Blockchain technology made Lotos Network possible

If a few Buddhist programmers have their way, the world will soon witness a new spiritual community based on a bedrock of cryptocurrency. The community is named the “Lotos Network.” It will be built using “blockchain” technology. The latter is a new kind of technology which has made a number of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin possible. The creators of Lotos Network want it to be a kind of “global monastery” that uses “Karma Tokens,” its own cryptocurrency. Members of the Buddhist community could earn such tokens by teaching and meditating.

A postgraduate researcher crunched numbers on the use of Bitcoin in 2013. It is seen that the most common use of this virtual currency was anonymous donations, gifts and tips. The results show that cryptocurrency users tend to gravitate towards “gift economies.” The latter can be found in core Buddhist philosophy. It even has a name, “Dana.” This word translates into English as generosity. The Lotos Network believes that this philosophical underpinning can be utilized to craft an economy independent of materialist vagaries of the standard currencies.

The community will have its own economy. The Karma Coins will form the heart of the economy. As per its creators, these coins will be the actual physical implementation of the “Buddhist Economics” concept. The term was created by E. F. Schumacher, a philosopher in the 1970s. The term was given more substance and philosophical input by Claire Brown, a professor at Berkeley. In the Lotos blog, she wrote that this currency would mirror the Buddhist economy's true values. It went further on to say that the currency would be hoarded and then spent as per the religion's positive transformative practices.

Lotos Network comprises an ideal economic existence suitable for a complete Buddhist community crafted within Ethereum. The creators of this concept believes that if a spiritual community could be created based on blockchain technology, then charlatan behavior and corruption will automatically be eliminated. According to Anton Doos, the developer, Michael Hogan, entrepreneur and noted neuroscientist and Jefferson Davis, the project manager, the practice of Buddhism and teachings will be made more measurable, accessible and sustainable. This team behind Lotos have Vincent Horn, the founder of Buddhist Geeks and Master Monk Joelee as advisers.

According to the founding team, decentralization solves a few of religion's recurring problems like corruption, accessibility, efficacy and incentivization. The transparent transactions make corruption impossible.

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