Off To See The Wizard… OZ, And The World Of Cryptocurrency
By on Altcoin Academy
Was the “Wizard of Oz”, a metaphor, an allegory or simply a story for little children?
Much has been written to suggest that L.Frank Baum published, his now-famous novel in 1900, as a thinly-veiled allegory. At the time there was a great debate whether to hold on to the gold standard for currency or to start using silver as well. Somewhat “weighty issues” for a child’s tale. Here we are, these many years later, quite possibly still looking for the Emerald City, where all answers to all questions may be found. Where the great “Wizard of Oz” will reveal the secret to life and wealth and prosperity and success.
Whatever we may need, so goes the story, will be found at the feet of the great wizard.
Let’s sit back, get a coffee and quite possibly a “bicky” and unfold this tale, a little layer at a time. All while considering the ramifications it may have for a time such as this.
Are we a “wee-bit” like Dorothy, level-headed, straightforward, willing to face the unknown to find answers to issues we encounter? Are we part of a “populist” movement to bring new sanity to an insane system of power, greed, and control? Do we, the “Dorothy’s” of the world, have the answer bound in a new currency?
Often the elites, the power-hungry, the enlightened, treat the many as uneducated, irrational, ignorant, as portrayed by the Scarecrow. But we have the resilience and are far less stupid than the regulators and administrative overlords portend.
The industrialist would have us kept as a dehumanised Tin Man. They chip away at our self-worth. They throw us into the rust pile and tell us we are no longer viable in the “gig-economy”, offering us an alternative called UBI (universal basic income), while they take inordinate amounts of money themselves. As if to say, your worth will be determined by our algorithmic analysis and be happy, see my generosity? Is it their mea culpa, mea culpa?
Are we, who will adopt these new alternatives to the present systems, really at first the Cowardly Lion who becomes strength personified? Will the generations that follow applaud as the “heroes” of our age? Routing out the rot and inbred systems that so demoralise and constrain people world-wide.
The Wicked Witches and their trained monkeys, each moment devise ways to punish, imprison and steal away the dreams and hopes each of us cherishes.
And finally the Cyclone. What better phrase to describe the nature of economies throughout the world. They called it “systemic risk” but it is more cyclonic, ripping and shredding lifetimes of savings, stability, and security, so the few may advantage themselves of the many.
These tales, are as old as humankind records, that is for sure. Yet, are we at an apex of a new social adventure, whereby, each individual will be able to share their intelligence and creativity, being directly rewarded in an open, distributed, decentralised mesh network; where the “fruits of our labor” may be given and directly monetised. Is this just another child’s fable?
The yellow brick road is a path, clearly marked, with dangers and detours, to be sure. But we must go. Each of us for our own reasons. Each of us for the betterment of those around us. Each of us learning and enjoying the adventure.
“We are off to see the Wizard… the wonderful Wizard of OZ!” Will we find, as Dorothy did, and her troop of unlikely fellow travellers, we are the wizards?
Shall we come together and use the resources, the technology, the innovations to insculpt our own Emerald City? A shared and distributed, decentralised, ubiquitous, open-sourced macrocosm. Or, will we waver with indifference and indecision and let the data-lords take absolute control of every aspect of our daily lives?
What lies before us may well be a world awash in goods, produced in automated factories, at minimal costs, delivered by AI operated machines within minutes of our requests, run but colossal data centers and distribution hubs, serviced by robotic sentries. With governments giving us “social scores” based on our electronically monitored lives and daily routine; where algorithms decide our value to the society at large, and individualism is sacrificed at the altar of efficiency.
It appears, in the not too distant future, we shall venture in the great unknown, Space. The vast resources therein may well supply humanity with an abundance of stuff. The new adventure adumbrates to each of the possibilities of a beau idéal.
Do Dorothy’s “magic silver slippers” represent the new gig-economy, or web 3.0; where a simple “click” of our heels, through the magic of blockchain ecosystems and cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer value transactions, brings us to our true home?
Are we at the threshold of the “singularity”, the abundance proponents speak to?
The Wizard of Oz is much the charlatan. Will we, the Dorothy’s of this world, do as she does in the novel, ensure that the Wicked Witch never gets the “magic slippers” so those frenzied monkeys don’t take this new economy for themselves?
The yellow brick road is being laid as we speak, but as in any road, there are forks, which fork we shall take depends on us. One fork leads to a more open and decentralised future, the other to a more centralised and constrained predetermination. We hold the “slippers” in our grip. Do we put them on and click our heels and transport ourselves to a new ideal?
For my part, the “magic” has begun. The power is within our grasp. Space and the vast wealth it foretells brings with it the promise of a new and better tomorrow.
Much of the work has been done, and the Emerald City may be at hand. Dare we look, with a telescope in hand, bringing into to view the vastness before us? We may just get a glimpse of the new Emerald City as we travel down the yellow brick road together.
Frankly Toto, “Were not in Kansas, anymore!”
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