Universal Basic Stake

A Blockchain-based Proposal for Universal Basic Income

“No penalty on earth will stop people from stealing, if it is their only way of getting food. It would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood.” — Raphael Hythlodaeus (Book: Utopia, 1516)

Universal basic income (UBI), also known as the basic-income guarantee, is a form of social security that guarantees a certain amount of money to every citizen within a given governed population, without having to pass a test or fulfill a work requirement. The idea of a state-run Basic Income dates back to the early 16th century, when Sir Thomas More argued in Utopia that every person should receive a guaranteed income.

In sum, UBI proposes that governments would pay every adult citizen a salary, regardless of wealth, employment income or if they worked at all. This would theoretically solve a host of endemic economic problems, from poverty to chronic joblessness—events that will likely elevate in the coming century. UBI could spur productivity, improve health, alleviate poverty, reduce crime, raise education standards, and improve quality of life. It’s also especially relevant, given the reality of automation taking over more and more jobs.

Milton Friedman, a renowned economist, supported UBI, reasoning that it would help to eradicate poverty. He said:

The virtue of [a negative income tax] is precisely that it treats everyone the same way… there’s none of this unfortunate discrimination among people.

Martin Luther King was also an advocate of UBI, as he believed that a basic income was a necessity that would help to reduce poverty, regardless of race, religion or social class. In King’s last book before his assassination, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he said:

I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.

While great in theory, it’s not as simple in practice.

There are a number of critical questions to address. For instance:

Can countries around the world afford it?

How much income should be distributed?

Should it be limited to the minimum needed?

Should it be variable and who decides?

Would a higher amount be more effective?

Would UBI prompt people to lose their motivation to work?

Is it enough to address job displacement caused by automation?

What level of civil unrest will result if it is cut?

Will it make people lazy?

It basically comes down to three factors: Cost, Amount, and Receipt. In this we see both challenges and opportunities. At Alfa-Enzo, we believe UBI is not only possible, we can deliver it in 2019.

While many have concluded that it can’t be done under today’s societal and economic condition, we believe otherwise. There is no time to waste, and with today’s technology we can get there in the next 1–3 years. In order to do so, we propose to create a virtuous formula that would be more universal, infinitely scalable, and fully viable. We call it Universal Basic Stake (UBS). UBS would use blockchain technology at its core to issue UBS, with a built in protocols to police it, and a flexible vehicle to propel it beyond Basic.

Our Approach

First, we don’t believe that sweeping global economic bliss will ensue because everyone’s getting free money. That’s far from reality. UBS is simply a beginning, not the means to an end. In order for UBS to work, we have to simulatenously create an issuance vehicle and a vehicle for upward mobility. People need to receive tokens for reasons that they can understand, and they need a way to continue to leapfrog from what they were given. It was with these thoughts in mind that we developed our revolutionary ecosystem.

Second, blockchain provides an easy capability to create a value store that can be fully managed and accounted for. This makes it easier than ever to develop a truly bounded genesis source for a universal issuance. The difficulty lies in defining a truly universal value basis that’s derived from intrinsic value. It’s one of the most discussed topic in DLT today. Fortunately, we have an excellent solution to this that’s expounded in our Whitepaper.

Third, UBS must serve a greater purpose than beyond mere existential justification. Thus, we developed a working utility for UBS so that it can bolster the economics within our network when it is issued so it can contribute to the benefit of the network.

Our Conclusion

As outlined in our Whitepaper, we propose to issue UBS to each person that joins our network in order to actuate a starting point that’s both fair and incentivized. The UBS will always be equivalent to the global average age, where today is 26.4. The tokens are issued as a Genesis Block on each user’s Personal-Chain. The tokens are not accessible until the user have logged in (vest) at least 15 consecutive days of Activities.

We believe our method will yield an equitable, fair, and incentivized action-trigger for users to gravitate to our network. The network will create value for the users, and the users will create value for the network in return.

As for the vehicle, Alfa is it. Users begin to mine tokens on the Alfa social miner for their activities upon signing but will not see the tokens until the 15th day of being on the network when the Genesis tokens are vested.

It’s a work of art and we can’t wait to see it take off! For more information, please hit us up in our telegram channel.

Cheers,

The Team @ Alfa-Enzo Foundation