World Goals — the one Blockchain article everyone alive today needs to have read

From consumerism back to collectivism

Stop for one minute.

Stop for one minute and take the time out to ask yourself what it is you are trying to accomplish on this earth? What are you working for, or towards?

If you’ve never done that before it may have taken more than a minute to come up with an answer. Or if you already had one, go back and really think about what that goal of yours means.

What is it that you are getting up early in the morning for five days a week and spending anywhere between 30 and 80 hours doing?

Now I can’t pinpoint every answer, but chances are that whatever you answered had something to do with consumerism, if not directly, indirectly. The derogatory definition of consumerism is defined as:

The preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods.

I’ll leave it up to you to make the connection.

Now this isn’t going to be another you should feel bad about wanting or buying stuff blogpost. It isn’t even a blame the corporations hippie speech. Quite the contrary, I’ll argue that our actions are simply inline with the rules and goals of the economic games we are all playing with one another. Rules (go to school, go to college, get a job, save up, retire) that have been instilled in all of us from a very young age, goals (that nice house, fancy car, nice clothes, etc) that are reinforced into our mental psyche each and everyday in the form of advertisements for stuff that we do not really need.

In this 2-in-1 article I will do 3 things.

In the first part I will outline the problem by:

• Summarizing the dissertation by Matthew Pirkowski, in which he deep dives into the meaning and evolution of money. This perfectly lays the foundation for the rest of this article.
• Next I will argue that the system as we know it was not so much created as that it was a result of the parameters set by money, and only exaggerated by a select few who, over many years have fine tuned it to be deeply ingrained in almost every level of (western) society as we know it.

In the second part I will offer my own solution by:

• Proposing a new way of doing things, a new way to move forward. A new set of collective goals that we will instill deeper still than the former brainwashing. In the process regaining a part of our humanity we gave up along the way.

Part I — Context

In this four part series of articles Matthew Pirkowski breaks down money to a level that I have never read anywhere else. Unfortunately the word use is very advanced, but if you have the time I would highly recommend giving it a read. For those of you who don’t, no worries, I will provide a brief summary below as it perfectly sets the context for the rest of this article.

Basically what he writes about is the complex relationship between money, societies, and peace. And how they are (or were) all connected and go through a cycle. In this cycle, once a society gets too complex for it’s monetary system, peace is disrupted, the society falls, and mankind comes up with a new (more abstract) form of money.

This is probably still very unclear, the below example will hopefully clarify things a bit further.

Example:

Most of us have been taught that early tribal civilizations used to barter with one another, trading goods for goods, for example: I’ll give you 10 bananas for 3 potatoes. However that may not have been the case. Another theory is that mankind worked with a sort of I owe you (IOU for short) system, in which if I’m the tribes potato farmer and I have an abundant crop, I’ll probably stop by my neighbor the hunter and offer him some potatoes cause I know next time he catches a boar, I’ll get some wild bacon. This IOU system works fine when you have about 10 to maybe 50 IOU’s out there, however it gets very tedious to maintain hundreds or thousands of IOU’s.

Not to mention if famine hits, and times get tough, people who owe you stuff may not remember the events as they transpired in the past as you do. Causing a disruption in the peace and if it goes on long enough the collapse of a society.

What did early mankind do to resolve this problem? They created a new way of transacting, instead of the IOU’s they starting using rare, aesthetically pleasing rocks, intricately woven knots, or later, shiny metals. These items, once deemed of value in the collective minds of every person in that society, could then be used instead of the IOU. Freeing early mankind from the painstaking task of remembering who owed me and who do I owe. Instead trades (transactions) could be made instantly.

The interesting side effect of this new found freedom is that mankind could then become more individualistic. In the previous example, if I’m the potato farmer, and the tribe relies on me for potatoes, and I rely on my neighbor for meat, I better keep my neighbor as a friend. The same can be said for the rest of the tribe and myself. We’d better be aligned and share the same views, because if we have totally different views, and I decide to not transact with this person, it can start a ripple effect and the whole society can come tumbling down. However, if I have this rare rock which I can trade for a nice piece of meat, I no longer need to be that close with my neighbor. I could essentially care less if he dies I’ll just go to one of the other hunters. This not entirely true as survival still depended on the strength of the tribe as a whole.

