Will Pandemic Protocols Establish a Utopian Economy?

The third article in the 3-part series “Down the Crypto Rabbit Hole”

The third article in a series of 3 by Gabriel Dusil, Co-founder & Board Member, Adel Ecosystem Ltd., Isle of Man

▲ Borderless Citizens™ in the 21st Century

▲ What is Driving Crypto and the Creation of the Virtual State™?

▲ Will Pandemic Protocols Establish a Utopian Economy?

Abstract

The evolution of crypto can be analyzed from the essential components of design, development, and deployment. For modern systems to function, they require a combination of people, process and technology. These elements also set the foundations of modern innovation. The crypto sphere has created a radical redistribution of the social-economic power hierarchy. This power hierarchy is seemingly upside-down when compared to the “real-world”. Process and technology have evolved to code-based governance, and people can be represented as virtual entities. What does this mean to blockchain innovation, and how will crypto evolve with a continued redistribution of power and wealth?

In this third and final article of this series, the authors explore the creation of the Virtual State™ fueled by crypto ideologies, and its underlying cryptoversification of Internet services.

Contents

Abstract 1

Contents 1

MultiStakeholders in Cyber 2

MultiStakeholders of Crypto 2

Cyber Principles 3

Borderless Citizen™ 4

Virtual State™ 4

Are You Ready for the Future? 5

Gabriel Dusil, B. Eng. 6

Tags 6

Endnotes 6

MultiStakeholders in Cyber

UNESCO continues to advocate a multistakeholder governance approach to the internet. This principle is based on the inclusion of several bodies cooperating to maintain a net neutrality approach to the Internet and cyberspace.

In contrast, the crypto community does not share this mindset and rather focuses on a tribal approach to governance. But the crypto community cannot evade the governance discussion for much longer. In these embryonic markets, the absence of standards leads to market fragmentation, a lack of consensus, and even chaos. In this scenario, all players of the power hierarchy suffer.

Evolving crypto to mainstream audiences will require a similar approach advocated by UNESCO, namely a multistakeholder governance. This will involve the participation of several private and public-sector stakeholders. Governance will be important in the standardization of technology and processes. Actors will have the freedom to follow or oppose governance. In any event, by establishing a consensus, the market has the potential to scale and mature. Standardizing technology requires convincing microbodies to follow an approach that is beneficial to all parties involved, as well as the markets they are trying to penetrate.

Initiatives will need to be built to invite appropriate parties to the table and establish a consensus. To crypto’s benefit, an established mandate exists in cyberspace and may be an effective model for crypto as well. The challenge is to bring disparate parties representing the public sphere, to the same table as those representing private advocacy groups[i].

MultiStakeholders of Crypto

Thousands of computers hold copies of the bitcoin blockchain, making the infrastructure resilient and persistent. Blockchain technology is designed to be immune to shut down, even to those who created it. As previously discussed, this is the essence of Pandemic Protocols, and this technology is at the center of modern decentralized infrastructures. Another aspect playing out in the decentralized movement is more focused on the role that people play.

Components of the internet are owned and governed by different parties. In the same manner, nodes in a blockchain are globally owned and distributed. Collectively they represent the blockchain, but no single party owns the infrastructure. Distributed ownership is manageable within a single blockchain since code governance is the presiding medium of its rules. But scaling crypto to mainstream users requires a balanced engine of People, Process, and Technology, and this will require a dynamic shift in governance.

The central issue is that blockchain rules are established by “tribes”. Meaning that they each have their own community and their own micro-governance, but other blockchains are considered rivals. This tribal nature may be a reflection of market immaturity, but this is no excuse. Tribal societies lack the unity needed for mass adoption. Even real-world competitors work to agree on standards to expand their market potential. With no consensus, the crypto community will not attract a mainstream audience and risks becoming a niche

[i] Advocacy group (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_group)

player, relegated to the depths of the darknet[i]. For this reason, the crypto sphere is at the right market maturity to support Multistakeholder governance.

Globalization required consensus, and crypto is not immune to the prerequisite of standardization. Mature industries over the centuries have evolved globally because they accepted industry standards. The ITU is a testament to that success. We would be a different word if utilities such as electricity used a variant of voltages and frequencies in each city. The automotive industry would be very different if cars had fifty variants for petrol. A proven sales tactic states, “Give customer ten choices and they won’t know which one to choose, but give them two, and they will choose one”. When industry leaders agree on standards, then consumers have easier decisions. Industry leaders have a responsibility to harmonize the market and create the foundations for innovation and scalability. Competition still plays a role, but society typically embraces the simplicity and elegance of standards. For this reason, it is the responsibility for the infrastructure players to work towards the same goal.

[i] “Darknet (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet)

The next evolution in crypto is standards and consensus through multistakeholder governance.

Cyber Principles

The formation of the internet has evolved considerably over three decades. This infrastructure is now considered by UNESCO as a basic human right, symbolic of the air human’s breath or access to fresh water. But the battle continues on the Net Neutrality[i] front with varying opinions depending on political or social precedence. In as much as water is not a free commodity, the internet has similar actors wanting control.

