

Immanence: where everything comes from within

a system, world, person; emergent; structure itself is

not pre-specified

Transcendence: where everything comes from

outside a system, world, person; externally pre-

determined specifications

Rethinking Authority is a matter of the Inner and the Outer; which prompts a consideration of what is inner and what is outer Individual: to myself as a person, as the immanent

cryptocitizen sensibility Society: cryptosustainability communities: what is important

to us as a community, right size for self-sustainability?



Open-ended stance of novel construction up and out from baseline into new territory; yes-and improvisation

energy, collaboration, the new, creativity, out-of-the box, greenfield, emergent, dynamic, serendipitous,

flow, complex, multi-dimensional

Rooted in capacity: growth capability determines possibility; oriented towards affirmation of the positive

12

Baseline(Impossible) attempt to recoup a baseline ideal

that is pre-specified and externally imposed Rooted in fixity: morphology (form) pre-determines possibility; oriented towards

critique of the negative

Philosophy of Immanence

Contexts: Ethics (perfect ideal), Subjectivation, Emotion, Abundance, Flourishing

Immanence Models

Baseline Models

Sources: Spinoza, Deleuze, Simondon


Philosophy of ImmanenceCryptocitizen Sensibility Getting into a stance of immanence with

ourselves, trusting our internal self more Self-responsibility-taking; questioning and

self-designing which economic systems, political systems, communities, structures of productive work effort we’d like to participate Governance services vs. being governed Previous: news media, entertainment, stock-

trading, health services Current: money, economics, governance and

legal services



Decentralization, what is it really?

14

1. CentralizedReddit, Inc.

2. DecentralizedDatt.co

3. Hybrid Economic Models

(multiplicity)

http://futurememes.blogspot.com/search?q=datt.co, https://medium.com/@ryanxcharles/fix-reddit-with-bitcoin-7da3f85fb9ba

P2P direct payment model: content producers and

consumers exist in a flat network: consumer

micropayments support content providers and the

cost of content-hostingPeer willingness (social good)

Familiar indirect payment model: content is free to consume, supported by advertising;

personalized data sold in the backend in undisclosed ways; used by radio, TV, and Internet

content; Content and data owned by central host

P2P network supporting content production (ownership), hosting, serving, and consuming

Icons identify available economic systems:

Both centralized and decentralized pricing

models co-exist within one web property; user

selects free or micropay content


Example: Positive Emotion is Immanent Negative emotions (Fredrickson)

Trigger specific physical action-tendencies For example: anger -> attack; fear -> flee

Narrowed range of time-tested action tendencies available Positive emotions

Trigger general, non-directional cognitive activation Widened unspecified range of novel, creative, and unscripted

courses of thought and action Positive Emotion Theory of Flourishing (Keyes)

Wider array of cognitive, physical, and social possibilities Only 18.1% of Americans are flourishing; the majority are

mentally unhealthy (depressed) or not mentally flourishing (moderately mentally healthy/languishing)

15https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flourishing


Abundance Theory of Flourishing Traditional Theories of Flourishing (Parfit)

Hedonism: greatest balance of pleasure over pain Socrates and Protagoras in the Platonic dialogue, Protagoras

(Plato 1976 [C4 BCE], 351b–c) Conative (desire-based): desire fulfillment Objective list theory: list of other ‘goods’ constituting well-being

beyond pleasure and desire fulfillment

New: Abundance Theory of Flourishing Scarcity as a social pathology To count as flourishing, not just alleviating suffering, there would

need to be something in the register of emergence, immanence; which is abundance, an immanent flourishing of abundance

16http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/well-being/

October 18, 2015Crypto Enlightenment 17

Baseline

Philosophy of ImmanenceAbundance Theory of FlourishingImmanence

Models

Baseline Models

Sources: Spinoza, Deleuze, Simondon

Focus:

Conception of Abundance as its own thing, as a mode of facilitating actualization

