Am stoned af might delete later
Who are we?
I’m not having an existential panic attack i promise. It’s more so a question about our identity as a group who enjoy transacting with monero. Who are we?
I find it so confusing that we latch on to preexisting ideologies. Are we libertarian? I tend to have some libertarian beliefs, namely we have given the government too much power and capabilities for surveillance, but libertarians also tend to be right-wingers and probably won’t entertain the idea of socialism, which i am extremely enthusiastic about (i say we let Marx cook a little bit up here in the USA). Are we anarcho-capitalists? Or anarcho-communists? What’s our stance on politics?
We are at the center of politics. We’re literally out here with the balls to create an alternate currency under the nose of the empire. Try doing that in Ancient Rome 117AD. And, we’re powerful. We can literally send each other money, from afar, within minutes, with negligible transaction fees. No other society has ever had that power in history, and we’re spread out and decentralized, which means each and every one of us can be a locus of change, a locus of power. Because money is power.
We’re not a black market because we don’t exclusively deal with narcotics (although some do i admit). We’re a parallel economy. We’ve made monero truly perfect for that usecase. And we’re a parallel economy that transacts in the most resistant coin in humankind.
So, from a parallel economy rises a parallel society, and a parallel society often leads to a parallel government. Unless we figure out a way to coordinate a fuckload of people and enforce laws in a decentralized way, a government’s the next best idea.
We’re not bitcoin. We don’t have the privilege of being first. The players of the bitcoin lottery already won and skyrocketed to tremendous wealth as society became savvy to the idea of decentralized currency. What do we have? Most of us do have the privilege of knowing how to communicate anonymously, and doing so as a group protects us from the prying eyes of the government, which is inherently hostile to the concept of a dual-government and a dual-economy. We have brave (and shady) darknet market admins who accept payments in monero, and their clearnet counterparts who deal in legit business, like ShopinBit, monezon, based.win, etc.
So, we have currency. We have people, too, that hold this currency. We have an economy around this currency. And people and businesses that are willing to accept this currency for services or goods. What country am i describing? Oh wait, we’re spread out all over the world. See what we’re missing? Let’s either start a government, or figure out a way to coordinate people in a decentralized way.
Now, I’m not claiming that I start a constitution, although if you asked me to and nominate me i would. I wanted to start a general conversation as who we are as a community and what we’re trying to accomplish, or maybe how we can better coordinate as a society that can transact with each other. I personally have some ideas I can share, some ranging from charity to funding direct action, but that’s another post.
Speak for yourself.
We are the same as everyone else, just early.
This is why people call crypto a cult
Am stoned af
Give the guy some slack, I can promise you that most people involved with Monero would never support ideas like “let’s create our own government”.
get some sleep bro
There is no “we”. Like fiat, Monero is used by activists and persecuted people on all sides of any issue or normies in messed up countries where banks prevent you from getting your own money or normies who long for something better (either new or from the before times).
I’d be perfectly happy if the fiat system returned to the 1980s when you could get a bank account without ID, banks had to bribe you to share purchase history with “partners”, banks didn’t censor you because of your politics, you weren’t asked questions or restricted when you wanted to remove your money from the bank, MMT did not exist, and governments provided fewer services so they taxed you less. But that world isn’t coming back (at least not without a collapse). A 1960s world when fiat was still tied to gold would be better. But that’s even more unrealistic without a collapse. There are still a number of people who still remember the before times, and many have a similar vision and we can reach them. Bitcoin isn’t good enough…it’s too public…the information on it is too permanent. Showing the account balance and purchase history of an arbitrary Bitcoiner to a normie is the surest way to turn him off to crypto, especially when that normie learns that you can find out the purchases made during their younger years. People don’t want to be financial exhibitionists. So privacy coins like Monero are our only hope and our only hope to reach the normie.
People who do not remember the before times tend to either accept he current state or lean to a form of libertarianism or anarchism or agorism.
IMO, it’s a good thing there is no “we”. It means Monero is for everyone.
Interesting thoughts, but I have to say something about the socialist/marx and goverment part. I’ll try to be friendly:
Socialists, especially Marx, are dumb, human-hating fucks and control freaks. Sorry, but think that shit through. It cannot work. Research praxeology.
I for sure would call myself anarcho capitalist and a cyperpunk.
Hell no about the gov part. I hope monero can help us to get rid of goverments in general. Just live and let live. I’d start a free private city with other people though.
Oh and on a more serious note: I kind of understand where you’re coming from. It’s important how you define things like gov, social, socialist etc. I watched and participated in the anarcho capitalist vs anarcho communist discussion. It made me realize both have somewhat similar goals. But the ancap side has the more consistent world view and logical explanations for it. I’m sure you’ll figure it out if you stay open minded. I mean you found your way into the monero ecosystem :)
It’s not wrong that you question your own beliefs. I think with new information being revealed every day after a lifetime of being fed propaganda, we all should be going through some of that. However, I strongly believe that airing all those thoughts and philosophies in a focused group like Monero can splinter the unity of the cause that we all support. That cause is the importance of private, decentralized, digital cash. The more we stray from topics related to that core focus, the more likely we will, as a group splinter and become ineffective as a block. While it’s hard to be completely disciplined about sharing our particular concerns with various forms of government, I think we should all continually attempt to reel ourselves back in when we’re beginning to spend too much time discussing politics in a forum about supporting private, decentralized, digital cash.
- More time spent on activities related to things like negotiations with POS terminal manufacturers implementation of Monero for all retail transactions worldwide.
- Less time spent on discussing national borders, government handouts, identity politics.
We only converge in the appreciation of privacy, and the few things we all have in common is we can see clearly the agenda of “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.”
