Cryptocurrency is Fantasy.
Please don’t misunderstand; cryptocurrencies are real things — real concepts, real technical implementations with real uses and ramifications. It’s enjoyable to see how strongly cryptocurrencies challenge the reality principle — more so, in my opinion, and in a better way than the evolution of social media into an alternate reality. Nobody ever questioned whether or not Facebook was real, except perhaps from a perspective of deliberate criticism after the fact. Bitcoin, however, was not well understood when it was first conceived, even if many people sensed that it fit the pattern of a nerd thing that would probably be big some day.
In the face of the many fantastical innovations that attempt to exert power over human reality, cryptocurrency is one of the least risky — and less pessimistically, most promising. As young as it is, cryptocurrency will have been used already for corrupt purpose by some as part of the almighty Machine, one more set of statistics in the number-crunching algorithm that controls modern life. However, in general I think cryptocurrency tends to inspire good social engagement with technology in the more legitimate model of Fantasy, Tolkien’s purest form of Art. The cryptocurrency movement declares that many kinds of value can have a recognized economic existence, that ideas of value that have been treasured and believed in can come to fruition in our primary reality.
That’s why I think it’s hypothetically possible to use cryptocurrency to help the homeless population — perhaps to attain a better situation, but also as a medium of exchange among people who might not be upwardly mobile but who still should be afforded access to the public sphere through technology. I’d love to try out this hypothesis. Setting up homeless neighbors with smartphones and laptops has been an occasionally recurring project of mine. If only enough members of the homeless population were able to sustainably retain possession of a smartphone, and had means to keep their smartphone charged, funds could be donated directly to wallets under homeless community members’ control in various cryptocurrencies.
If this Elvish dream were to ever be afforded a miraculous chance in real life, I wouldn’t think there should be a new kind of token created for the purpose. Nor do I think subordinate tokens, such as ERC-20 denominations built on Etherium, should be used for this purpose, for both technical and conceptual reasons. There are the Etherium gas fees, for one. Furthermore, in a domain so inherently abstracted as finance, where we all know that we’re all participating in a simulation anyways, there’s no reason to become more arbitrary by abstracting further away from the base concept. The most reputable cryptocurrencies are rapidly gaining social acknowledgement. That recognition gives them the ability to inspire an increasingly large number of people to play along, to suspend their disbelief in the concept to see whether or not it reveals anything true about primary reality. To insist upon making a new blockchain for this idea of a crypto tech outreach program, or to use some specialized token only valid for a super specific purpose, would be akin to spending 40 years making up a new language in which to write one’s debut fantasy novel.
While perhaps no one would be so obtuse as to spend many years inventing a fantasy language before trying to write a book, everyone knows you can’t get started until you make a map first. That’s why I tried to ask Reddit about what kind of altcoin to use to give out to homeless neighbors. That query didn’t exactly work out, as I might have anticipated, so I’m putting my thoughts on the matter here.
I’m watching both BCH (Bitcoin Cash) and LTC (Litecoin) as potential platforms for building a local street economy where everyone can participate and trade.
The most practical thing about the use of a particular crypto is whether or not the people who have it want to spend it amongst themselves. As crypto is becoming mainstream, most people are still primarily using it for investing. BCH has an edge here, due to the blockchain-based cryptocurrency platforms read.cash and noise.cash, which allow for writers and contributors to receive BCH tips. Litecoin, however, has a better name than “Bitcoin Cash,” which will forever require an explanation when you’re talking to someone to clarify that you mean BCH instead of BTC.
Of course it’s wonderful news that Venmo is adopting Litecoin. I’m not sure whether or not simply using mainstream apps that may be soon supporting cryptocurrencies is the right approach, though, because it is too closely related to the primary economy. The goal is to have real value recognizable even in the primary economy, but not to be so integrated into the primary economy that it just becomes more ordinary money, influencing its holders in the same way that money inherently does. It’s perfectly understandable to want to live without ever having more money than you need to spend in the moment, because money brings many burdens. One of the advantages of cryptocurrency that might be rapidly disappearing is that white it has recognizable value in monetary terms, it is not universally spendable. I think this is part of the utility of altcoins. I wish I understood economics well enough to speculate about the ramifications of an economy acknowledging that different kinds of value can be useful for different purposes and can be represented differently while still exchanged amongst each other.
I’ve transacted with Bitcoin.com Wallet in real life, and it was easy to use and to explain. I’ve installed Litewallet but I have never had a chance to use it for an in-person transaction. I’m keen to discover if there are any currencies out there that particularly encourage use as a medium of trade between people. I assume the privacy coins — Monero and Zcash, etc. — are used that way at least in theory.
Theory suffices, as long as it is a good and beautiful theory; that is, as long as it is true. Theories that have attained Tolkien’s “Inner consistency of reality” are true in some way, and as such have their appropriate forms of beauty, but the real hope of any creative dreamer is that something of the idea will be discovered in primary reality. I don’t expect that I will succeed in building a tech platform for homeless people, but I see the truth in the universal recognition of value. People who have little economic representation in the world walk around not only with inherent human value, but also with inherent power generated from the truth of their perspectives. The system cannot recognize the truths of materially marginalized perspectives because that power might break the Machine. It might shatter the economy upholding the simulation of fake comfort that modern society has woven.
—
Work Cited
Tolkien, J.R.R. “On Fairy Stories.” Tree and Leaf, HaperCollinsPublishers, 2001, pp. 47, 71.
