Life Without Middlemen
Happiness thrives when nobody tries to control
A postcard from Gracey about hierarchies
June 17, 2035
Through all of human history from its earliest beginnings until 2035, there have been only five basic stages of economic life:
- Hunting and gathering societies, where survival depended on the use of hands;
- Agricultural societies, where tools made life easier;
- Industrial societies, where machines made life more productive;
- Information societies, where data made life more understandable;
- Empathic societies, where consciousness made life more fulfilling.
As society progressed through each stage, structures were established to support the citizens: religion, government, healthcare, transportation infrastructure, commerce, economies and others. These structures were always hierarchical, with many at the bottom and a few at the top controlling the many. Over time, greed set in and the originally well-intentioned structures became a hindrance to our progress.
In our 2035 society, where we practice right thinking, we’ve recognised that hierachies no longer serve us. Everything in our world is decentralised and distributed. We’ve eliminated structures and found a way to establish a civil society where every citizen is accountable to every other citizen, rather than to a ‘structure.’ We’ve removed the middlemen, authorities, owners and arbiters of judgment — like bankers, judges and attorneys — who used to make the business and economic world tick. We’ve established a global ledger that serves the greater good and higher purpose. The ledger has turned your entire Internet into its own source of truth. The ledger does not lie, cannot lie and will never lie. It’s a mechanism for us to collectively confer legitimacy on one another. The ledger isn’t owned by anyone — much the same as your Internet isn’t owned by anyone — and it’s entirely distributed so that it cannot be compromised by any individual or entity.
Banks
There are already more than 500 alternative currencies in your world that you can use to pay others, without using a bank. Ecuador was the first country to launch their own digital currency in 2015 and Senegal was next in 2017. By 2025, only a handful of national currencies were still in use. Today we trade directly with each other and with companies. Banks and central banks no longer exist.
Records Management
In your world there are thousands of databases owned by governments and businesses keeping track of important records. In our world the single global ledger keeps our entire system in balance. Each individual is entirely in control of their own data, and we have full control of who can see what belongs to us. We’ve eliminated things like public land databases, national identification registries and licensing databases.
Supply Chain, Inventory and Warehouse Management
In your world you have a complex series of computers to track transactions across the supply chain from ordering to delivery. These systems are in place to prevent counterfeiting and theft of goods. With our global ledger, fraud is impossible, so individual inventory systems no longer exist.
Lawyers, Mediators, Arbitrators
In your world, third-party objectivity is an entire industry. Your legal system is a complex structure, which doesn’t self-adjust over time to account for changes in society. In our world we no longer use third parties to enforce fairness. We are accountable to each other and the global ledger ensures balance at all times. Everything is connected to the global ledger and even objects in a room can give evidence to the ledger. Crime has been eliminated and the last occurrences of tampering with transactions, theft of cyber-currency and hash fraud happened in 2025.
Notaries
In your world a complex series of documents, contracts, deeds, and other formal paperwork need to be notarised whenever a major transaction — like buying a house — occurs. In our world, every physical object has proof of existence in the global ledger and whenever ownership changes, the ledger automatically updates.
Policing
In your world, there is often abuse of police and other agency power. In our world, we no longer have police departments, customs officials or tax collectors. In fact we have no law enforcement functions at all. Every citizen’s behaviour is willingly tracked because we are accountable to each other. For all of our actions, there is undeniable proof of what we did, safeguarded in the global ledger.
Politics
In your world you have complex voting and consensus monitoring to run outdated governments who are out of touch with the citizens. Very often, the elected officials become corrupt and it proves difficult to replace them. Since we have no hierarchies in our world, we have decentralised decision making, where everyone has an equal say via the ledger.
Summary
By 2035, we’ve replaced every hierarchical structure that no longer serves humanity with a decentralised system of citizen-led checks and balances.
Big Questions to Explore
- What are smart contracts and how can they be used to simplify everyday life? Ask Google
- Who or what would likely resist smart contracts? Ask Google
- What is the Internet of Agreements? Ask Google
- If the evolution of the Internet is connecting first People, then Things, then Agreements, what’s next? Ask Google
- Can society function without centralised control authorities? Ask Google
- What is a decentralised singularity? Ask Google
- What would need to be taught at schools to prepare society for life with a global ledger?
- What are the disadvantages of a single global cryptocurrency? Ask Google
- What does ‘justice as fairness’ mean? Ask Google
- What is heterarchy? Ask Google
- What is the true definition of anarchism and is this what the world is moving towards? Ask Google
- What is a peer to peer economy? Ask Google
Postcards from 2035 is a series of profoundly simple interlinking ideas describing life in a highly desirable society, where everything and everyone is advanced, happy, intelligent and problem-free. It’s a blueprint of the world we need to create. The best thing you can do to help us get there is to share with your friends and get the conversation started with the questions this postcard has raised.
