OK - to put it another way - freedom will come at a price. A price that not all of us will be able to afford.
This is pretty much the state of play today (and has always been the way of things). It is my contention in this thread that the IoT and the blockchain will not alter this truth - but will only serve to clarify the problem. If indeed it is a problem (?)

We'll be able to have end to end encryption/anonymous transactions etc - but in so doing we will effectively be excluding ourselves (from the prevailing and dominant economic infrastructure) - in much the same way that my daughter could go live with the local drug dealer, thereby cutting herself out of my will.

We don't really decide our own fate - or at least, if we do, it is within the confines of possible courses of action that are limited and outwith our direct control.

Who decides what is necessary/valuable/virtuous ?

Over time we are moving toward rationality/bureaucracy. The blockchain will facilitate this movement.

But if we aren't using the technology to look at the bigger picture and serve the ordinary man woman and child, then whats it really for ?


I'd be interested to hear from anyone that can explain how the IoT/blockchain can serve as a means of liberation. I know Craig Wright was talking about how it could be used for environmental causes.

How else might the future tech advances help liberate people (over and above becoming our own banks) ?

Yuval Noah Harari thinks we are going to end up with a "useless" class. This on top of having everything known about our interactions with the world.

Got to agree with him when he says: - "First of all, take it very seriously.....And make it a part of the political agenda, not only the scientific agenda. This is something that shouldn’t be left to scientists and private corporations. They know a lot about the technical stuff, the engineering, but they don’t necessarily have the vision and the legitimacy to decide the future course of humankind."


Thats down to us.

How do we want this to pan out ?

Or do we just want to get rich quick ?

Slock.it is a pipe dream and will never work.

Who the hell would ever install a remote lock that requires ether to unlock it? You certianly wouldnt for a personal home lock, and no hotel would ever rent to an anonymous meth producer.

When Andreas says that Bitcoin might have to be over thrown he is speaking of a replacement by something which is better, more decentralized, open and permissionless as Bitcoin already is. A bankcoin will not dominate the world I can assure you that!!

Erm.. Independent Hotels? They'll be all over this. Instead of "Ether," they'd use their own version plus offer various other incentives to customers with large reserves of this currency.

The world is changing guys. Think UBER (largest cab operator in the world, owns no cabs)... Think AirBNB (among the largest providers of accomodation worldwide, owns no realestate).... Think Facebook, Alibaba, Instagram

Eventually, there is due to be a worldwide, transnational hotel conglomerate that isn't a "conglomerate" at all... Just an app... this company will own no hotels, just a specific technology/algo that allows hotel owners to list their vacant rooms, and users to simply book one of these rooms in uber-esque fashion, then unlock the room door with some slock.it type currency.

Salesmen/sales reps/sales agents are gradually being automated out of existence due to this new P2P epidemic.. (I personally think this is great, salesmen just get in the way and often over complicate the buying process)

In the future, customers will no longer have to deal with sales reps at all... they'll finalise all of their purchases in seconds on their smart phones - without having to speak an iota of a word to another commission hungry human being.

So, yes... Projects like slock.it will "work" and are already working... this variant of p2p commerce is revolutionizing the very construct of human interaction.. for the better