Proudhon and the Blockchain
Well, not that easy to begin this Blog on Medium by trying to clarify the relationship between Proudhon, the famous “father” of the Anarchism, and the philosophy behind the Blockchain. But let’s try to do it together.
WTF?!
Yes, my dear friends, you are not dreaming and you are still not under a specific medical situation which requires from you to take some pills against hallucination.
I will talk about, as far as I’m concerned, the link between the French Philosopher and the Blockchain. It is not easy to try to find a connection between some anonymous writer in the 19th century and our decentralized technology made in 21st Century. But still, as the Ecclesiastes said, “there nothing new under the sun” and people who try to sell you “complete innovation,” or even worse a “revolution,” are thieves, liars or both. Technology is a palimpsest, meaning a kind of piece of paper where we can add our ideas upon past ideas. In other words, nothing is really new or revolutionary.
This being said, I will never say that Proudhon is the father of the Blockchain. I will just try to convince you there are some deep roots for the blockchain in the 19th-century philosophy.
Shall we begin?
Alice, who the fuck is Proudhon?
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician and the father of mutualist philosophy and died in 1865.
First to declare himself as an Anarchist, he was considered by his pairs as an idealist and an utopist. But Proudhon mostly worked on the concept of Decentralized Federalism which was an ideology his enemies were afraid of. He had many opponents, including Karl Marx and all the right wing supporters of the political map.
His main work is “What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government” (Qu’est-ce que la propriété? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement), published in 1840.
You can discover in this book all of his vision based on both a kind of detestation of the Central Power and the French Revolution that stole from the People the capacity to decide its faith.
Proudhon is one of the last defenders of the Girondin Vision which was killed by the Jacobins during the French ‘so-called’ Revolution.
Proudhon and the Blockchain
Proudhon thought that the only way to live within a “state” (don’t forget we speak about an anarchist), is to live in a decentralized state where there is no central power and where the concept of equity replaces the concept of equality
Simply put, Proudhon believed in Liberté, Equité, Fraternité.
Some of you will ask what is the difference between equity and equality, and you are right. Equality means that everybody shall be considered equal in regards to individual identity. For example, according to socialism, everybody shall be a kind of poor. Equity is equality plus justice. It means that in an ideal society, people must receive the same from the state but people are allowed to be different and to be richer if this is coming from justice.
Proudhon believed in federalism with no central power. A kind of network consisting of states, communities, and groups connected to each other with no middlemen or central power to refer to.
And last but not least, Proudhon built his thinking based on a utopic vision which aimed to change the world and enhance the way people interact.
Do I need to explain the connect with the Blockchain? I guess not. But I will write another article relaying other influences that made this technology possible.
