The Birth of an Idea, Ten Years On

The advance of civilization appears to be due to the random birth of great men and women who utter something that is so simple, so self-evident, yet unutterable previously.

I am therefore I think ended an era of chaotic ideas that questioned whether we actually exist. So laying the foundations for what we now call science. Yet even today, contradictory statements such as post-modernism continue to be made. Modern is modern, the present. There can not be a post-modern unless one wishes to lose their senses.

Likewise, I know that I know nothing ended an era of great superstition, at least for a millennium. Giving birth to modern maths, to democracy, to beauty.

It is ideas that drive history. Ideas uttered by a man, or a woman, but whether that man is hailed as a genius or as insane depends on whether the times were demanding such idea.

I am therefore I think would have been an empty statement in any other time, same for Socrates’ claim that he at least knows that he doesn’t. Likewise, perhaps, Hayeks statement:

“The past instability of the market economy is the consequence of the exclusion of the most important regulator of the market mechanism, money, from itself being regulated by the market process… only competition in a free market can take account of all the circumstances which ought to be taken account of.”

It sounds obvious, and it sounds self-evident, just as to some it sounds crazy. Since history begun, money has been the prerogative of kings. There can only be one money within a state. That money can only be controlled by the central bank. Those axioms were unquestionable until Hayek questioned them.

It is there where modern history begins. The 70s, in many ways, built the structural foundations of the modern world. The computer was invented. Code transformed everything. Then, amid a systemic failure in fiat money, bitcoin was born.

It was a radical challenge to the orthodoxy which had failed and had brought the west to the brink of collapse, hours away from ATMs no longer functioning.

The monetary system broke down, but what was the solution? The old and unworkable ideas of communism on the one hand and nazism on the other were revived by some small fringes. Anarchism or even ancap was suggested. The solution, however, turned out to be not politics, but a new technological invention.

Since then, the world has been running in two trajectories. The geopolitics of old, which usually ends very badly. And the technologists, the coders, racing to build a peaceful world.

When bitcoin came, it found them. The somewhat just above average intelligence men and women of student age who in those dark hours thought there was a need for conceptual change. For new ideas.

The people’s money inspired, because now the smart ones needed not beg politicians, needed not see the humiliation of millions protesting without even a political acknowledgment, needed not just talk, and needed not take to the streets.

They instead found the tools to build a new world, peacefully, incrementally, consensually and fully voluntarily. No one was forced to hold any belief. No one was forced, by law or otherwise, to do anything. They’re merely shown what was and is being built. They can use it if they like, or ignore it.

The point, at the end of it all, is to return back some sovereignty to the people. To hold up these ideas of accountable power, of checks and balances, of a free market economy, of choice and competition.

To make America the land of the free again, and the home of the brave. To boldly go where intellect says is best: towards free money.

Peace now is within grasp. The people finally revolted on the ballot box. The terrible trajectory of geopolitics, which seemed inevitable even a couple of years ago, may have changed its path.

Yet challenges remain. Our solution is to build the tools for optimism. To unite the world in ambition. To hold up science and code as an inspiration that can cancel the negativity we see in the signal. To have fun, dance, and play music loud so as to drown out any calls for war.

To channel energy towards productive uses by empowering the many and even the few. To offer a better way to all, billionaires and poor men.

To free ourselves, from ourselves, by requiring no permission where intellect finds it reasonable. And do so peacefully, consensually, through persuasion and by building something people want.

A decade on it may well be the implementation of this idea, of free market money run by a global network of code, has not yet even begun.

On the other hand, the foundations have been laid. We won the debate, overall. There’s a huge amount of energy and creativity in this space as well as sheer brain power. Many have been inspired and the world by and large is happy to give free reign and see just what is built.

Above all, what has been built is a new space of experimentation, of ideas, of improvements, and of fun.

There’s a lot more to build, with the Turing complete ethereum network now giving far more advanced tools than bitcoin ever did.

The countdown to Serenity has begun. A brand new blockchain is to launch to bring back one CPU one vote and to unleash massive scalability.

If we managed, at least in part, to bring back some optimism, then we may in the next decade bring back fun, with the focus hopefully shifting towards science, towards art, towards human achievement and ambition.

For this generation has had enough of widespread negativity. So we’ll build for ourself a new world where human advancement can continue.

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