[i] Net Neutrality (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality)

Multistakeholder governance continues to be a defendant on a world’s stage of plaintiffs.

These principles that have driven the success of the internet to date, are just as important as its future goals[i]:

● Human Rights

● Open Tech Opportunities

● Accessible to All

● MultiStakeholder Engagement.

Bitcoin’s introduction may be considered a radical shift in this vision or it may be an evolution of the ideology of cyberspace as a whole. It could be argued that crypto’s overwhelming success has not been due to its underlying technology, but because of its ideology. For example, many technologies were groundbreaking innovations over the past decades, such as media streaming, social media, and peer-to-peer communications, but none have rivaled blockchain in crossing economic, social and geographic barriers. As with many revolutions, its origins evoke a chicken and egg debate: Did Satoshi Nakamoto[ii] awaken this crypto ideology, or did society already evolve along the path?

What is clear is that crypto takes the notion of openness, accessibility, and freedom to a new level. This includes the residence to centralization, big brother oversight, and proprietary systems. In this sense, crypto is often synonymous with Internet v2.0[iii]. Crypto may very well be a direct consequence of Net Neutrality, and the evolution of the Internet’s multi-stakeholder governance.

[i] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, “What If We All Governed the Internet” (UNESCO Publishing, 2017, https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/what_if_we_all_governed_internet_en.pdf) page 12

[ii] “Satoshi Nakamoto” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto)

[iii] Sandeep Soni, “After Internet, it’s Blockchain Internet 2.0” (entrepreneur.com, 5 February 2017, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288715)

Borderless Citizen™

The internet has been directly responsible for transforming industries, such as entertainment, communications, and computing. They were subjects of cybersification, whereby service-layers were created on top of the Internet’s protocols to facilitate global adoption. This cybersification trend helped to break down social and economic borders of commerce, information flow, and cross-border commercialization. Cryptoversificationis a newer trend in the removal of big brother oversight from social activities while removing the vulnerabilities of central control by utilizing the resilience of pandemic protocols (Part II). This crypto movement can also be attributed to the disruption of nationalized currencies, with alternative cryptocurrencies. To the discomfort of regulatory bodies, the crypto sphere has enabled anonymity for virtually all behavior residing on the internet. In this sense, cryptoversification has invented the Borderless Citizen™.

Cryptoversification has evolved social interconnections to a whole new level.

Over two decades cyber flattened the earth by removing political, legal, and economic, borders. The Borderless Citizen™ continues this trend by opening opportunities for:

● Education — Developing countries can utilize internet access to access resources from top educational institutions in the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation[i] focuses on improving the public education system so that underprivileged students can gain the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed.

● Employment — Many roles currently purely reside in cyberspace. For example, decentralized crypto projects are often built by anonymous members paid in various quantities of cryptocurrencies.

● Information Flow — Global sharing extends knowledge to all corners of the earth and helps developing countries to connect to developed countries. Google was founded on the ability to ask the right questions and get to the best answers as efficiently as possible.

● Innovation — Talent is everywhere, but many employers don’t have the resources that find and utilize them. Cyber helps utilize untapped talent without the constraints of physical borders.

● eCommerce — Two billion people in the world are unbanked[ii]. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of developing countries will inevitably increase once the remaining 3.4 billion users are connected[iii].

[i] “K12 Education“ (Gates Foundation, http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/)

[ii] “Global Findex” (World Bank, http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/globalfindex)

[iii] “Internet World Stats” (https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)

● Technology — Cryptoversification is a social movement built on the success of Cybersification. Society will inevitably benefit from the projects that survive their respective proof of concepts.

Cyberspace is the link that connects developing countries to the West.

The Borderless Citizen™ is a virtual representation of society in behavior and character. The Borderless Citizen™ is a demonstration of freedom, autonomy, and anonymity, with all the advantages and shortcomings it may represent.

Virtual State™

The Borderless Citizen™ paradigm is not complete without considering its evolution. If cryptoversification sets the stage for anonymity, decentralization, and autonomy, then these individuals will need a virtual playground to exist. An existence that is entirely virtual, personified by fortified rules. Many actors are already virtual citizens in compartmentalized cyberspace. They may not be recognized as a Borderless Citizen™, but their identity and purpose are virtual — even if they eat, sleep and breath in the real world.

The crypto generation may not be the creator of the Virtual State™, but its ideology will play a foundational role in its creation. The desire for anonymity and freedom will be driving forces to the creation of a future virtual existence. One where the voice of state authorities will be boycotted.

Activities in the Virtual State™ may imply impunity from shameful behavior. But every system still needs its own rules, and code of conduct. A system is unusable without defined constraints. For example, the underlying mantra in the real-world is “What is not forbidden is allowed”. In other words, civil society can do anything unless it is forbidden by law. In the Virtual State™, the challenge will be to programmatically define acceptable constraints that maintain functional freedoms while programming rules that don’t inhibit freedom. The unregulated nature of crypto criminality and fraud may only scratch the surface to the wild west that the Virtual State™ may introduce.