Open-ended possibility, novelty, creativity, out-of-the box, greenfield, emergent, dynamic,

serendipitous, flow, complex, multi-dimensional

Attempt to recoup a pre-defined baseline ideal

Conception/definition of Abundance as an alleviation of scarcity; post-scarcity

economy; material goods needs met

Actualization

Focus:Sustenance


(Immanent) Abundance MindsetPrinciples of Abundance Argument: 1. It is not just that material needs are

met (baseline sustenance frame), it is that the conceptualization of life itself becomes different as a result of this post-scarcity (immanence actualization frame)

2. Not just that material goods reach post-scarcity, but new social goods created by abundance lead to an immanence mindset of abundance New social goods as the justification for

immanent abundance theory of flourishing

18Social Goods, Social Pathology: Rousseau, Descartes, Augustin, Honneth, Neuhauser, Jaeggi


Social Goods created by Abundance Certainty, availability, contingency reduction, peer

willingness, cognitive easing/cognitive surplus Psychology of Certainty and Availability: A reliable ongoing feeling

of certainty that material survival needs will be met Much current cognitive and physical effort is tied up in anti-

scarcity measures: hoarding, manipulation, and other anti-scarcity measures; ascertaining future availability of resources

Relief – of having a whole class of cognitively-exertional activities drop off the reality of what has to be considered for basic living

This would be unprecedented in human history, a trustable source of having basic needs met such that we do not even have to think about this



Final moment: Abundance as Background Backgrounding enabler

Trust developed as a social good when certain classes of things, like ownership, credit, transfer, service payments, are offloaded and handled in a background system

High cost of non-trust, deception Implication: spend more energy on higher uses of our

capacity; actualization, rather than sustenance Blockchains are the background facilitator, trust-enabling

20

Our attunement to technology as an enabling background helps us see the possibilities for the true

meaningfulness of our being - HeideggerSource: Heidegger, M. The Question Concerning Technology, 1954.



Cryptocitizen Sensibility; CryptosustainabilityThe Cryptocitizen in Society

21

The sense of duty of the citizen to serve

the republic

Civic Duty Civic CollaborationAncient Greek Statesman Self-directed Cryptocitizen

The sense of meaning and purpose in participating in community sustainability



Vision New Polis is the Self-sustaining Micropolis How we remake society is into autonomous

self-sufficient units, with tracking and remuneration backgrounded and outsourced to the blockchain so we can trustably participate and contribute and actualize and federate in community

Physical DACs for geographically-local (Like for Uber drivers) blockchain-based reputations

travel to other cities, permaculture DAS’s, couchsurfing, seasteading, airsteading, distributed autonomous space steading (Blackbird Bus)

Virtual DACs for professional engagements, work, intellectual collaborations

22


Crypto Self-sustainability CommunitiesPeergrid Resources - 1 Civic infrastructure providers; peer-provided community smartgrids

ICT and community computing: SETI@home, BitTorrent, host blockchaind nodes

Peer Power Grid: solar, wind, alternative power; neighborhood mesh network smartgrid power managed by blockchain DACs; Community energy; smartgrid community

Sharable neighborhood mesh network of Tesla powerwalls operated by blockchain DACs

Food: Urban farms, pop-up food grids (food as distributed commons)

Infrastructure: Solar Roadways Empathy Circles (all persons needs matter); permaculture as

social technology

23http://www.slideshare.net/fuguegame/food-as-distributed-commons-cryptocurrencies-as-slow-money


Peergrid Cryptosustaining Micropolises On-demand drone cloud services; swarm of cell tower

connectivity, Internet connectivity, wireless power in advent of storms or service disruptions; mobile drone swarm distributed-autonomous space

Decentralized distributed mobile infrastructure ‘National guard’ drones Service disruption rescue

Ownership of community infrastructure – blockchains as means of owning (financing, transferring, operating, drawing assessments) community-based infrastructure

