Could crypto replace government?

[kryptqnick]

McAfee is a sad dead speculative guy who said many weird things and in the end did more harm than good to Bitcoin. He was also pretty crazy, so no wonder that some thought of his led to op's unrealistic fantasy of crypto replacing government. People could vote in a decentralized way, and the voting could be based on Blockchain. Even at this point, it would be Blockchain doing the replacement, not cryptos. But then someone has to decide what to put on vote, someone has to manage institutions and ensure communications with other countries, someone has to write the laws to vote on etc. I don't think there's a way to make all of it work in a decentralized way. Also, the majority is very ignorant on many questions, and it would vote toward a catastrophy. If a question of abolishing taxes was voted on, the majority would surely support the decision. And then there would be no money to fix the roads, subsidize medicine and public transport etc.

[Jazmin Leslie]

The fact is that the economy wouldn't survive without the supervision of the government. No currency could replace or take over the government because the government has a huge role in organizing and solving each country's problems which any currency couldn't do. The cryptocurrency couldn't work well either without the government.

Encryption may be able to change the governance system of some countries (or even the world), but I don't think it can be said to replace the government.It is possible to change the government structure.

[BrianH]

People could vote in a decentralized way, and the voting could be based on Blockchain. Even at this point, it would be Blockchain doing the replacement, not cryptos. But then someone has to decide what to put on vote, someone has to manage institutions and ensure communications with other countries, someone has to write the laws to vote on etc. I don't think there's a way to make all of it work in a decentralized way. Also, the majority is very ignorant on many questions, and it would vote toward a catastrophy. If a question of abolishing taxes was voted on, the majority would surely support the decision. And then there would be no money to fix the roads, subsidize medicine and public transport etc.

You make a lot of interesting points. I threw this idea out there to crowdsource others' ideas as well (decentralized!). FWIW, historically pure democracies have always failed in the end.

Someone would manage institutions. Here is a general idea on how it could possibly work in a decentralized way:
The structure would be set forth in something of a Constitution when the initial cryptocurrency was created. Parts of it would probably need to be immutable (unchangeable).
The leaders of institutions like defense would be voted on through the blockchain.
Salaries would be paid for through smart contracts.

As for abolishing taxes, mob rule is a consideration.
"Taxes" would be established by a fee for using the cryptocurrency.
The "budget" would be established by setting percentages for different resources. i.e. defense would be 50% of the total fee, safety would be 25%.
If people wanted to change those allocations, they would have to take from one of the other resources.

The problem with many current systems of government are that the mob encourages politicians to keep adding services and government responds by raising taxes (%) or printing more money and devaluing the currency.
Instead of cutting one resource to add to another, everything is obfuscated and the overall budget becomes 200% more than the taxes that are collected.
This leads to the eventual downfall of that government.

With a budget that is published on the blockchain and the overall fee is immutable, people would see the impact of taking money away from one resource to add it to another.
If roads start to deteriorate, funds could be taken from defense. If medicine needs an increase, funds could be temporarily shifted as well.
The budget could never go over 100%.
Government expenditures would be transparent on a public blockchain. No more $1 million for a hammer, $10,000 for a screw. No more bribes.

Best(?) of all, it could all happen instantaneously, instead of waiting for years to elect new officials while things deteriorate under elected governments.

This form of governance would work best on smaller countries. Having different rules or different side chains for different countries would likely make sense.

[Dhoe]

can krypto replace the government, my answer is definitely no, because we know the task in government is very heavy and very high risk, if the government is wrong in making decisions, of course the government will get very harsh criticism, from their people, i am sure that krypto replacing the role of the government, it is certain that crypto cannot control all the criticism that comes, because the effect is that crypto prices will fall, and people start to lose faith in crypto.

[Reid]

I am actually hoping it is in the near future but we have to be real, it is not.
I may not even see it before I die. It will take years or maybe decades before you could eliminate/change the traditional system.
The question of when will always pop out because there is a really little movement that we could see, close to none.
This pandemic could actually be a good first phase for a change but look "nada".
You could not change how a government works but it could be improved.

[Sweetbtc]

We don't think so because these smart contract are not using in our daily life. Its very hard ti understand for every person specially un-educated person to use Etherium,polkadot eyc contract address for transaction.
These contracts cannot bear the burden of such a big Government transactions per second.

[ChiBitCTy]

A possibility just crossed my mind, after thinking about what McAfee said - could crypto replace government?

Let's say every person owned a smart contract cryptocurrency like Ethereum (or Cardano, Polkadot, etc.)

