Bitcoin Forum

Eventually we (humanity / the masses) need to move from a world that tends toward increasing financial inequity / imbalance (i.e., rich get richer and poor are held in futile struggle); to a self-balancing one (i.e., masses protect themselves from the money mongers and achieve a broad middle class where the poor are lifted up, not stepped on).

The decentralized/consensus-driven ledger invention underlying BTC, etc. is a great basis for this, but how can a 'proof-of-need' be achieved, so that the distribution of coin to the already rich is discouraged and new coin flows disproportionately toward the have-nots.

Anybody have any ideas on how something like this could be achieved? 

Or do we just have to accept that some will always have most of the crypto and hope that those are more ethical than those currently controlling our abusive debt / fiat system.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" - Louis Blanc, although Marx popularized it.

Well I doubt Bitcoin was invented to fix inequality.
Its goal is not to (re)distribute wealth fairly but to allow one to have full control of its own finances, removing possibly corrupt elements like monetary authorities and third parties.

What you ask is some sort of decentralized welfare state secured by cryptography. That's interesting but I have no idea how we can implement it. And I doubt there are such sophisticated cryptographic techniques available to do it.

There is no guaranteed way to have proof of need, especially not a decentralized way.

Imagine I found a pounds of gold in my back yard. If I had a run down ghetto house and didn't let anyone know I found a lot of gold I could fool this centralized system into thinking I needed money based on living situation.

Bitcoin was never invented to do this, worthy goal as it is.

Our current financial system seems analogous to a ball that is rolling away from the top of a peak.  The peak representing balance in wealth across society and the slope / gravity representing the pull of our parasitic money/financial system in form of excessive interest / usury / money printing.   The distance from the peak is increasing wealth inequality.  

I believe most people are good people but we are forced to function within this system through no choice of our own.  We the masses need to figure out a way to protect ourselves from those who have orchestrated this 'ball-on-the-peak' system.  We need to create a 'ball-in-the-valley' system which inherently tends toward equality / equity, whereby the rich don't get boundlessly richer and the poor aren't pushed further into futility.  

I'm not talking really a welfare state, just a much more balanced one that helps the desperate up and holds the power abusers back.  Still an incentives-based system, just not an immoral one, because an immoral system is what we have now. 2.5 billion people in the world earning $1.25 / day and living in futile struggle while others get hundreds of millions in annual bonuses.  Gerald Celente talks about 'off with their heads 2.0.'

I am thinking Cryptos hold a lot of promise for achieving this type of balanced financial system, I'm just not sure how yet.

Vol. 77 of the BitcoinChannel on youtube mentions Bitcoins possible knock-on effect towards charity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYrW8cBb91o I believe that there are many things about Bitcoin that will empower poor people yet to be discovered.

Skip to 3 minutes into the video for the comments on Charity. Edit: found original article - http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/one-womans-quest-to-bring-bitcoin-to-botswana

Ok, thanks.  That's pretty interesting.

Unfortunately a lot of poor people exposed to bitcoin for the first time will be scammed one way or other ... that's the downside of such an innovative but fairly complex digital currency.

Still cryptos can't solve the infrastructure problem which is the main reason 2.5 billion people live on $1.25 a day.
I mean infrastructure as a broader term, everything that allows people to thrive.
For cryptos infrastructure is a prerequisite. So I doubt cryptos can help much developing countries.

As a side-note I find eMunie concept quite interesting though it barely does what you are asking for.

Currency is only a small portion of the wealth in the world. Distributing bitcoins by need will not change anyone's life. The poorest people will get only a couple dollars worth of bitcoins at most.

Anyway, I think the concept is basically society-imposed slavery -- a life without self-determination. It's evil.