Building A Free Society

An Essay on Building a Free Society 

iseefuture@protonmail.com

Nine was a pivotal year for me as I sat alone, staring at the images of skinny African children with flies on their heads. It was the first time I saw starvation. I didn’t understand. I never missed a meal, unless it was broccoli. I hated broccoli. I don’t mind it so much today. The starving children, it turns out, were used by many unscrupulous individuals and organizations to funnel money from those who cared to those who saw the opportunity in another's pain. Funny how low some will go to improve their financial position.  

As a child, I didn’t understand how someone could actually starve. I mean, I had all the food in the world it seemed. I lived in a small rural town in South Georgia, United States. All I knew about food was that it grew in my friend’s farms and filled the shelves of the only grocery store in town. My other thought was why don’t these people just move somewhere that had food? It didn’t make sense that they would choose to live somewhere that living wasn’t possible. I remember asking my parents that question and while I don’t remember the answer, I’m sure it was something like you wouldn’t understand or it’s more complicated than that. I mean I was just nine at the time. 

 

Then there were trees. Living in Georgia, I am familiar with the tree industry. I cringed every time I passed clear cut land. Maybe it was the impact of the Lorax on a younger me, but my heart ached for the trees. Additionally, it left the land with no character and also, where would the animals live? I found out later there are other plants that are better suited to make paper than trees. Unfortunately for the trees, these were regulated away in the 1930’s by powerful and rich people such as Dupont of the chemical industry that supplied Hearst of the paper industry and Anslinger who Herbert Hoover created a position for, Bureau of Narcotics. 

 

Shortly after the starving Ethiopians disappeared from the headlines but continued to starve, I began learning about acid rain. Holy shit! Acid rain? Seriously? I was terrified to go outside. Think about what acid rain means to a kid who loves comics and science fiction. Acid was the stuff that melted metal and disintegrated people. Coupled with that was a big hole in our ozone layer. I didn’t quite understand how our atmosphere worked at the time but I was familiar with what happens when someone opens an airlock or a hole is blasted into the side of a spaceship in outer space. Once again, I was terrified. Scientists blamed the acid rain and ozone issues on an ingredient in aerosol cans. My simple solution was to eliminate the ingredient which it seems that others agreed with me. The fear of the repercussions of keeping this ingredient in hairspray called for immediate action. I didn’t hear about acid rain or the ozone layer hole anymore. Fear of what would happen if the hole in the ozone layer continued to expand motivated our support. But guess what? Acid rain isn’t caused by that ingredient alone. Our most beloved industries are the main source; coal fired plants, automobiles and factories. It turns out that all the hype was most likely to target a particular industry for regulatory purposes. 

 

The most notable physical threat seemed to me at the time was my own government. I didn’t really understand at the time how governments allowed chemicals into our air, water and food but what I did see often on the news was the cold war between Russia and the United States. It made no sense at all to a nine-year-old. What good would it do to have a nuclear war that killed everyone? That’s what I heard. If we launched a hundred missiles, Russia would launch a hundred and fifty. Our government feared the spread of communism and instilled that fear in each of us through propaganda as simple as the James Bond movies to more covert as teaching certain biases in our schools. I think the U.S. government feared a defeat by the Russians so much they actually threatened all our lives with stupidity. The best part is that as a country, we all went along with it! It all culminated in a win for American style democracy and we, Americans, were safe again. BTW, did you know that around fifty nuclear weapons were lost during the cold war? That brings me to the next topic, terrorism. 

 

U.S. Code Title 22 Chapter 38, Section 2656f(d) defines terrorism as: "Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience".[40] 

18 U.S.C. § 2331 defines "international terrorism" and "domestic terrorism" for purposes of Chapter 113B of the Code, entitled "Terrorism": 

"International terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics: 

1. Involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; 
2. Appear to be intended  
• to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;  
• to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or 
• to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; 
3. and occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum. 

I believe every government in the history of governments is considered a terrorist organization under this description. While our governments over the years have participated in numerous public and clandestine campaigns to intimidate, influence and affect conduct with vicious intent, they did it all under the guise of obtrusive contexts such as freedom and democracy but most of all explained them in the name of national security. If we don’t attack that country or oust that leader or kill those tribes, everyone will be in danger. We as a country go along with all the brutality so that we will be “safe” and those bad people would be punished.  

But let’s face it, oppression is oppression no matter how you paint it. But that wasn’t what was interesting to me about terrorism. When you take out the actors that participated against their will, what has always baffled me is why someone would willingly blow themselves up for someone else’s ideologies. The same goes with participating in a government’s military. Why would you willingly kill someone or put yourself in danger for the ideologies of a group of elitist individuals who claim to represent you but really have no intentions to do so? Joining a military is no different than the radical religious suicide bomber. It just seems that offing yourself to take out a dozen innocent people goes against nearly every religious belief written. Not to say all were in the name of religion. The religious incidents just seem to dominate the headlines here in the states. Maybe there is an us versus them message our leaders are trying to convey? 

 

So what’s the point in talking about all this anyway when nothing seems to change? I mean, pollution continues to pile up when there’s plenty of support for and available pollution free products, governments still exert power contrary to their population’s desires, people still starve when there is plenty of food. What’s the key ingredient for all of this disease? Yep you got it, centralized power and money are the culprits.  

