I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Obviously there’s the surface-level matter of speculation and deceitful schemes that’s been going on around this field for the last few years, but the theoretical background is interesting, rapidly evolving, and seems to be packing a great deal of transformative potential.

I’m not sure what to believe about this. On the one hand, cryptocurrencies are the go-to option whenever one wants to conceal their economic activity, which doesn’t seem like a good thing in a socialist economy (e.g., could lead to a black market-like dynamic).

On the other hand, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the general idea of reducing extractable value comes naturally from the advancements in these technologies. Trust does not need to be paid for at a price any higher than the minimum required to keep the system working. It is entirely possible that production be entirely governed via the blockchain with no way to extract surplus value at all (e.g., risks hedged collectively, knowledge/entrepreneurship provided through a decentralized proof mechanism that reduces its effective cost…). Under this scenario, since no worker would be incentivized to resort to any other system, concealing transactions wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Then there’s the issue of how the blockchain, as something that already exists today, would impact the transition into socialism. In this regard, I personally doubt there are any benefits beyond some specific use cases, like concealing transactions from bourgeois authorities.

Of course, there is a possibility that further research opens the door to new forms of worker cooperation, in parallel to unions and coops. Maybe it would be easier for us to perform some economic activities as a group without having to trust anyone, or maybe it would be easier to organize.

So, here are my own thoughts. I would like to see your opinion on the matter, specifically:

  • Do you think the communist society is compatible with blockchain?
  • Do you think socialist countries should ban these technologies?
  • Do you think the blockchain under capitalism makes a transition to socialism more feasible or less?
  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    7 months ago

    On the other hand, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the general idea of reducing extractable value comes naturally from the advancements in these technologies.

    I don’t follow, how does a digital ledger reduce this?

    • pancake@lemmygrad.mlOP
      0·
      7 months ago

      Not a digital ledger, but a decentralized virtual machine that state-of-the-art blockchains essentially are. The machine can provide trust to any operation at a cost bounded by the cost of the transactions themselves, which in turn are limited by the rapidly evolving consensus mechanisms.

      Edit: I don’t know if the above scenario is possible through these mechanisms, that’s why I find the issue so complex and interesting.

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        7 months ago

        Lets say transaction fees magically become 0. How would this force the capitalist to pay a worker the full value of their labour-power?

        • pancake@lemmygrad.mlOP
          0·
          7 months ago

          Well, near-zero transaction cost means extremely high processing power. Someone could use that power to create a perfect virtual investment fund that is guaranteed to continuously and perpetually reinvest all its earnings. Nobody would invest in it in a capitalist society, as it would basically act as a money sink, but a socialist state could pour a large enough initial investment into it and let it grow, competing with actual investors and eventually pushing them out of the market. And since those operations would not be censorable, economies already using crypto as legal tender would have no way to stop it.