Across the world, there is a question of trust.
Assets disappear, currencies devalue, properties ceased, tax laws changed. Even safe-haven bank deposits can be unilaterally gouged by negative interest rates. My financial future is being controlled by political forces which I object to.
And there is a lot going on that I object to… the collusion in big pharma and big banking. Libor rates are rigged, funds are embezzled, collusion, fraud, unethical practices abound. Across so many industries it the same story: big gone bad.
But why does 'big' become 'bad'? One reason is it is hard to follow the money. In most industries the mesh of rebates, kickbacks, subsidies and transfer pricing, confounds the ability to detect and fix problems. These kickbacks, prevalent in every industry, are symptoms of a deeper structural problem : Layers of intermediaries and aggregators have confounded the transparency needed to detect and fix problems.
Antiquated workflow processes, put in place by 'appointed' middle men, the elite who are 'permissioned' in the middle, create hidden relationships and hidden agreements. Once in place, unintended collusion calcifies the industry, stalls innovation and invites theft.
Take for example one of the largest, most liquid markets in world, the U.S. Stock Market. It's a fully digital market, yet every time I purchase a share of stock , more than five intermediaries are part of the transaction. Why? Think of the possibilities for misappropriation at each step. Think about the inefficiencies.
And 'middlemen', because of where they sit, are quite powerful. Their ethics are tested every day. They have information advantage, knowing both sides of the transaction. They control access, they set artificial boundaries, they can dictate price. In financial services, some intermediaries can re-use our assets without remuneration, generating 'free float' with our assets. And, as we see with Facebook, middlemen can use our behaviors against our own self-interests.
But, if we could collapse the middlemen, make transparent the transactions, eliminate information asymmetry, there could be a fix to the mess we are in.
Bitcoin eliminates the middlemen. Using technology to drive consensus and vet transactions, the distributed, open access paradigm allows for everyone to participate. There are no appointed middlemen to restrict entrance or to dictate the terms of membership.
To me, when I think of bitcoin, it is more than a digital currency. It is an economic platform for people around the world. People just like me who are fearful of the elected – and unelected -- third parties who control our financial well-being.
So, as a peer-to-peer economic platform that eliminates the need for antiquated, intervening 'middlemen', both bitcoin and blockchain-inspired markets look clean, accessible and efficient. This is why, bitcoin and blockchain-based markets give me faith in the future.
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