Can Cryptocurrency reduce or end poverty worldwide?
Poverty, Cryptocurrency and thoughts on realigning our thinking about scarcity and abundance to help humanity.
Background
I have certainly listed several important things in my opening statement and I hope the title and graphic caught your attention. The picture is a meme from the public domain. It signifies my thoughts that we have a wonderful technology that can’t fly because it’s tied to old ideas about scarcity and abundance in our economy, that prevent us from using this technology to its full extent.
I read a post by @revisesociology about using cryptocurrency to combat poverty, and his suggestion was that “Charity” to the less fortunate be funneled through Hive. I believe his heart was in the right place, in that those who are blessed, should help out their fellow humans, who are not as blessed. I also think his brain was in the right place, when he suggested we use the wonderful technology that is our blockchain to do good things because it is the right technology for the job. I summarize his post thus: if we put our passion and brains behind it, the technology can do great things.
I agree.
In the beginning....
When I first came to Steemit/Hive, almost four years ago now, I was exploring cryptocurrency as an investment. I came looking for El Dorado...the famed land of fame and fortune. I expected to find something to buy low and sell high. But I was wrong. Then when I started studying DPOS and more specifically how Steemit/Hive/Leo work and at first I thought this looks like I buy and sell to the next guy, then teach him/her to do the same thing. But I was wrong.
What did I find?
I found Steemit, DPOS- delegated proof of stake, the reward pool, author and curation rewards, delegation and delegation rewards, and also comments and comment rewards. I also found the writings of the Steemit creator Dan Larimer, in which he said he built Steemit to incentivize people to do the right thing. As a pragmatist he said it’s hard for good people to do the right thing, when doing the wrong thing is more profitable. So he tried to create a system which incentivized people to do the right thing.
Now he had my attention...
So I was intrigued and read about DPOS, and I kept reading about Steemit. I studied the way we mint new Steem/Hive every day, how most goes to the reward pool, some to Witnesses who maintain the ledger and defend our blockchain from attacks, and some is paid as interest payments to those who lock up their Steem, Hive or Leo tokens as Hive, Steem or Leo Power. And I learned how we use our upvotes to direct portions of the reward pool to others as rewards for their posts. And very importantly how we are also rewarded for directing these rewards with our upvotes and earn some of the reward pool ourselves as curation rewards.
I realized that this economy was different.
Most economies are based on scarcity and competition.
Scarcity and competition suggest that if someone gets money, you don’t get any money, because the money is scarce and limited or in short supply. This also drives competition to get your money before someone else gets their money. You don’t have time or more importantly the incentive to help anyone.
This economy is based on abundance.
The reward pool is replenished every day, it is not finite, it’s like Mana in the Bible, you can trust that tomorrow there will be more. Plus when you upvote someone’s post the reward they receive doesn’t come from you, or your wallet, it comes from the reward pool. The final beauty of this is that whatever you give to others in upvotes, you get half. You give to receive. This is an economy of abundance. You now have the time and the motivation to help others because in doing so you help yourself.
Do I have your attention?
What about the impact of Stake? The amount of Steem/Hive/Leo you buy is your capitol investment in this project, this abundance economy. The amount of the reward pool you direct to others is in proportion to the amount of Stake. So the more you invest, the more you can give, but that also means the more that you will receive. This system incentivized people to do good things.
How does this help people in poverty?
Everyone who posts and votes can earn Steem/Hive/Leo. These are all basic DPOS systems with reward pools, stake based reward pool distribution and as long as people save a portion of their rewards they can increase their Stake based rewards, thus increase their earnings over time. Plus people start with few upvotes, but by engaging with others and making friends and forming networks of support and upvotes, you earn more overtime.
This system is not Charity, nor a Handout
This system teaches people to fish, so that they can feed themselves. This system teaches people to communicate, comment, engage, network...call it whatever you want. We can all do more together then alone. This system incentivized humans to help each other in order to prosper.
It’s hard to understand...
I didn’t understand this completely at first. There are a lot of details to learn, but when you are experiencing the twin joys of prosperity and helping others, you get motivated to learn more. So give yourself some time to learn and also change your way of thinking from a scarcity economy to an abundance economy. It’s not socialism or communism, it’s capitalism. But it’s a system which can be used for good if people learn, observe and are vigilant. Remember if good men stand idle evil will prosper. And believe me, I know there are ways this can be manipulated to benefit some more then others. But it’s a system which is changing/evolving, and the people in the system are evolving/changing also. It takes a while, but as people understand they can do good for others and also prosper themselves, they do good things.
It’s why I am still here through the trials and tribulations.
We have the tools to do good and generate wealth. But never forget this: Technology doesn’t help people, people use technology to help people. We truly can make a living here doing good, but only if we make this technology live up to its potential.
Other Posts by @shortsegments
The Star Trek Borg of social media finance blogging: Leofinance
Six ways to earn Leo Token and Ethereum onLeofinance
Ethereum 2.0 Proof of Stake Transformation
Thorchain: Atomic Swaps and True Decentralized Exchange for cryptocurrency
Blocknet: Atomic Swaps and a network like the internet for crypto blockchains.
A Brief Look at Centralized and Decentralized ExchangeLink
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