 

Ultimately to get anything accomplished in this world money and fear are the key ingredients. I learned this first-hand when I bought my first bmx bike when I was ten years old. It was thirty-five dollars at the local hardware/department store. If I didn’t get it, I wouldn’t have a bike to ride with my friends. I didn’t want to be left out. I earned the money by doing chores around the house. I continued to do those chores after the bike and became grateful for the money in my pocket. That meant I could buy whatever candy I wanted at the convenient store. I could even treat my friends if I wanted. I wouldn’t have to miss out. 

When I was twelve, I took a job sweeping a warehouse on the weekends and following summer. I got to know the old warehouse manager pretty well, he was my grandfather. It was a special time for he and I. During the downtime I became enthralled in a fiction series that I finally finished in my thirties. As you can tell, he and I weren’t very chatty. But it was good times anyway. The money I earned gave me power. I no longer had to beg my parents to buy the stuff I wanted or depend on my dad’s money from chores that quickly became responsibilities rather than a paying job. When I wanted something I just took some out of my safe and bought what I wanted. I could also, if I felt inclined, get my friends to do stupid stuff. For example, I told my friend that I’d give him two dollars to eat gum stuck to the street. I can’t believe he actually did it. This is when I learned money would make people do really dumb things. It is also the beginning of my understanding of the world. 

 

My lessons about power and influence didn’t end at twelve but the lesson remained the same. I was twenty years old in a corporate finance class at university. The lesson that day was of Saul Steinberg’s hostile takeover attempt of Disney in the 80’s. His stated firmly his intention was to split and liquidate the beloved corporation. Ultimately, Disney averted the takeover and demise of the company by repurchasing Steinberg’s holdings. After Steinberg’s maneuvering, he made a hefty sixty-million-dollar profit minus costs for the endeavor. Most people are thankful for Disney’s swift response to avert disaster but maybe a more astute investor would have recognized Steinberg and his partner's plan A was never to acquire the company. They simply used the fear of liquidation to drive up the stock price and exit at a profit. However, if they had succeeded in acquiring the company, I’m sure they would have been fine with liquidating which would have also reaped substantial profits but most likely significantly less than the actual outcome and with more effort. This along with an infinite number of historical examples prove that fear of the unknown is the most powerful motivator to humankind but is infinitely more powerful when backed by sizable financial resources. 

 

Since money is the route to all things, other than love of course, I chose to focus my studies on financial markets. I learned how to invest at an early age from my father. We bought my first stock together that I sold many years later to buy a motorcycle. That truly was a fateful day for the family. I attended university during the dot com boom and took every class related to money. Even my electives were difficult classes with a money theme. Everyone was buying stocks at the time. Intuitively, I knew it wouldn’t last. It couldn’t. But as I would learn time and time again, trends can persist significantly longer after I’ve identified valid reasons they should stop. So the story here is that I didn’t buy much and therefore didn’t become a dot com millionaire, but nor did I participate in the drop. I actually sold short some stocks and made a decent profit. Soon after, I joined a prop trading group that mostly sold stocks short. This is when I became accustomed to taking bets against the market. It’s also when I learned that markets weren’t fair. There were players who could legally use inside information to make money. That added to the rapidly rising wall of distrust I was building toward large institutions. 

My prop trading career began to focus on foreign exchange markets. I dove into the ins and outs of foreign markets, interest rates and how certain reports would influence currency pair direction. I quickly discovered a crack in the newly forming forex trading markets and swiftly began a series of risk-free trades. I was astonished at the consistency of these trades. It got to a point where I was committing all my capital to each individual trade. I was raking it in hand over fist.  

While participating heavily in the foreign exchange markets a thought that I had as a younger me continued to cross my mind. I understand a government’s need to manipulate the money supply to influence certain behaviors, but was it actually necessary as a global society to have so many different mediums of exchange? I mean, I was a fan of the Euro when it was launched. But like everyone else that knew anything, it would always struggle without fiscal policy and rules that applied to everyone. I never did come to a conclusion for that one, nor did I solve our inflation dependency. 

During my forex trading period, I became complacent. I was a twenty something kid with a fat wallet which meant global issues didn’t take the forefront of my efforts. Not that I was ever someone to brag, but it did bring with it certain freedoms that no one else around me had. But deep down I had a mission. I developed a plan to make a certain amount of money then try to fulfil a tremendous urge to travel. I didn’t know where this urge came from. My dad has taken only one trip by commercial airplane and my mom two. At this time I had only been to a handful of countries. But the desire burned in me and I didn’t know why. It was almost as if something was calling me, but I didn’t know where to find it. 

This part of my life didn’t send me around the world. Where it did send me was a less interesting but more rewarding place, Atlanta Georgia. Now you may say, how is Atlanta Georgia more interesting than hiking the Nepalese Himalayas or canoeing the Amazon? To begin, I met my former wife and we had an adventurous romp around the east coast before settling in a suburb to raise two amazing boys. But don’t we all think our children are amazing?  