If somehow it were designed in such a way that each person only had one vote and there were no centralized developers, we would have a pure democracy.

Payment for local services could be decided based on smart contracts (defense, firefighting, police, licensing, etc.)

Popularity contests would no longer decide politics. Social justice warriors would no longer be able to assault companies to bending to their will - people would remain anonymous.

Privacy would again be valued.

Crooked politicians and bribes would no longer allow politicians to slip in devastating legislation like the recent "infrastructure "bill's attempt to control all of crypto.

Our currencies could no longer be devalued to pay elite politicians' friends in the financial industries.

Could such a system of government work?

Did you mean to say could Crypto replace voting or did you mean to say it could replace the government?  Either way the answer to both right now is no.  I think fist off voting is a "popularity contest" and using the blockchain for voting wouldn't change that.  After all a democracy counts it's votes from most vs least ( minus the United States and our stupid Electoral College).   Also I'm not sure how this would change privacy wise?  If a blockchain were used to count votes, it would need to be open ledger such as how bitcoins works vs a blockchain say like Monero.  I like the theories you've come up with here but sadly I think that is simply all they are.

[cotton ball]

can crypto replace the government,?? my answer is definitely no, because we know without a government this world will be destroyed, and will not survive without government supervision, if bitcoin takes over the government it will definitely not happen, because there will definitely be war, what is certain is that we will lose, and our crypto will weaken, so just undo your intention to replace the government, because that is not our way, what we want is bitcoin to remain the king of all coins, and become an asset for all of us, to make a profit bigger ones in the future..

[Ararbermas]

A possibility just crossed my mind, after thinking about what McAfee said - could crypto replace government?

Let's say every person owned a smart contract cryptocurrency like Ethereum (or Cardano, Polkadot, etc.)

If somehow it were designed in such a way that each person only had one vote and there were no centralized developers, we would have a pure democracy.

Payment for local services could be decided based on smart contracts (defense, firefighting, police, licensing, etc.)

Popularity contests would no longer decide politics. Social justice warriors would no longer be able to assault companies to bending to their will - people would remain anonymous.

Privacy would again be valued.

Crooked politicians and bribes would no longer allow politicians to slip in devastating legislation like the recent "infrastructure "bill's attempt to control all of crypto.

Our currencies could no longer be devalued to pay elite politicians' friends in the financial industries.

Could such a system of government work?

no it's impossible because even that words " people will remain anonymous" is enough words or reason why government will not allow such things to exist because for them it's like against the rules., yes there's a advantages of using crypto currency especially when it comes making transactions but for government there's a lot of violation that's why they're against in cryptocurrency. So its impossible to happen even in the future in my personal opinion.

[Kez1817]

Do you think government will allow it to happen? Of course NOT. Government has a strong foundation than a cryptocurrency which is not yet fully accepted by everybody and fully recognize or use in different platform as a payment method like in a fiat currency. It will not happen in reality that crypto will replace government, you just dreaming. A decentralized digital currency can't rule the world anonymously unlike in a government that there are people working for our economy and to negotiate with other countries for peace and order.

[ChrisPop]

Definitely. I think a DAO or multiple ones could take the place of the government, but not entirely. There would still be a need for specialised people in the governance. I mean we can't rely on the mass of population to decide who is going to run the agriculture sector for example or who will be in charge of healthcare. Yes, law voting and elections can be digitalised and maybe put on a blockchain, but we can't make it completely decentralized. For a complete feasibility, this requires much further analysis of the exact processes that happen in the governments and how exactly they can be improved using blockchain tech.

btw there also is the RSK network which is considered the "safest" one taking into account that it is a second layer of Bitcoin

[Iranus]

Definitely. I think a DAO or multiple ones could take the place of the government, but not entirely. There would still be a need for specialised people in the governance. I mean we can't rely on the mass of population to decide who is going to run the agriculture sector for example or who will be in charge of healthcare. Yes, law voting and elections can be digitalised and maybe put on a blockchain, but we can't make it completely decentralized. For a complete feasibility, this requires much further analysis of the exact processes that happen in the governments and how exactly they can be improved using blockchain tech.
btw there also is the RSK network which is considered the "safest" one taking into account that it is a second layer of Bitcoin

Actually, Decentralized Autonomous organization tried but they failed badly, now DAO is nearly dead project.
No government has been able to accept cryptocurrency from the heart. All governments want to maintain their hegemony, they have always wanted to manage bitcoin transactions through a regulatory system. The governments that have accepted Bitcoin have been forced to accept it due to its rise and pressure from users. Bitcoin's rising price has improved because the government has accepted it, and if the government boycotts it, prices will fall. In fact, no economy can survive without the government.