Smartcity becomes federation of local autonomous self-sustained communities

24


Blockchain Society Example: Neighbor.ly Self-directed Community Bonds The Community Investment Marketplace; p2p

municipal bonds Self-directed investment in civic projects of affinity:

parks, schools, and public transportation Invest in personalized affinity causes, civic projects Previous model argument: Low accountability - the

large amount of money required for community project funding (school, road, bridge) allowed multiple parties to take a transaction fee for unmonitored lack of value add

25


Blockchain Society Example: Civic Community Project Management Community Claims (Blockchain University team project)

Any community member enters project: details phrased as algorithmic claims managed by blockchain smart contracts

E.g.; claims created for project voting and management, vendor RFP coordination, community member assessment

26Community Claims, Evelyn Rodriguez and colleagues, Blockchain University student project

Prototype Concept


Crypto-Enlightenment Governance Recasting governance processes as support

(immanence) as opposed to extraction (baseline erosion) Actualization economy focuses on (1) sustainable

material survival and (2) the social goods of liberation: Self-respect, self-esteem, self-realization

Prescriptive destabilization of non-value-added elites, implementing the original esprit of Rousseau, Rawls

27


How does Bitcoin work?

28

1. Download software wallet app Blockchain.info, Mycelium, etc.

2. Transfer Bitcoin via QR Code / public key address 3. See your transaction confirm, post to the blockchain


Where can I use Bitcoin?

29http://bitcoinmaps.info/, http://coinmap.org/, https://airbitz.co/


Smart Property and Smart Contracts Implications: a future of cryptographically-

activated assets and actions…

…physical and intellectual property might be registered and transacted via blockchains as smart property, and

…agreements, contractual relationships, societal record-keeping, and governance might be enacted through code-based smart contracts

30


What is Smart Property? Register assets to blockchain via unique key

Real-time GPS ‘LoJack’ tracking for any asset Blockchain becomes an inventory, tracking,

and exchange mechanism for hard assets Smart Property example projects

Blocktrace ledger tracks diamonds Provenance.org tracks supply chain authenticity OpenBazaar decentralized Craigslist exchange Factom-HealthNautica medical billing and claims Drug and equipment inventory, including origin

and servicing records

31https://openbazaar.org/, http://www.edgelogic.net/blocktrace, Provenance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqIUBn80pg4http://cointelegraph.com/news/114053/factoms-latest-partnership-takes-on-us-healthcare


Smart Property - Intangible Notary Service, Attestation

Register contracts, agreements, wills (Proof of Existence, Factom)

Register, protect, and transact IP (Monegraph, Ascribe) How it works

Hash + timestamp + blockchain record

32http://www.proofofexistence.com/


What are Smart Contracts?

33

Agreements between parties posted to the blockchain for automated execution Human-human interaction Technological-entity operation

Patterns of interaction in society Software models most world systems now Software services can encode these patterns

(smart contracts as decentralized SaaS) to facilitate the patterns of human interaction

Example: Starbucks facilitates the pattern of coffee for tokens exchange

Code Projects: Ethereum, Etherparty, Eris

Woods, G.; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2CNayXbRKI, http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001555.html,https://eng.erisindustries.com/smart%20contracts/2014/12/17/dennys-smart-contracting/ ,http://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/1402/how-to-get-started-your-first-dapp-under-one-hour,


Theme: Human-Technology Entity Collaboration

34http://www.robotandhwang.com/attorneys/

“Law is something to be radically reshaped by the emergence of technology, it is about the management and manipulation of data on an entirely new scale” - Richard Susskind


Technologically-binding vs. Legally-binding Different frameworks

Technologically-binding: Inexorably executing code contracts (Lessig: "code is law") that cannot be breached, and will proceed unstoppably even if conditions have changed

Legally-binding: Discretionary compliance, semantic flexibility of human-partied contracts

Key shift: Auto-executing code could become prevalent not anecdotal (mortgage industry)

35Primavera De Filippi on Ethereum: Freenet or Skynet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slhuidzccpI


Cryptolaw Intersection of technological (inexorable,

uninfringeable) and legal frameworks (flexible) Separate legal system needed for smart

contracts? Smart contract regulation: impossible to enforce smart

contracts with current law Example: a decentralized program already launched

and running is difficult to control, regulate, or sue for damages

Smart contracts impact not just contract law, but more broadly social contracts within society What kind of social contracts do we humans want with

technological entities?