However, before the woven knots and rare rocks, people were more dependent on maintaining close ties with all their suppliers. With the acceptance of rare rocks as a medium of exchange early humans sacrificed a part of the collective. And as the years progressed that link has all but been blurred out completely.

The evolution of our means of value exchange

As illustrated above each time mankind has reinvented its monetary system, it has:

• Sacrificed a part of the collective.
• Been able to increase in population size and complexity.
• Increase the abstraction level.

As you can imagine this has had profound effects. In the example of the tribe, there was one collective goal, namely, SURVIVAL. With only so many people in the tribe it was very important that everyone survived as there is strength in numbers. As a result people would look out for one another. As mankind has progressed however, and has further abstracted its money it allowed our societies to get larger and more complex, ultimately leading us to a point where SURVIVAL was no longer a goal, but instead somewhat of a given.

Side note: Unfortunately, for many this is still not the case. Whether it be in developed or developing countries, there are still far too many people struggling just to stay alive, a thought and a reality that is absolutely absurd in 2018 in my opinion.

In this process however we have forgone our collective goal and instead adopted a new pseudo collective goal, namely, THRIVING. This is the world we live in today. We have encoded value into money. Money is valuable.

But what is value?

That’s a difficult question to answer, as value is ambiguous, the sum of all our collective minds, context specific, marginal utility, scarcity, sacrifice, and trust. Money as we know it has encapsulated all those things into one easy to use concept, but with a vast and very complex underlying.

“What’s being symbolized by the US Dollar? Is it concrete, or abstract? Is it a symbol of the United States’ military power, of the discounted present value of US economic potential, of the ability of an individual to exert power over others, of the value of a widget, of the worth of one’s actions, of the trust between strangers, of love itself? Of course, it represents some portion of all these disparate realities at once, and is therefore by definition more abstract than any given exemplar…”

Who really cares right? Money is easy, I have it, and I get to spend it. That’s ultimately all most people will care about. And so we strive to obtain more of it. The stage was set for what would now be known as “the system”.

Part I — The system

People often use the term “the system” but rarely do they specify what it is they are exactly talking about. Whether it’s talking about the political system, a set of societal rules geared to hold them back, or the wide variety of institutions we as modern day people are obliged to interact with. The term is used interchangeably. It also holds a negative connotation, in which it is portrayed as holding back the latent potential of a populous. I’m not going to attempt to definitively answer the question “what is the system?”. As it is probably all of the above in some form or another. Instead I will take the broad, abstract understanding that the system:

Is the set of rules that govern how, and what, economic games we play with one another.

I get the feeling that people believe the system was nefariously created in a laboratory somewhere and is designed specifically to keep us down. Interestingly enough thanks in part to the dissertation by Matthew Pirkowski I have come to believe that “the system” was not directly created by man.

Our Igor to doctor Frankenstein, our monster (the system) was not manufactured in a laboratory, instead it is a result of years upon years of evolutionary change in our means of value exchange (monetary tool-set). This fledgling concept was then turned nefarious and vastly exasperated by a smart (and potentially greedy) few.

Today we may refer to them as capitalists (I don’t mean to specifically point the finger at capitalists, however we do live in a capitalistic world, and have been doing so for quite some time. Not surprisingly as it has been the best option thus far). What they have accomplished in the last 50 to 100 hundred years is unprecedented. Capitalists have not only made vast fortunes, they have also indoctrinated the rest of us into believing that we too can gain and prosper in this bounty. The very foundation of ‘the American dream’ was built upon this principle. Come to the country dirt poor, work hard, and you’ll eventually make it. And sure there are plenty of examples in which this was indeed the case, however there are probably a couple of thousand failures for each success. If only it was as easy as just working hard.

What capitalists forgot to mention is that you’ll need to work hard yes, but also having a great business acumen, or being very creative, or having access to (vast) capital, or just plain simple dumb luck also plays a part. A hard working janitor, can work 80 hours weeks but won’t progress if he lacks the mental tools to see opportunities, understand financial literacy, or have access to a loan (opportunity) to start his own cleaning company.