[BrianH]

We don't think so because these smart contract are not using in our daily life. Its very hard ti understand for every person specially un-educated person to use Etherium,polkadot eyc contract address for transaction.
These contracts cannot bear the burden of such a big Government transactions per second.

Agreed. The current system needs to be simplified. Sending to obtuse strings of letters is hard for the average person to understand or use. It will get there. There are several cryptos already that can solve the TPS issue.

Did you mean to say could Crypto replace voting or did you mean to say it could replace the government?  Either way the answer to both right now is no.  I think fist off voting is a "popularity contest" and using the blockchain for voting wouldn't change that.  After all a democracy counts it's votes from most vs least ( minus the United States and our stupid Electoral College).   Also I'm not sure how this would change privacy wise?  If a blockchain were used to count votes, it would need to be open ledger such as how bitcoins works vs a blockchain say like Monero.  I like the theories you've come up with here but sadly I think that is simply all they are.

Good question. Purely replacing government would be difficult, but it could replace aspects of it. IRS would not need to exist. Much of the bureaucrats that maintain billing and support would not need to exist. "Nice to haves" would get voted on. But you will need people to defend the country and build the weapons. Providing for the common defense of a country is supposed to be the main purpose of government.

Popularity is still an element, but it is drastically diminished. You don't need a central figurehead - blockchain could be used to direct major decisions. Department leaders could be individually replaced if they are not doing their job. Their spending would be visible on the public blockchain, allowing citizens to directly reward commitments achieved and punish unfulfilled promises. It could happen faster than the current election system.

Privacy is tricky. Realize the flaw in what I was saying earlier. Perhaps government would be exposed by being on a public blockchain, whereas citizens could use a private blockchain. Effectively the reverse of what we have now. ...or a semi-private blockchain where only the identity of the user and total balance of the account are known - if a politician suddenly gets a $1B donation, questions get asked.

The problem with that, is if there is a private blockchain (like cash), how do you prevent bribery of individual leaders? Maybe it doesn't matter - government employees get replaced faster if they are not doing their job. It's impossible to prevent in any system. Something to think about.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

If there is a blockchain system that is open and non-anonymous and supported by the government because of the many benefits it is very possible. but now all average characistic crypto and blockchain are always against the will of the government. It must be admitted crypto from an people on economic expert point of view, there are still many pros and cons. it seems very difficult for that to happen.

[Woodie]

I don't think so, government is about regulation while crypto is almost about no regulation, in short they two kind of contradict what they are all about...its like we have water and oil being mixed and we all know that the two don't really just don't mix.

But from the look of things for crypto to survive, it kind of needs the government to survive because it's kind of superior.

[oktana]

Ah! No! Even to be a currency used by people, Crypto is struggling at that. It hasn't even done the best of itself, let alone to be something different. Just simply see Crypto as an Investment, Currency, or Store of Value. Outside this, it can't really operate. Spiderman doesn't have wings but he's still a super hero. Lol

[Luqman]

You are too much thinking about what McAfee said. He just made a controversial statement to attract people's attention. I suspect he isn't serious when he was saying that statement. Every person who can think normally should be aware that the government is irreplaceable. There is no way to replace the function of the government in regulating the system, especially in the financial aspect. It is impossible for the government to adopt totally decentralized system on crypto. There should be a centralized part to ensure the security of the financial sector in a country.

[Hippocrypto]

Actually, this idea about replacing Government was exaggerating to hear and this really so annoying because only terrorist groups wanted no leaders to rule the country. Cryptocurrency is our comfort zone if financial freedom, we can't just take exceptions from control. We can't move if government currency will be removed from the circulations of economy. If we rely on cryptocurrency all alone, there's no regulation that put everything to harmony and there could be sudden collapse of economy which we don't want to happen.

[posi]

A possibility just crossed my mind, after thinking about what McAfee said - could crypto replace government?

You don't explain the McAfee statement you remember but crypto was not introduced to replace the government. It was introduce as an alternative and a true signal of democracy.

Could such a system of government work?

No. Though it works in some areas not all cause the government will never support an anonymous project and you shouldn't forget that there are some people which their intentions was to abuse the decentralized system.

[mrongoz_imut]

can bitcoin replace government? I don't think so, because if bitcoin takes over the role of the government, it's very difficult, because we know the role of the government in regulating its people, it's really very tiring, because without a government the country will surely be destroyed, and can't be controlled, if bitcoin replaces the government, surely it's very difficult, and there will be problems with the price of bitcoin..