This part of the story is less interesting, so I’ll give you the summary. We married one day before tax-day in 2017. A consultant that use to work for me called and said he wanted to hire me at his consulting company but I was excited to build my investment business at the time. So I told him I’d think it over while on my honeymoon. I left my friend’s offer behind and my new wife and I went to Africa to help a Maasai leader develop plans to build the Rift Valley economy. After a successful two and a half weeks in western Kenya, she and I journeyed back to Nairobi on our way to Mombasa. Here we learned she was pregnant. As excited as we were, we were both freaked out at the implications. We continued the trip to eastern Kenya, avoided a tsunami in Liconi then headed back to the states. This was the first of a few safe decisions that ended poorly for me. 

I determined that I didn’t want to assume the financial burden of starting a business and having a child so I called my friend who wanted to hire me and after a series of interviews, I accepted the steady paying job. Everything was nice until I was fired from the job a year and a half later in April 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession. I was pretty upset about it because my wife was pregnant again. I scrambled to find another steady paying job and ended in a crappy sales job. I was actually really good at it but it was eating my soul straight from my chest. The good part was that I was investing in stocks as they rebounded from the 09 lows and easily made 10x more than what my salaried job was paying. All of this excitement and money took my attention away from a developing distributed ledger technology market that would take the industry by storm just eight years later. Shortly after I lost that job, I formed another trading company that was fantastically successful until it wasn’t. I had a really tough 2012 that didn’t seem to end until I merged with a financial advisory firm in 2014. This was when things got really weird. The financial stagnation took a toll on my confidence, bank account and marriage. While my financial situation was drastically improving, my marriage was at an end. We sold the advisory practice in 2015 and I joined the investment management team of the acquiring company.  

At this company, I became immersed in the private investment markets. I thrived in the discovery and deal making. While it was very sophisticated, it was the wild west compared to public markets. Private material inside information was freely shared and often times acted on, not by me, of course but definitely by other more respected individuals in the industry. In addition, my development and subsequent management of the individual stock international strategy brought back my currency trading days, as well as the currency questions. By this time Bitcoin was a full-fledged asset.  

Yes. I followed Bitcoin’s meteoric rise and subsequent plummet and then another steady rise. I watched and did nothing. I didn’t buy, I didn’t mine, I didn’t do anything. The reason is in the name and how people described it. It wasn’t a currency. Yes, you could trade it for stuff, but I also once traded a lawnmower for a dirt bike but I didn’t call my lawnmower a currency or a coin of any sort. Bitcoin wasn’t a currency or an asset or anything for that matter. And I believed this because I didn’t take the time to understand was it was. And what it was was the thing that would begin our global society’s shift from centralized to decentralized control. Bitcoin was the first global decentralized medium of exchange, and that was a big deal that I totally missed. Nevertheless, it still didn’t behave like a currency. I began to take an interest when Etherium came on the scene. Smart contracts were genius and a natural aspect of distributed computing. Smart contracts at a minimum allow trustless transactions and these contracts are seeing applications not only in monetary transactions, but also in real estate, other investments and data. A flexible decentralized method of asset transfer without a bank, central computer, secured email or notarized letter has been invented. The implications are massively revolutionary.   

Think about how you live. You might work in a little box cubicle or office that gives you privacy from all that work commotion. Your box office is probably in a box building that is separate from all the other box buildings. You may drive a little box car that protects you from other drivers and road hazards. You probably live in a little box house or apartment that separates you from your neighbors and provides shelter.  Your little box house may have a little box fence to keep out everything that roams your neighborhood including wandering eyes. You surround yourself with all these little boxes because you think they protect you from the dangers of the outside world. This is how humans have been conditioned from the beginning. “Find a cave,” our ancient ancestors would say, “to protect us from the roaming beasts.” We better listen or we’ll be eaten. But what we’ve done over the millennia is to learn that a prison cell is safer than the free world. No one can harm us in our box car. We just lock the door and stomp the gas if threatened. No one can hurt us in our box house because we lock the doors. No one can hurt us in our box office because it’s constructed well and everyone is working. But all of this is not real. The illusion of safety pervades society to a point that we’d rather lock ourselves up in a cage than experience the real world. We are so saturated with fear that we are afraid to live. 

I have described our physical world. A world we have constructed for ourselves. This is our prison of fear. However, we constantly long to reform the prison, so every so often we take out the paint and spackle and redecorate the walls and bars, but remain in the prison. Reform is always within the prison, not a true breaking free from it. To break free we must revolt. We must find within ourselves the truth of our fear, face it for the lie it is and just walk out for we hold the key to our freedom. But the prison doesn’t stop with our box life. No. It continues to our society, all societies for that matter and the concept of governmental rule.  

“They declare that it is unpatriotic and disruptive to question the workings of authority--but patriotic to institute harsh and regressive policies that benefit the wealthy, undermine social programs that serve the needs of the great majority, and subordinate a frightened population to increased state control.” 
― Noam Chomsky  

It is well known, Governments around the world are not its population’s friend. A government is simply a warden burdened with the arduous task of controlling its people. Government leaders use a variety of tactics for this mission including instilling fear because fear is the greatest method of control, they use monetary controls and threats of physical harm among others. Additionally, we as a global population, have no property rights. For example, try not paying taxes and see how long you get to keep that hard-earned money, real estate or even the car you drive. We simply rent everything from the government and actually own nothing. This alone is reason enough for a revolution. Next, think about how well your government represents your desires. I can’t remember a time when the overall theme of the public dissemination of government actions actually aligned with my morals, values and ideologies. The simple fact is that governments all over the world are ineffective at representing our desires and very good a stealing our stuff and bullying us into doing what it wants us to do. It’s clearly designed to control us and force us into submission.  

