God, State and the Network and How Bitcoin Led to the Creation of Ethereum

God, State and The Network

Until the Bitcoin blockchain network was created to form a consensus mechanism based on mathematical encryption to immutably track exact bitcoin ownership without depending on centralized authorities like banks by Satoshi Nakomoto in 2009, societal consensus was almost exclusively based on God and State.

Although there are many good use cases of God and State, the problem is that both God and State are structurally based on hierarchy in which single persons’ or establishment groups attain relatively disproportionate amounts of power and control.

· For God based nations, power centers include institutions like the Christian church headed by the Pope and for State based countries, power equivalents include wealthy political donors and the political cabinets of powerful nations like the US or perhaps even dictators like Hitler.

· Note that most times power centers are genuinely enforcing beneficial consensus according to delegated powers, but sometimes that enforcement is detrimental to society, ranging from having a slight impact on day to day activities to being an outright Orwellian nightmare, as commandments and laws can be manipulated.

· In State run societies, for example, I believe the large majority is vehemently against Hitler’s manipulation of German law for selfish aspirations and China’s law leveraging to clamp down on citizens with behavior considered negative by the CCP. That same majority most likely also considers God based societies leveraging wonky interpretations of religious scriptures to relegate women to basically becoming second class citizens as bad societies.

· However, as demonstrated by the Bitcoin invention, the Network has arrived as a potential Leviathan God and State rival to successfully achieve consensus with the added bonus of delegating control to a blockchain instead of malignant God and State power leaders and centers.

With users adopting the Ethereum blockchain and equivalent competitors, Bitcoin has proven how blockchain technology can leverage computer programming based consensus like smart contracts to verify all types of digital information on an essentially immutable and censorship resistant database beyond the reach of both God and State.

· For example, the history taught in schools by God and State societies is based on the interpretation of events by the winning side. In the US, history may argue the importance of how capitalism generates economic growth, while Chinese students may learn how capitalism is a tool used by the US for expanding western ideals and influencing how eastern nations should conduct foreign policy with China.

In a well-executed Network based society, however, consensus follows immutable and censorship resistant computer code owned by everybody and beyond the reach of malignant God and State power centers to change on-chain history. The Network is the ultimate cooperative society where good behavior is rewarded and too much bad behavior likely disincentivized. The economic growth achieved through superior cooperation by Network participants will dominate both God and State, which is why I believe Network based societies will grow exponentially and ultimately achieve diplomatic recognition.

Ethereum Co-founders

The ETH Network

As outlined by Camilla Russo’s in her excellent book, the Infinite Machine, the Ethereum blockchain, against all odds, originated and executed in Switzerland 2013 as a traditional LLC called the Ethereum Foundation a novel idea by the unicorn loving billionaire selfless genius, Vitalik Buterin, to create a world computer, which was a necessary centralized evil to overcome the tricky rules created by the God and State establishment.

The Ethereum Foundation LLC was founded by a group of “Grays”, as Network philosopher deluxe, Balaji Srinjavisan, calls people with Libertarian leanings, with a utopian fantasy for creating a world based on decentralized consensus without relying on the approval from God and State power centers. The Greys are worth mentioning and include co-founders Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, Joseph Lubin and also Gavin Wood after heavy debate among the original Greys if Gavin should be given the title co-founder despite joining at a later stage than the rest.

· Beyond the excellent story of how the Ethereum Foundation was debated, formed and ultimately created, Camilla takes readers on a wild journey on how cooperation from Russia to Canada, poor to rich and centralized to decentralized leads to the development of a multi-purpose decentralized world computer based on Network cooperation principles instead of principles preached by God and State.

· According to Ethereum’s white paper, written in Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum aims to create a foundational programming language that leverages computer engineering capacity for developing decentralized applications on smartphones without dependency on centralized third-parties like Amazon, Google and Apple. In other words, a decentralized cloud based world computer that allows for Network censored computer meaning ideas not unsupported by the Network will fail.

By leveraging smart contract technology, users of the ethereum blockchain can in advance sign a contract that outlines the rules of the game without necessarily trusting each other. The ethos of Ethereum therefore aligns perfectly with how Balaji outlines Network compared to God and State in his book the Network State and expands upon the foundational principles of the Bitcoin blockchain; immutability, accuracy and censorship resistance.

As of 2022, the Ethereum project is an unparalleled success with hundreds of billions in market value, millions of users and thousands of decentralized applications. Even if Ethereum fails to become the number one blockchain in the Network State, the objective of a small group of Greys to create a censorship resistant world computer that is owned and used by everyone, I believe, was achieved successfully beyond the wildest dreams of anyone.

The Network State authored by Balaji Srinivasan

Why I am bullish on ETH

Arguing against the belief shared by many of us around the world that technological progress based on centralization marginally erodes privacy piece by piece each day is a difficult task. However, perhaps the fear of an Orwellian future where data is controlled by a single all powerful institution may be prevented without sacrificing technological advancement, as human innovation generally solves problems and the exponentially growing blockchain sector is potentially unleashing a path to make private information ownership private once again.

Through leveraging cold storage of information in the cloud, blockchain technology grants access to personal information only to private key holders without reliance on third party data providers, which means that the blockchain allows people to securely text, transact, upload and store sensitive private information about finance, health and many other areas.

· If the bitcoin blockchain unleashed decentralized ownership of assets and Ethereum the power to create fractionalized ownership through smart contracts, the creation of decentralized applications providing users with the ability to store information with absolute privacy might be the key for driving an explosion in blockchain adoption.

· There are many great innovations like new drug therapies, financial applications and security products that are generated by storing user data, but that same user data can be used for exploitation by malicious actors especially when data is stored in a third party centralized database.

· There are two big problems with storing information centrally. The first problem is that a central database creates a single attack vector. For example, malicious hackers may create havoc by accessing potentially damaging medical information stored by hospitals about political and business leaders or even everyday people. The second problem with centralized databases is owners selling data without consent to malicious actors. A perfect example of the second problem is when Facebook sold private user information without consent to Cambridge Analytica, which was then used by third parties to gain an advantage in the 2016 US election.

· However, if a decentralized database is executed correctly, the information on a permissionless blockchain is not owned by a single centralized entity and all information is encrypted, which means that there is no single attack vector that can be leveraged by a hacker and no information that can be tied to a certain individual. Blockchain therefore solves both problems with a centralized database because when a decentralized database is executed correctly information is owned by everyone and encrypted.

The Ethereum blockchain is miles ahead of competitors when it comes to the creation of a well-executed decentralized database.

I therefore expect that a decentralized application leveraging the unique properties of Ethereum in combination with a great user interface to be the canary in the coal mine for blockchain adoption among the general public.

BTC and ETH

Conclusion

If God created the moral structure needed to conquer Earth and the State generated law structure needed for reaching Space, then the Network may be the cooperation structure taking humanity interplanetary.

Pure maximalism is bad, but the Leviathan Network based society is a rival to both God and State nations, as outlined in the Network State. Well-executed Networks depend on co-ownership/operation and time-stamped history, beyond manipulation by God and State.

If Bitcoin unleashed decentralized asset ownership and Ethereum smart contract platforms, then decentralized apps with superior UI providing its users with tools to store information with absolute privacy might be the key for driving an explosion in blockchain adoption.

A society that is 100% centralized needs at least 1% decentralization just like a 100% capitalistic society needs at least 1% socialism to prosper. By just getting behind the above, you will understand how a quadratic relationship between central and decentralization generates high prosperity in society, which means you are ahead of 95% of the world population.

God, State and Network are now together propelling humanity forward like three Leviathans.