Economy 2.0 - for real
With the blockchain and the emergence of various cryptocoins, we are seeing the emergence of a whole new economic system.
Since the emergence of the internet and related tools and techniques, the expression "economy 2.0" has been used to characterize a series of products, services and companies emerging from the possibilities of the internet.
To a large extent this was an abuse of the language, as these were essentially new tools for the same existing economic system that has existed for centuries, characterized by reliance on centralized services: central exchanges, state-controlled currencies, companies with an intrinsic competitive drive and incentive to build a fenced monopoly, services to check and enforce contracts, etc. This has been a necessity until recently due to the development state of technology and communications so far.
The blockchain and cryptocurrencies could revolutionize our economy to an extent not seen since centuries by providing a decentralized framework for the whole exchange and property system, with potential far-reaching political implications.
Cryptocoins van replace fiat coins in their role to facilitate exchanges or as a store of value; without a need for central banks and banks - as we know them - altogether. Various cryptocurrencies will probably provide different services: as a store of value, as a currency for daily exchanges, etc.
Also, inherent to their nature, the lending of money should become much different, without the leverage that banks apply between cash reserves and the much larger amounts they lend.
Smart contracts can enable peer-to-peer enforceable agreements with the technical need for lawyers or notaries, other than as advisors about the fair balance of the agreement.
The blockchain itself will become the ledger and document archive for timed and attributed knowledge, goods and agreements.
It is an illusion to think that the economy - and political systems - that we have known for centuries have been there forever and are the best humanity can do and somehow immortal.
Technological advances build over the last century may have brought us to the point where a new economic paradigm is ready to deploy, an event not of generation- but of of civilization magnitude.
Economy 2.0 for is coming for real. Economy 1.0 will not go without a fight.
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