I’m by no means saying we abolish government and live in anarchy, as wonderful as that sounds. The simple fact is that many people need control. There’s a sense of comfort in not thinking or being responsible for yourself. That’s not you or I but we both know many people who fit that description. For these people are why laws are necessary. But there’s another ‘however’ with that statement. Many laws are unnecessarily harsh or intentionally biased. With a little research, and I mean just one web search, you’ll find many examples of artists, journalists and citizens who were jailed for speaking out about a specific government, its leaders and/or policies. In this single search I turned up numerous examples throughout history of governments expanding the definition of treason to force compliance. Examples of politically motivated and unjust laws are below: 

• Russia recently enacted a law that essentially turns any government critic into a traitor. 
• China’s Document No. 9, the internal CCP directive issued just as Xi came to power, which pointed to China’s flourishing civil society as a risk to the Party’s hold over society. “Advocates of civil society want to squeeze the Party out of leadership of the masses at the local level, even setting the Party against the masses, to the point that their advocacy is becoming a serious form of political opposition,” says the document. Harsh crackdown against human rights lawyers, media outlets, academics, and other such independent thinkers has followed. In 2019 China is 177 of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index  
• In Malta and Lebanon an abductor can be absolved of a crime if he were to marry the victim 
• It is against the law to get divorced in the Philippines 
• Women aren’t allowed to work in Turkey 
• In Yemen, women have no right to leave the house 
• The Patriot act in the U.S. has been used to  criminalize an entire generation of political dissidents, whether they be environmental activists who were rebranded “eco-terrorists,” hacktivists who became “cyberterrorists,” or international solidarity activists who were accused of “material support for terrorism.” 
• It has been deemed lawful for the U.S. government to kill its own citizens because the President and Attorney General say it was so. In the killing of an American citizen in the strike against Anway Al-Aulaqi, “The Attorney General’s statement last month that the use of remotely piloted aircraft and the targeting of Anwar Al-Aulaqi were subject to 'exceptionally rigorous interagency legal review' and determined to be lawful — along with the President’s statement that those actions were legal — only support the conclusion that those actions were lawful, and certainly were not clearly established to be unconstitutional in 2011.” Regardless of your opinion of Al-Aulaqi, stating that it is lawful to kill its own citizens is absurd and will and most likely has lead to further legal killings. 
• Environmental activists In the U.S. have been classified as terrorists. All the U.S. government has to do it label people as terrorists under the vague description and they become felons set to serve hefty prison terms. 
• The U.S. has used an archaic law from the 40’s to prosecute whistleblowers. Seriously? What’s our incentive to speak up? It seems everything we do will end us in jail. 
• The U.S. prosecutes and spies on journalists.  Independent journalist John Knefel, said “The harder it is for journalists to do their job, the easier it is for the government to operate in secrecy.” I’m sure you’re familiar with the individuals involved with leaked documents. 
• the U.S. has the largest incarcerated population at 2.3 million people 

I could write a whole book on the ridiculous, outright racist and politically motivated laws around the world. The fact is that governments write laws to keep us in the system designed to keep us under the most control. What’s even more startling is that people have known this since the dawn of civilization. There have been nearly five thousand known rebellion since the Set rebellion in the second dynasty of Egypt. That’s about one every five years. But as you can see on the chart below, people just like you and I are speaking up against unnecessary rule and dis-representation. 

 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that and there is a better way. Unlike anytime in the history of humankind have we had the ability to govern ourselves. Technology has progressed to the point where we as a global society can function at an optimal rate and experience a dramatic increase in satisfaction and happiness without the need for leaders, representatives and governments. We have that ability today. We simply need to put the various pieces together with the help of economists, developers, political scientists, attorneys and thinkers that will form the system of the future global society free from oppression, poverty and significantly reduced threats to our physical lives. This is the beginning of my greatest adventure to impact every human life on this lovely planet. The beginning of the free age.

~~ 

I sat at my computer looking out the window onto the rustling creek in the distance. I was writing a fantasy fiction story for my pre-teen boys and came upon a section where I had the opportunity to describe a crumbling society. Calhoun, the character in the story, was searching for an alien crystal that caused his land to flourish. It was stolen by a vicious demon who used it to control giant lizards. The lizards and demon are of no consequence to my life at the time but I did describe how a group of individuals convinced Calhoun’s people to separate into four tribes. Each led by one of the leaders. They then began to spread fear within their individual tribes that they had to protect their resources from the other tribes. Ultimately, this led to war that decimated the male population as well as seasons of crops and herds. On the brink of famine, the people chose to ignore the leaders and the system of control they developed, joined the other tribes in unity and reformed their previous harmonious society. After I read this section a few times I realized that if we, in the real world, had a better option than the obtrusive and oppressive system we have today, we could simply choose the better system and ignore the existing one. Ultimately, the system in which we live only exists because we choose it. The leaders, courts and governments only have power because we allow them to hold power over us. If we were to create a better self-governing system, we could just say no to the current one and say yes to the new one.  

