Blockchain is the biggest accelerator to knowledge since the invention of the Scientific Method.

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes. — Peter Drucker

Knowledge is mankind’s most valuable asset.

Knowledge is humanity’s primary means of survival.

It is knowledge of agriculture that allows us to take seeds and turn them into edible food. It is knowledge of metallurgy that allows us to manufacture surgical scalpels. And it is knowledge of political systems that lets us organize in ways that maximize human well-being.

Knowledge is what allows us to learn about the reality around us; to gain more efficient results from any given effort.

Given the importance of knowledge to our own survival and flourishing, it is critical for us to differentiate between that which we know to be true about reality, and that which we merely believe to be true about reality.

So what is knowledge?

A personal belief is an opinion or theory that you accept is true. Knowledge is the subset of those beliefs that are “True” and “Justified in Reality”.

Knowledge is, “Justified True Belief”.

Belief is required or else it is, “Ignorance of the truth”.

Belief is required for knowledge because if one does not believe it, it is not contained within one’s set of knowledge.

If I do not believe there will be an eclipse tomorrow and it happens anyway, one certainly cannot say I had knowledge of it before the event.

Truth is required or else it is “Belief for untrue reasons”.

Truth is required for knowledge because knowledge is the set of valid facts, not invalid ones.

For instance, I cannot “know” that the Sun revolves around the Earth if it in reality it does not. I can only falsely believe it does.

Justification is required or else it is “True belief by accident”.

Justification is required for knowledge because otherwise one is engaged in just dogmatic opinions or blind guessing.

If I blindly predict (without justification) that the next card dealt will be the Queen of Spades, even if correct I did not have knowledge about that event.

Better Justification is the key to accelerated knowledge accumulation.

For those who understand that knowledge is the key to survival and success, the important question is how they can gain more knowledge.

Given that we have established that knowledge is justified true belief, there is only one limiting factor that we can hope to improve.

For our purposes, the Truth of Reality is a fixed variable. What is true about the universe is not something over which we have sway.

Belief is also a fixed variable. Unless one is a pathological disbeliever, our issue is not that we have too many correct beliefs but too many incorrect beliefs. Welcome to the Age of Misinformation.

It is Justification that gives us an opportunity for acceleration of our knowledge because if we can more rapidly justify our beliefs, we will more rapidly discover what is true.

Blockchain allows for faster and more powerful justification of knowledge.

Blockchain is a type of shared database that stores data in blocks that are then linked together via cryptography.

The setup guarantees the accuracy and authenticity of data without the need for a trusted third party.

Blockchain also allows for anonymous cooperation amongst millions of people (without middlemen!) in a way where every individual can check each other’s work and trust the result.

This technology allows us to use a protocol, similar to the scientific method, to validate a set of beliefs that were previously unwieldy.

The Bitcoin blockchain allows every participating individual to validate the belief that a payment has been made.

The Ethereum blockchain allows every participating individual to validate the belief that the conditions of a smart contract have been met.

To accelerate human knowledge formation, we require a blockchain that allows every participating individual to validate ANY belief that is indeed true.

We call this system of knowledge acceleration: Knowledgecoin.

The Knowledgecoin protocol implements the blockchain equivalent of the Scientific Method to create a decentralized, reliable, and verifiable knowledge repository.

This approach dramatically decreases the time required for millions of users to “justify” a belief while simultaneously making that validation available to all users.

The future of humanity is accelerated knowledge that is validated on the blockchain.

Knowledgecoin.io is a library of validated knowledge that combats misinformation and lies by allowing people to verify the truth for themselves.

About the Authors:

Mark Gleason: Mark Gleason is a Chief Enterprise Architect, Venture Capitalist, and Board Member at Knowledgecoin.io.

Rick Repetti: Professor of Philosophy at CUNY, Vice President at the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA), and Chief Philosophy Officer at Knowledgecoin.io.