From Tulips to Dogecoin

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. - George Orwell

Worthy Tulips

In the 1600s Europe spread its economic wings. It had impeccable ships that connected the world through its seaport, kind of what Dubai is doing with airports now. The sea routes then, were full of dangers like storms and pirates but the profits were huge. If anyone funded such expedition, they had the risk of losing all the money, so they developed a system to funding only a share of the expedition. This led the Dutch people invest in multiple such adventures and reap the benefits (if ship survived) without directly doing the trade. Thus born the first Share Market - in 1609 the Wisselbank opened to guarantee the rules and regulation of such coinage against a small fee.

Tulips are seasonal flowers originally grown in China but they came to Europe via Ottoman Turks. The Dutch began trading not in actual Tulips but in futures of it, betting on what the yield of the season could be ( Netherlands is still the largest flower producer of the world). This got into a business frenzy! At a point, Tulip bulbs were worth more than a house in Europe. Profits of this scale, lured investors in and in 1637, the tulip-bulb trade was worth ten times the value of Mighty Dutch East India Company - petals prized more than nations.

Ridicules, isn’t it? But is it really? We do live at a time where Chanel wallets cost more than a car. Beyond necessity, cost is just a belief system.

What is China Upto?

There is no doubt that China must be taken seriously as a superpower. With that money, China can do world transforming changes. It has recently introduced programable money - Digital Yuan.

Think of it in this way, your money even if it is transacted in digital format is just made for one thing - Transactions. Beyond that, it does not offer any feature. But with programmable currency, the very nature of it makes it - well, programmable. Imagine donating to a NGO with programable money where they can just buy food with your money and nothing else. You could also program your money to be utilized within a specific date beyond that, it could incinerate itself. A technology that will allow the government to track every single penny.What about privacy? Not a question you ask is China.

Democratizing Everything

Just a 100 years ago, democracy was rather an exception. Even though both the american continents were largely democratic but they were far from optimal. We have evolved democracy rapidly and thus evolved the world. Democracy does introduce some bureaucracy but it leads to happier societies statistically. So is democratizing everything.

Wikipedia - democratized people’s information. Imdb - democratized people’s opinions about entertainment. Github - democratizes people’s code. Crypto currencies - money.

There is no doubt that people want more power to themselves. We are at a pivot of transitioning into a true Global citizen. We could soon be in a future where apps, policies and economics will operate by people’s collective choice. Imagine a open source social media - where people could add a feature if they want it - it is not centrally owned so no one is selling your private information. Imagine giving tax in such a manner that your money could be spend on projects that are important to you. Cryptocurrencies are just one small step towards such a future.

Cons and Argument

1. None of us actually understand how crypto currencies work: We do not understand money that well either, but that has not stopped us from benefiting from it.
2. With absolute no authority there could be too much money flowing into wrong hands: Has regulated money been able to prevent this?
3. It’s a bubble: It is a trillion dollar market now, want to bet?

Towards such a future we would have such days where tulip prices are more than a Ferrari but such inconsistencies (Dogecoin?) settle overtime into a smoother line of operation.