It’s as simple as that I said to myself. The next question I had was, how would it look? How would a global economy function if we replaced the banking system with a distributed ledger system? How would transactions work with a digital currency? How would property rights be registered and secured? How would we maintain medical records and all the other information we consume on a minute basis? The new system would need to incorporate all aspects of modern-day life. But not only that, it would also eliminate a significant amount of inefficiencies and add several additional measures of security and prosperity. There wasn’t one reason I could think of that went against a technological based self-governed global society. So, I did next what any astute analyst would do, I created a spreadsheet. 

This spreadsheet has several tabs with the following titles and descriptions:  

• Implementation Steps which served as a guide as to the process to achieve the intended result of the project 
• Overview: The original sheet with all the high level notes from the initial brainstorm 
• Identity: identifies methods to attain a secure self-sovereign identity  
• Economy: Where the meat of the system lies because ultimately everything revolves around the acquisition and transfer of wealth. A detailed layout of everything from the development of an asset backed medium of exchange that to registration of property rights. This sheet also identifies a solution to poverty. 
• Technology: this one dives into a detailed analysis of what we have and what is needed to implement the plan which includes distributed computing, artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technology, decentralized finance initiatives, decentralized networks for information exchange (decentralized internet). It addresses financial exchange, property rights, voting, contracts, management and ethics. 
• There are two sheets containing research on historical and recent rebellions, revolutions and protests. 
• Political Structures: Identifies all the political structures of humanity and suggests we consider a system that utilizes aspects of Constitutional federalist commonwealth and autarkys. 
• Psychology: Change, human nature, power, fear, cooperation, money and economics 
• Country stability 
• Population management 
• Military and spending 

 

Any change in our society begins with economics. Let’s face it, money and power drive everything and power is most often derived from wealth. Hitting this project from an economics point of view is where I started. I asked myself a few questions. The first was what form of exchange would work for everyone? It would need to be instantly and safely transferable with no volatility in the initial rollout phase. This is the primary anxiety people have today when considering adopting a blockchain based cryptocurrency. They all are just too volatile or essentially worthless in the global market. In my opinion and not that of everyone, I would prefer it to be a store of value rather than fiat or solely blockchain based. This is the crux of the whole system. Create a global medium of exchange that actually carries value. It can only be accomplished if it is backed by assets. Several cryptocurrency startups have devised strategies to have a “stable coin”. I researched several. One of the most damaging aspects to each of these brilliant strategies was the local government regulating them as securities or some other form that disassociates them from actual currencies. Government regulation has forever crushed the hopes and dreams of its people in the name of consumer protection.  

One aspect of commodity-collateralized stable coins is that they are inherently centralized and add a significant amount of counterparty risk and unnecessary control. Additionally, regulatory bodies are classifying them as investments due to the commodity contract collateral. Crypto-collateralized stable coins, while decentralized, depend on the success of the underlying crypto-collateral that may be significantly unstable. Some non-collateralized stable coins are managed in a decentralized way to operate in a supply band to maintain stability which is a favorable development but fails the store of value test. You will find a variety of centralized stable coins issues by large banks and even governments. These, of course, don’t fit my decentralized model.  

In the history of humanity, there has been only one decentralized peer to peer medium of exchange – bartering. That’s right. When we trade a cow for crops, we are utilizing the most decentralized system of economics. While not the most efficient, it certainly carries the characteristics I am looking for. Clearly the cow and crops carry value. These trades are peer to peer and hopefully everyone is happy with the trade. The only problem is that maybe I don’t want to exchange my cow for your crops. Maybe I would prefer a mountain bike or a month of rent. Here lies the problem with non-currency decentralized trade.  

Now the questions moved from what form of trade works for everyone to how to transform a person’s assets whether it’s fiat currency, a house or cattle into a medium of exchange. The solution lies in developing a personal account or wallet that contains a person’s assets. These valuable assets are then made available to transfer on a percentage basis.  

“What did you just say?” my cousin asked. Tommy mines and trades crypto currencies. He’s the closest person to me that might have a thought on this idea.  

I replied, “I want to make portions of people’s assets transferable.” He looked at me strangely. I continued, “Not only do we have the technological capability to use portions of assets to trade for other things, I mean, securitization of assets has been around for many years, but this is slightly different. We’re not securitizing assets and selling the portions. It’s more like a continuous loan with no due date on those assets. 

“For example,” I continued, “let’s say I’m the first one to use this system and I move all my assets including the cash into my digital wallet. My wallet now has a value equal to the value of those assets in the currency they are priced in. I would now be able to trade the value of that account with anyone I choose without immediately parting with my assets. I essentially create a peer network. As I continue to make exchanges around those assets and add more assets such as income, the account naturally fluctuates according to the implied value of the combined assets. This would in a sense place a value on my individual currency depending on the quantity of the medium of exchange that value determined.” 

 “That sounds interesting,” he replied. “But what happens in a sharp downturn where some assets, such as your home, don’t decline as rapidly? What happens when someone spends the value of their account when the hard to value assets haven’t declined in turn?” 