And the problems are more pressing than that. The rise of prices and costs, the lack of well paying jobs, the need to have a college degree just to be able to hopefully get a decent job. Not to mention the increasing polarization within nations, with voters looking to more extreme politicians for the answers that no one can seem to provide (spoiler alert, they won’t have the answers either). The system is showing signs of wear and tear.

Don’t get me wrong some great inventions have flowed from capitalism. And their inventors have been rewarded beyond logical explanation. However the purity of that system has waned over the years.

Capitalism has run amok.

Don’t believe me? Look around your house, look in your kids playroom, look at all the stuff you don’t really need. Why do we have fake plastic brooms or toasters? Just think of all the resources required to get that useless item to your house, not to mention all the better use cases for those spent resources. And all that so you could buy it for $2,99 in a store, it provide you with a brief sense of empty happiness, only to throw it away and it ending up in some landfill for the next 1000 years. Wasteful and unnecessary!

However, I don’t blame anyone in particular. People are both opportunistic and lazy. So if the rules of the game dictate that this is possible, some will try to benefit to the fullest extent possible, while yet others, the vast majority, will simply play along and can’t be bothered changing their ways, because “it’s just how it is” or “me changing my ways isn’t going to change the world”.

Side note: Earlier I stated that money enabled us to become more independent. Interestingly enough Thomas Thwaites set out to test that assumption. He wanted to make his own toaster oven, an item he purchased for around GBP 3,94 nowadays. See the experiment here. He tried to mine his own iron, make his own copper wiring, melt his own plastic, etc. The result? He spent about GBP 1185 or roughly 1500 US Dollars to make an item that can be purchased for just a few in many stores and it only lasted about 5 seconds before bursting into flames. The moral of that story? This independence we have gained through the use of money rests on a massive swath of hyper-dependence. Never have we relied on others and corporations more than we do today. If that relationship were to somehow get shattered, we’d all get a harsh slap in the face by old lady reality.

So the system was not maliciously created by man, however it has definitely been turned into a tool for making the rich richer. How you ask?

Consumerism

If capitalism is the machine then consumerism is the fuel that runs it.

Buy more stuff, get more things, and spend more money. This is what the majority of our human existence has become. Not surprisingly either. We have instilled value within our money. Money buys things. The more things you have the more valuable you are.

“The more things you have the more valuable you are”

Sounds a bit off when you read it aloud, however I believe this sentence rings true in the subconscious of most of us. And so we get up early every morning to go to a job we don’t really enjoy, because it pays the bills, or because you want that brand new house that costs way more than you can comfortably afford, or you want to provide the best for your kids.

Especially that last one holds a lot of weight for many, however the materialistic pursuits are nearsighted. If you truly wanted the best for your kids, wouldn’t you want to make the world a better place for them to live in? Sure it seems out of the scope of your control, however as quoted below we the people have more power than we know.

“Students of history know Adam Smith as the author of The Wealth of Nations, and the man responsible for the theory of Capitalism. But fewer know that before he set out to articulate his theory — which outlined humanity’s creation, representation, and transaction of wealth in an industrializing world — he was a moral philosopher. As such, he wrote extensively about the behavioral patterns shaping human interaction. His primary concerns orbited the manner in which we discern and perpetuate templates for proper action (morals), and how those templates influence our perception of what holds value. Though many contemporary economists have lost sight of the fundamental connection between the domain of perceived morality and that of economic value, the question stood paramount in his mind. To Smith, people used their economic actions as proxies to communicate the emergent moral sentiment of humanity itself.”

So instead of the constant pursuit of more, we as a species need to, and for the first time in history may be able to reinstate collective goals for ALL of us to achieve. Much like the tribes of old which held survival at the pinnacle of their actions we too need a guiding light to which we can set our respective moral compasses.

Now before I get into my solution, I want you to try and come up with your own answers. Take the time, set this article aside and ponder for the next few minutes, hours, days asking yourselves questions like:

So how do we create something new? What decision could we make today to change this? When would be the moment to make a difference? What are some real, actionable solutions we can make today, to bring real inclusive change?