The notion of actors playing out their lives in a Virtual State™ may seem far-fetched, but if technology evolves to where consciousness can be downloaded to a computer, then science fiction will become reality. The “2045 Initiative”[i] promotes research to understand the human brain to the point where memories and consciousness can be copied and stored electronically[ii], predicting that within this century a virtual existence will be possible. If this comes to fruition, then a multistakeholder approach will be needed to consider the legalities of a virtual existence.

Are You Ready for the Future?

What does crypto mean for the future? If bitcoin is the first currency, “By the people, for the people, and of the people”[iii], what will the next decade bring, and how will society evolve in the presence of Pandemic Protocols?

Looking into crypto’s crystal ball, is the expectation utopian or dystopian? Utopian in a sense that citizens are protected, safe, and can maintain their privacy. Where citizens are free, and human rights are respected. Or will the dystopian vision prevail where big brother watches every step? Chaos, anarchy, and corruption are waiting around every corner. Where monopolies manipulate markets and there is lawlessness throughout the land?

[i] 2045 Initiative (http://2045.com/)

[ii] Bryan Johnson, “Rebooting The Brain | Bryan Johnson | Web Summit Keynote 2018” (YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-rO2YY7wQ)

[iii] “Gettysburg Address” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address)

Crypto will not be Internet’s successor, no more than the Internet has replaced the real world. What is more practical is the evolution of its ideology, and associated components, weaving further into the economic fabric of our society.

“Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral”

Melvin Kranzberg[i]

[i] Melvin Kranzberg (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Kranzberg)

One can argue that tomorrow’s reality will reside in tandem, in the real and virtual world. New technology often invites a polarizing illusion of the future. This is unrealistic because it is not the technology that polarizes society, it is people. “…there is empirical evidence that no technology can turn ‘vertical relationship of governance into horizontal’[i]. People are the strongest and weakest link in the social equation. Today’s reality is equally utopian and dystopian. Technology will not tilt the balance in one way or the other.

[i] Jan van Dijk, Anneleen Winters-van Beek, “The Perspective of Network Government: The Struggle Between Hierarchies, Markets and Networks as Model of Governance In Contemporary Government.” (IOS Press, 2009, In A. Meijer & al., ICTs, Citizens and Governance: After the Hype!, https://www.utwente.nl/nl/bms/cw/bestanden/theperspectiveofnetworkgovernment.pdf) 253

Gabriel Dusil, B. Eng.

Gabriel is the co-Founder and General Manager at Adel Ecosystem Ltd. He is a seasoned sales and marketing expert with over 25 years in senior positions at Motorola, VeriSign (acquired by Symantec in 2010), and SecureWorks (acquired by Dell in 2011), and Cognitive Security (acquired by Cisco in 2013). He is a blockchain entrepreneur, with strengths in international business strategy. Gabriel has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Canada and expert knowledge in blockchain incubation, cloud computing, IT security, and video streaming, and Over the Top Content (OTT). Gabriel also runs his own company, Euro Tech Startups s.r.o, creator of MyKoddi, and manages a professional blog.

▲ Incubator ▲ adel.io

▲ LinkedIn ▲ www.linkedin.com/in/gabrieldusil

▲ Twitter ▲ twitter.com/dusilg

▲ SlideShare ▲ www.slideshare.net/gdusil

▲ Pro Blog ▲ dusil.com

▲ Consulting ▲ eurostartups.tech

▲ Behance ▲ www.behance.net/dusil

▲ YouTube ▲ www.youtube.com/user/gdusil

Tags

Blockchain, Borderless Citizen, Borderless Citizen™, crypto, Cryptocurrency, cybersphere, cryptoversification, Cybersification, Decentralization, decentralized, Ethereum, Gabriel Dusil, dusil.com, Governance, incubator, Innovation, Multi Stakeholder, Multi-Stakeholder Governance, MultiStakeholder, virtual currency, Virtual State, Virtual State™, UNESCO , MyKoddi

Endnotes

[1] Advocacy group (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_group)

[1] “Darknet (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet)

[1] Net Neutrality (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality)

[1] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, “What If We All Governed the Internet” (UNESCO Publishing, 2017, https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/what_if_we_all_governed_internet_en.pdf) page 12

[1] “Satoshi Nakamoto” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto)

[1] Sandeep Soni, “After Internet, it’s Blockchain Internet 2.0” (entrepreneur.com, 5 February 2017, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288715)

[1] “K12 Education“ (Gates Foundation, http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/)

[1] “Global Findex” (World Bank, http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/globalfindex)

[1] “Internet World Stats” (https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)

[1] 2045 Initiative (http://2045.com/)

[1] Bryan Johnson, “Rebooting The Brain | Bryan Johnson | Web Summit Keynote 2018” (YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-rO2YY7wQ)

[1] “Gettysburg Address” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address)

[1] Melvin Kranzberg (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Kranzberg)

[1] Jan van Dijk, Anneleen Winters-van Beek, “The Perspective of Network Government: The Struggle Between Hierarchies, Markets and Networks as Model of Governance In Contemporary Government.” (IOS Press, 2009, In A. Meijer & al., ICTs, Citizens and Governance: After the Hype!, https://www.utwente.nl/nl/bms/cw/bestanden/theperspectiveofnetworkgovernment.pdf) 253