I replied, “This would be addressed with an available spending amount based on a percentage of the hard to value assets. So your house that is valued at three hundred thousand euros would provide maybe one hundred thousand euros worth of spending value. This would also prevent a negative account balance where someone would be forced to turn over property as would happen in a loan. When the account value goes to zero, they would lose the ability to trade until they added additional assets or the underlying assets appreciated in value. Additionally, some difficult to value assets such as your herd of cattle, may not be an accepted asset in the system and would have to be managed outside of this transaction system. However, those cattle could be transferred to other parties in whole using smart contracts on this DLT network.” 

“I understand how smart contracts work where the transaction is announced to the network, consensus from each party is achieved, proof of work, stake or history would facilitate the construction of the block then the transaction would be complete, but I’m still not following you on the asset transfers,” he said. 

“I understand,” I said with a smile. “This is the most interesting part to me. You see, the concept of property rights is grossly and intentionally obfuscated. But how we change that and get it out from under the local, state and federal control is to create a peer-based registration system where each peer recognizes the ownership of the property. This can easily be accomplished within the DLT network we are creating.” 

“You’ve really been thinking this through, haven’t you?” he asked. 

“I have. I’ve been dedicating at least one day a week to it for a while now. I haven’t felt I could do more than that because I have to pay my bills. I really feel called to do this, but I really need more people with relevant experience on the project.” 

“I can’t help you there. I just own trailer parks and mine every once in a while.” 

 

We let the conversation go, but I knew what I had to do. I no longer was asking what I need to do to make this happen, I began asking who can help make this happen. I began searching my network for anyone related to payments, transactions, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and even those that I regularly have interesting intellectual conversations with. 

 

This led me to an interesting conversation with a software development friend of mine. Our relationship is not very close. His son was on my son’s soccer team several years ago. So rather than jumping into the whole decentralized government conversation, I started with asking him if he thought people on a large scale will ever use cryptocurrencies as a main currency.  

“In emerging economies, yes,” was Ravi’s reply. He then followed with, “There are too many regulations in strong economies. That’s the blocking point. I have bitcoin but have nowhere to use it.” 

I then stepped a little into my ideology, “But cryptocurrencies can’t really be regulated, right? I mean, governments are attempting but ultimately if people choose they will find a way to make it happen.” 

“Who prints money controls money. With Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there is no money. There were ATM’s supported by VISA, but that completely defeats the purpose.” 

“I agree and I’ve seen them,” I replied. 

When I mentioned an asset backed option, he replied, “Asset backed is still questionable to me. The deal structure becomes complicated. Who writes the contracts? Who underwrites the assets? Values have to be identified.” 

“Right. All good questions looking for answers.” 

“Any third party involved will be government certified.” 

“What if we used independent third parties who’s interest lies in the integrity of the firm such as those that underwrite and value private funds?” 

“Still a lot of questions,” he replied and then the conversation trailed off. 

 

I then reached out to a few social network contacts with no luck in starting the conversation. I then engaged one of the smartest financial and economic thinkers I know in a text message. He said the cryptocurrency that replaces fiat currencies must first replace gold because gold is a store of value but not a medium of exchange. I agreed and the conversation ended shortly after without a reply from him. That’s frustrating I thought to myself. I just revealed a revolutionary idea and I didn’t get a response but I like how he was thinking. 

 

I reached out to several in my network that I didn’t have a personal relationship with no success. I found it very hard to start the conversation with anyone. I was on my own again. I began laying out various questions that needed to be answered. One was that I still haven’t answered is, how does it prevent system arbitrage between the state and this DLT system I am developing? In the beginning, I suppose, assets will be required to be dual registered until enough people are using the DLT system and enough people trust it to register their assets only on the system. For some time, I think governments will use the system to track its population’s assets for tax purposes, but at some point when the world chooses, they will no longer be able to assess taxes on those assets. Are you aware that the average effective tax rate including sales tax and VAT is around 47% for developed countries? I don’t think any government represents its people well enough to deserve anywhere near half of its population’s income. 

I then thought about those people who spend down their account and can no longer make transactions. My solution here also addresses global poverty. The DLT system I am developing will require a decentralized network to function. This will have costs. It makes sense that we use existing DLT structures in the form of compensation for users doing certain things. In this instance, people who use their phones, computers and personal servers to keep the network up will be compensated. I feel compensation per unit of data would be an appropriate measure. Think of all the mobile phones in third world countries. This is often the only source of internet. What if all of these phones and strategically placed extenders facilitated a peer to peer mesh network? What if we paid them to do it? RightMesh has actually created this technology so using it or developing something similar would be simple. This is an example of tech that is already available and in user’s hands. However, RightMesh fails in the way every blockchain company fails. They use RMESH cryptocurrency to fund aspects of their for profit organization rather than truly developing a decentralized structure.  

With this compensation structure to power the network in place, everyone has a method of income which will help dig them out of any spending issues they have. It would be an automatic work feature where everyone is required to be a connected node in the network providing the necessary decentralized network. 