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Part II — World Goals

World goals is my answer to the above questions. It is a paradigm shift in which we as the human species transition from consumerism back to collectivism. It is essentially changing the system so that we all contribute to bettering the world while bettering our own individual positions.

“Thus the highest quality actions are those that further one’s own interests in a manner that also furthers the interests of the extended community over time. Such actions amount to increasingly positive-sum (win-win) games, but their discovery is neither guaranteed nor free. Unlocking latent collective potential requires the individual to sacrifice their time and voluntarily assume the risks of exploration: failure and exploitation.”

World goals is exactly that. A set of goals for the world that will make win-win situations the norm and not the exception. It is a concept, a new set of rules, a nonprofit organization, and a value generating blockchain with its own two cryptocurrencies all in one, with the aim of reestablishing a collectivist spirit in today’s modern society. Why so many things in one? Because the problem we’re attempting to resolve is complex and deeply ingrained in our very being. So to counteract that, and to create a new norm you need a robust multifaceted approach.

The below image gives a pretty decent overview of how I’m envisioning World Goals at this moment. It isn’t the holy grail, more of an early napkin prototype which will require plenty of refinement, however for the purpose of this article it will suffice.

World Goals overview

Basically World Goals will be used as a converter to turn money into real value.

Food, water, and shelter for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

These 3 initial goals will be quantified based on best guesses and displayed on the World Goals dashboard.

World Money & Gold Coin Cryptocurrencies

Up until this point there has been little mention of creating a cryptocurrency, however it will be vital in the grand scheme of things. Why? Because it is through this means will we be able to reestablish the connection between our money and our values. Also as opposed to the The Global Goals set out by the leaders of this world in 2015, there will be an economic incentive to join.

Two coins will be issued. The World Money Coin (WMC) and the World Gold Coin (WGC). The World Money Coin will be used for transactions and spending. The World Gold Coin will be used for saving and subject to deflation (increases in value over time). This value could potentially be based on scarcity and the overall value of the World Goals blockchain.

The World Goals nonprofit organization will establish “offices” in some of the worst off places in the world. Impoverished people and volunteers alike will receive a universal basic income in the form of the World Money Coin equating to a reasonably livable income for that region. Vendors will be equipped with the necessary tools to be able to receive WMC for their wares and produce, effectively creating the ecosystem necessary for usage. WMC will not be listed on any exchange, instead vendors if they so wish can convert their WMC into fiat via World Goals itself.

Recipients of the universal basic income will be identified through the best means of identifying a unique person at the time of joining. At this moment a finger print scan on a cell phone will suffice.

As the network grows and more people are helped, World Goals initiatives will be launched. For instance World Goals farms, which will be semi decentralized entities, that create value and aid in the conversion of fiat into real value. This selffulfilling loop will eventually equate to a significant amount of the needed resources (money) to be self generated. Persons involved in these initiatives will be paid via smart contracts, based on a predetermined set of criteria.

What makes World Goals different from most other nonprofit organizations today?

Most nonprofit organization focus on appealing to people’s empathy. We’ve all seen the pleas on television to sponsor a starving child in some distant country. So much so that most of us have grown immune to it or simply turn a blind eye. World Goals is different in that it will appeal to people sense of belonging (to a team) and achieving goals. In the series One Strange Rock astronauts share some of their experiences about being in space, looking down on the planet. What struck me is that most of them mention coming to the realization that this little rock floating in the cosmos is all we’ve got, and that we’re all in the same boat. How great would it be if all of us could get such an opportunity. Unfortunately that’s not a realistic scenario, so we’ll have to find other ways, World Goals hopefully being one of them.

Current nonprofit organization lack the transparency necessary to cultivate trust. How much of your dollar is being spent on the less fortunate? Where are the funds being allocated to? These questions need to be predominantly displayed on whatever platform the organization is on. Additionally, nonprofits need to do way more marketing. Not the pleas for money on television, but instead behind the scene’s success stories in which the fruits of everyone’s efforts are proudly displayed. Again reaffirming that contributions are being well spent, and that every dollar is getting us closer to our end goals.