36


Cryptolaw and Societal Design Implications Emerging that we need new ways of building societal

shared trust through:1. Transparency2. Legal frameworks that are still relevant, but perhaps

enacted at the level of the contract (not federal/state) Not lawlessness, legal framework as a selectable parameter

like jurisdiction (like Creative Commons license drop-downs)

3. More becomes ‘legal’ since monitoring is impossible More tolerance of existing patterns of interaction in society

Result: Less deception; more truth, transparency, disclosure, acknowledgment

Everyone in the system is taking part consensually Result: more self-determination of societal participants



Blockchains help Singularity-class Problems


Blockchain functionality principles Very-large scale automated system of checks and balances;

all ‘transactions’ must confirm via reputation confirmation, algorithmic trust and smartnetwork consensus mechanisms

Friendly AI Autonomous lab robots: On-chain DAC IP discovery

tracking Blockchain nano-compilers (worry: Grey Goo unchecked

nanotech proliferation): signed like synbio As physical-world engineers sign the bridges they build

(literally, pride and responsibility), synbio engineers ‘sign’ DNA designs and building blocks (‘signing’ is unavoidable), and so too propositional nanotech constructions would be 1) signed by bona fide engineers, and 2) not be able to avoid having a traceable signature by befouled players (malicious or otherwise)


Spacechains: Blockchains in Space


Blockchains: not just Earth-class technology, an extra-terrestrial-class technology for space projects Blockchains – not just to coordinate very-large Earth-class

terrestrial projects like billion-member DNA databanks and EMRs, space-class problems too

Space Applications: Space settlement, terraforming, asteroid mining, fuel generation, bombardment monitoring, basic science observation; colored-coin ledgers for energy, settlement, transport, supplies

Terrestrial Applications: fragility alleviation Data center back-up, geomagnetic solar protection,

existential risk reduction, Bitcoin in space (BitSats (like CubeSats))


Blockchain IOT

40http://www.zdnet.com/article/internet-of-things-market-to-hit-7-1-trillion-by-2020-idc/, http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

M2M/IOT Bitcoin payment network to enable the machine economy

IOT 2020: 26 bn devices in a $7 tn market The economic layer the web never had Smarthome IOT networks

Self-mining ecologies Privacy orchestration: devices, robotics, digital

personal health assistants Blockchains: economic principle-driven

large-scale resource allocation and coordination mechanisms

Smartcity Connected Car Coordination

Smarthome IOT and Personal Robotics

Coordination


Blockchains: Global and Liberty-enhancing

41

Global governance for transnational organizations WikiLeaks, ICANN, Wikipedia

Benefits of blockchain administration Uplift to cloud from local jurisdictional regulations Universal administration mechanism for global organizations Structure promotes transparency, accountability, freedom Namecoin: decentralized DNS

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/07/visa-mastercard-move-to-choke-wikileaks/

Snowden Affair


Blockchain Government Opt-in Personalized Government

Composting vs education Reputation-based ID system, voting,

dispute resolution, national income distribution, public documents registration and repository

Precedentcoin Crowdsourced legal services, justice

entrepreneurs, blockchain arbitration Sidekik

On-demand tele-attorney, private police

42http://www.bitnation.co/, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/17066/first-blockchain-wedding-2/,https://bitcoinmagazine.com/19813/sidekik-decentralized-video-streaming-storage/

World’s First Blockchain Marriage: David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo, October

5, 2014, Disney World FL, Coins in the Kingdom Bitcoin Conference, Jeffrey

Tucker (Liberty.me) presiding


Blockchain Representation and Voting Futarchy, two-step program

1. Traditional vote on outcomes (ex: GDP)2. Prediction markets to determine specific

proposals for achieving the outcome Delegative democracy (Liquid Democracy)