 

I then began thinking further on the valid assets and determined if you can verify it and value it, it can be registered: Real estate, autos, equities, bonds, jewelry, art, guns, collectibles, etc. but like my friend Ravi suggested, this will require trusted unbiased agents to verify ownership and legitimacy if comprehensive registration isn't possible. This would be time and labor intensive for non-liquid assets without public real time valuation which opens the system up for fraud and corruption. I then thought that since we are only making a percentage of these assets available for trade, maybe we use a proxy valuation such as those available on real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia where available? This seemed like a simple solution. A more complicated one would be to develop it ourselves based on publicly available information which I can only assume is how Zillow and Trulia do it. Nevertheless, this isn’t real time information and results in a significant valuation lag. 

Civil conflicts, I determined, would be settled by a jury of peers much like the current jury selection and review system in the U.S. system. 

A small fee equal to the costs incurred would be deducted per transfer to pay for development and maintenance expenses of which private companies would be hired by the users. 

The value of the units for each account would culminate into a total value when in comparison with global fiat currencies and assts. For example, my 300k account is valued in U.S. dollars, while Jay’s 500k account is valued in Euros and Chris’s is in Yen. Each of these together form a value based on the weighted valuations of the basket of underlying currencies therefore providing a stable valuation that is backed by assets. Fiat currencies will be worth their asset backed value and most likely go away completely as everything transitions to the new system. 

 

But why would anyone link their stable financial institution account to this new form of registration and exchange? Why would anyone register their assets when they trust the current institutions? Would they do it solely on the concept of decentralization? Some will but not a majority. Some would do it for the monetization of illiquid assets, but still not a majority. Some will do it for trustless blockchain transactions and some will do it to be on a single platform to trade their assets. But what will get the majority to say yes to this system?  

There are over 2 billion people in unstable countries. If these two billion people were to register their assets and begin exchange on this system, and we were to institute a constitutional provision within it, they would form the largest country by population. While the political ramifications would be significant, I don’t expect 2 billion people from these seventy-one countries to align their beliefs and form a functioning country with no political geography. However, this system would be revolutionary for them. They would no longer be controlled by repressive and/or incompetent governments with monetary and financial measures. These governments wouldn’t be able to affect the DLT system we have created therefore securing these people’s assets. It wouldn’t, however, immediately lessen physical threats some of these governments place upon its population. It may, in fact in the short term, increase the rate and ferocity of abusive acts in order to lessen or eliminate the threat the population can wield upon a small group of loosely organized leaders. Understanding this wouldn’t crush a government funded by sovereign oil or other assets, but it would be a start. 

The problem with people from unstable countries is that if their accounts are backed by unstable currencies, then they are no better off than they were before. The solution I came up with here is to form a normal account that will exchange gold for their useless currencies. For example, someone from Venezuela joins the network. Their currency is currently experiencing hyper-inflation. No matter what the government does, the currency becomes almost immediately worthless. This disheartened Venezuelan exchanges her Bolivars and instantly receives its value in gold. This is now the asset that values her account. She receives gold because the exchange account exchanged Bolivar to US Dollars to gold. Now that citizen has a valuable asset with a known public market value she will be able to trade for the things she needs and wants…assuming more Venezuelans also join the network. 

This, if you’re paying attention, requires some finesse in structuring. The reason why is that there is approximately $90.4 Trillion in global currency while there is only just under 8 Trillion of gold. Clearly we can’t exchange every dollar, euro and yuan with gold. A few options exist that could remedy this ailment. One is to create a master account that will convert each unit of currency into an asset such as a commodity, real estate or tradeable securities. The problem with this is the ownership of that account. My first thought and still holds to be my favorite option is to make this account the property of everyone on the network. Taking the previous examples of my $300k deposit, my friends €500 and our Venezuelan amiga; if our combined deposit value is $850k and that master account purchased equal amounts of gold, oil and shares of a real estate fund, the owners of the account would be these three individuals weighted according to their percentage contribution. Alternatively, one could choose to defer ownership of the master account and just use their individual assets which would be valued relative to the master account for exchange purposes. While this would present a complicated relationship, it would simply be a matter of data and math to make it happen. 

Furthermore, the master account could function as a market maker. For example, under the assumption it is the main asset base for the entire network, it would be constantly seeking assets. If that were the case, members of the network would have a steady counterparty in which to trade assets. However, it is unlikely the assets would be readily sold from the master account. The necessary function of asset managers would be necessary to get the best use out of the varying assets. These managers would be selected on a bid basis and voted upon by a council of peers which is always changing with no terms or compensation which would reduce the chance of fraud, coercion and corruption. 

Public entities would function much like this manager model by becoming private organizations that submit proposals for public or localized vote. For example, an entity submits to local area that a road needs to be built. Public votes. If accepted, then other companies are able to bid. Then a vote for a company is held. The winning company enters a payment transfer request per payment schedule. This transition from public to private continues a majority of the job infrastructure that exists under the current inefficient system. We still need managers just not representatives. We are attempting to decentralize control, save money and get the things done that we actually care about. 

I know what you’re thinking, Countries with natural resources, how do we transition those? Many of those country’s population are poor and jobless. They’re daily struggle to provide for themselves goes unsung while the government and its representatives are swimming in wealth. It’s very simple. The natural resource management of that country becomes a company or several companies where revenues and ownership go to inhabitants of the former country on record of secession and the management team is hired. This new population income can be assessed for private company projects that are passed by votes. Additionally, it will bring much of the world’s population out of poverty. When such a large percentage of the population become consumers, the entire world benefits economically. 