World Goals will incorporate all of the above plus a number of practices and dashboards to garnish a sense of progress, every step of the way:

• Wall of fame — everyone that contributes money, time, or other resources will be eternally sketched into the digital wall of fame. A monument that will be immutable and open for all to see.
• Wall of shame — a controversial yet necessary feature in my opinion. Similar to the wall of fame, except on this wall all those who actively or blatantly attempt to stifle the efforts of World Goals will be put up. Think for example on politicians who attempt to make a backdoor deal in order to grant us the rights to help their citizens.
• World Goal tree — visual representation of a tree growing on top of the earth, with branches in each country that World Goals is active in. Contributors can choose to water (allocate funds to) the tree as a whole or specifically to a branch of their choosing.
• 100% transparency — cultivate a company culture in which there are no secrets, no backdoor deals, open and honest communication all the way
• Monetary flow chart — a real time graph showing the influx, current holdings, and expenditure of resources.
• Own daily/weekly/monthly video blog updating on the progress and success

As things stand now there will be a two phased approach.

Phase one — Gather adoption.

As with any cryptocurrency or starting venture the most important first step is gathering adoption. If no one uses your currency, product, or service you have no reason to exist. Why would anyone use this new currency? Well make it so that people want to join in by introducing the universal basic income, or focus on the people that have to join in. Focus on countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, or any other country that is riffled with exorbitant inflation. Initiate the project, garnish attention, and continue building the community and network.

This phase will mainly be geared towards developing countries. Reason why? Because every dollar spent there goes a long way with some people living off of just $30 a month. Also they’re the ones that need the most help.

Phase two — Branch out.

Once proven to work, World Goals can roll out to varying countries, slowly spreading, increasing in size and network value. This will enable it to roll into phase two in which the focus will not be solely geared towards developing countries but also developed ones. The aim there will not so much be primarily on the 3 basic human needs but instead on freeing the population from the constant need to work, enabling new levels of freedom and social endeavours not possible before. Examples such as:

• Personal buddies (trainers) for obese people. Tackling the rampant health issues.
• Big brother or sister programs for troubled youths.
• Sponsorship programs for substance abuse patients or social media addicts (anti phone addiction clinics will be a major thing in the future, mark my words).

And the list goes on and on. All of which will allow people to pick and chose the work they want to do, even if there is little to no short-term economic incentive to do so. Once the veil of consumerism is lifted, and people realize there is a better way of doing things, we’ll all be able to live happier and fuller lives. That’s the type of future I want to live in.

Now we can potentially sit around and wait for the government funded programs and research to show that this might indeed lead to a better world. Countries like Finland and the Netherlands are already exploring with the idea of a universal basic income, however as Matthew Pirkowski put it:

“Facebook, Twitter, and Google can’t and won’t solve this issue. Our present governments cannot solve it. That’s because — regardless of intent — these actors remain limited by roots planted firmly within paradigms of centrality. The internal logic and incentives of their structural inertia precludes necessary growth in the same manner severe addiction surreptitiously precludes its host from achieving sobriety.”

So instead of waiting for something that may not come, or take years and years to develop, why not take matters into our own hands? There really isn’t anytime to waste, together we can make this happen.

What can you do right now?

If you’ve made it this far, congrats! Hopefully this article has resonated with you and you’re ready to be part of the change. Wondering what you can do to help?

1. Share this post. Share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, share it on whatever platform you’re on. Step one is to get the word out. Step two is to gather the funds necessary to make this all happen.
2. Connect. If you feel like you would be able to contribute to this project, know a good person to get in contact with, or a great platform to post it to, feel free to drop a comment or send me a private note, here or on twitter.
3. Donate. As things stand right now I’m just one guy with an idea. In the coming weeks/months I will promoting this idea and pitching it to whoever cares to listen. I have set the goal at raising 1 million dollars. Ambitious to say the least, but I believe necessary to bring this project to life. If you want to be an early patron feel free to contact me directly and I’ll provide you with the necessary details.