Voting power temporarily vested in delegates not long-term representatives

Group proposition development Random Sample Elections

Randomly selected individuals vote on a single issue, blockchain orchestration

43https://bitcoinmagazine.com/17066/first-blockchain-wedding-2/, http://www.bitnation-blog.com/latest-update-dec-22nd-2014/


Blockchain Legal Notary Service, Attestation

Register contracts, agreements, wills (Proof of Existence, Factom)

Register, protect, and transact IP (Monegraph, Ascribe) How it works

Hash + timestamp + blockchain record

44http://www.proofofexistence.com/


Blockchain Science and What is Mining? Mining is the process of adding

transaction records to the public ledger by performing a computing task that is costly to execute but easy to verify

Issue: mining is purposefully wasteful to deter malicious players

‘Green’ mining projects Primecoin Foldingcoin Gridcoin Zennet

45http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoin-mining-hard-way-algorithms.html, http://codinginmysleep.com/bitcoin-mining-in-plain-english/


Blockchain Health Blockchain technology in health-related applications1. EMRs: Personal Health Record Storage and Access

Personal health records stored and administered via blockchain Users key-permission doctors and other parties into records

2. Health Research Commons Aggregated personal medical records, quantified self data

commons (DNA.bits), genome and connectome files

3. Health Document Notary Services Proof-of-insurance, test results, prescriptions, status, condition,

treatment, physician referrals

4. Doctor Vendor RFP Services (Like Uber drivers) doctors and health practices bid to supply

medical services; automated bidding via tradenets

46http://futurememes.blogspot.fr/2014/09/blockchain-health-remunerative-health.html


Blockchain Genomics

47

Jurisdictional regulation prevents individuals from having access to their own genetic data

http://genomesunzipped.org/2011/03/people-have-a-right-to-access-their-own-genetic-information.php


Blockchain Art

48http://cryptoart.com/

Fine art paper wallets


Blockchain Art

49https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=98392.0

Cryptographic art


Blockchain Art

50

Rio, Tel Aviv, Hamburg, Barcelona, Seoul, Tokyo, New York

http://bitfilm.com/festival.html


Blockchain Literacy ‘Bitcoin MOOCs,’ ‘Kiva for literacy’

Peer-to-peer learning contracts Literacy beyond reading

Technical, Agricultural, Vocational Literacy Blockchain-based personal development

contracts QS-biometric utility function imputation and tracking Maslow chains, subjectivation and actualization chains

Development Economics 2.0 Literacy contracts, remittances, blockchain-tracked aid,

microcredit, decentralized credit bureaus Open-source FICO scores Peer-vouched reputation

51


AgendaBitcoin and the Age of Cryptocurrencies

Introduction What is Bitcoin, blockchain, decentralization? Stakes: Transition from labor economy to actualization economy

Crypto-Enlightenment Rethinking Authority (Self, Society)

Philosophy of Immanence (open-ended upside) Theory of Crypto Flourishing

Scarcity as a social pathology Abundance theory of Flourishing

Practicalities and extensive blockchain applications

52


ConclusionsAbundance Theory of Flourishing Individuals and communities taking more self-authority

for economic and political system determination Calling out immanence as open-ended upside shifts

locus of focus to actualization and not sustenance Abundance is immanent flourishing not just scarcity-as-

a-social pathology resolution and post-scarcity economy Individual

Cryptocitizen internally-specified reality and authority-taking Self-determined economic and political systems

Society Self-sustaining community peergrids, infrastructure hosting The new polis is the micropolis


Stanford, Palo Alto CA, October 18, 2015Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Bitcoin and the Age of Cybercurrencies:The Crypto Enlightenment

An Abundance Rethinking of Authority, Knowledge, and Organization

Melanie SwanPhilosophy & Economic Theory

New School, New York [email protected]

Thank You! Questions?