“These entities won’t release control of those assets,” you might say. 

“Of course they will,” I’ll reply. “When the population of that country learns they now own the assets, they will ensure the turnover happens.” 

“So you are recommending a revolution on a global scale.” 

“This is what I’m saying. We are powerful as a group but weak individually. Separate we are easily be coerced, manipulated, defeated and controlled. Together, we will rule our own destinies.” 

 

While there are many unanswered questions, the last I’ll discuss at this time is the issue with regulatory bodies. Governments will not like this plan. I mean, I am trying to replace them with common sense. I am trying to eliminate the corruption and waste that has burdened our people for thousands of years. I’m trying to free everyone from oppression and, I have a legitimate plan. Seriously, it can’t get any more dire for them. Additionally, I have the most dangerous weapon, nothing to lose. No one knows me and no one will think it will work. That’s why it will work…but we still have to get past the initial phase of attempted regulation like they have already done with blockchain projects. 

 

My plan for this will be complicated to execute but simple in concept, I’ll just get everyone to say no. Easy right? Everyone just says no at the same time because now they have something better to say yes to. Awesome! Let’s go build it now!  

“But wait,” you say while laughing. “Everyone is just gonna say no to the way things have always been and choose some newfangled techno-controlled way to be governed?”  

“Yeah. Sure. Why not?” 

“So everyone will just stop paying taxes?” 

“Yep.” 

“That’ll never work.” 

“You only think it won’t work because it hasn’t been done in a long time.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“There have been secession from oppressive rule throughout history. This one will be no different. Once people realize how stupid we’ve been and that there’s a better structured option with few repercussions, they will say yes to the one I’m creating and just ignore whatever the current administration is saying.” 

“Whoever does that will go to jail.” 

“Maybe some will but their sentence will be brief and worthwhile. The transition most likely won’t go smoothly in the beginning. However, you must realize that the executive branch, legislators, parliaments, dictators, tyrants, monarchies and courts only have power because we deem that power possible. Once we no longer grant them power, we will no longer have to suffer their insulting rule. We will structure within this network a peer-based review process that resembles and may often be composed entirely of the existing court system. The legislative branch, as in the U.S. system will also be peer based while the executive branch will consist of you, I and the rest of the world’s people. Various agencies will become management units that serve the will of the people, not the will of the executive branch and themselves. 

None of this will happen overnight. But to be successful, I believe it has to happen quickly. To do so requires a well planned and executed launch. There must be a period of hype about what is to come. This will include messages about how bad things are and how good life can be if we are offered a better solution. This hype period will culminate in a massive sign on event. The bigger the number of people we can get to join the movement the better the transition will be.  

Once this happens, we will have a large unified voice that will say to our leaders, “You no longer have power over us. We no longer do what you say.”  

At this time, we will hold the power. Our individual votes will cast our future. No longer will we be at the mercy of anyone else to determine our fate. In this great sign on, we will have a document crafted by a consortium of global legal experts. It will be a declaration of individual independence. In it will be an agreement to be bound by a council of peers to uphold the highest law of the new society or of the local jurisdiction, whichever is more morally correct, with the understanding that morality is subjective to each culture. But none the less is appropriate. This agreement will be binding in current jurisdictions to comply with current law. This will make the transition smooth without causing panic or creating a lawless society. This event will create the first ever constitutional federalist commonwealth of the world. Where do these names come from? The new society should have a constitution that drives it in a direction of freedom and progress. Federalist because it is in two parts; the global entity that is us all and each individual region that is essentially self-governed by the local population that will interpret the constitution in a way that most benefits its people in a way that benefits the entire world. Commonwealth indicates that all decisions are made for the benefit of progress of the human race toward unity, freedom and prosperity. 

 

Many people will seek to avoid the brief period of chaos to come. Many will believe anarchy is eminent. They are right, but anarchy isn’t the problem or the solution or the appropriate term to describe the representation-less society we are forming. There will be order, there will be laws and rules to follow because let’s face it, most people need this structure otherwise they will go crazy and do all sorts of crazy things. Ultimately, this movement is solely about decentralizing power and placing it directly in the hands of those under the power. It isn’t about destabilizing any specific area or toppling corrupt governments. It’s not about gaining power or support from other regions. It’s not about choosing different leadership that will only lead us down the same path of oppression. It’s all about freeing us all to choose the way our society is made and managed. It’s about letting people choose a path that suits them. It’s about providing a means of income that isn’t stolen from people by those who trick us into thinking they are doing for us what we could be doing for ourselves. It’s about bringing us all together under one roof that allows us to be as separate as we want but doesn’t force us to be so. It’s not about political wrangling that puts us at odds with each other. It’s about us joining together to do the things that we feel is most important for all of us, the planet and progress as a human race. And progress, as it is, can’t be significant if we’re all fighting each other over stupid ideologies. I’ve been around the world. I’ve spoken to people, families, business owners and politicians. In our core, we are all the same. We all want certainty. We all want variety. We all want love and significance. We all want to feel secure. We get none of those in any government led society on this planet. There is only one way forward and this is what I am building.