Could crypto replace government?

[BrianH]

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?

[hatshepsut93]

No. Smart contracts can't do everything in the world, in fact they can do very little. Ethereum and other smart-contract platforms aren't used in real world like it was envisioned, they are used for creating tokens and trading them, that's it. The DAO promised to revolutionize companies, and it just died at launch due to bug, and no one tried to relaunch it, because they understood that it was a stupid idea.

[Mahanton]

Lets just accept that this wont become a reality.Yes, smart contracts is revolutionary but we cant really just deny that there are things which do works only on where government or in short in centralized things.

Just like been mentioned above by hatshepsut93 was actually on point.So dont expect that it would really happen and both things do function on different key areas.

Why would really pushing that it would really replace the government? Everything would have their own function of its existence.

[franky1]

crypto can validate and officiate a vote of who is a country leader. but a blockchain wont replace the human brain, mouth hands and legs of a nations leader. even if america 2016-2020 showed it had a brainless orange as a leader

some political  decisions during the 4 year term do need a brain and a mouth and even a handshake and some feet to walk around on.. things a blockchain does not have
though we can debate that some nations leaders dont really use their human attributes well

[sapnu]

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?

I think that would be too much for our speculation about crypto. Indeed it is a coin that could adopt to many changes yet it still has limitations on what it can only do for you in your life. The government functions mainly to maintain peace and order for everyone in the country and to exhibit fairness as well as solutions that is much needed by the country. Crypto's function is so far away from ruling people, you cannot expect them to simply smile and get excited upon ruling a nation. It may innovate more in the future yet I don't think it can ever change its current function.

[sunsilk]

That was beyond thinking and futuristic but that won't happen. Governments will never allow this to happen, they might take some of the advance technologies and adopt it for the good.

But I just can't see that this is going to happen and a government will try to apply this with their system. Maybe for some small states and cities, they can do this but it's just too much to think of it.

[Jating]

But without government intervention, there might be total chaos in one country?

Yes, we have crypto and those smart contracts, but I do doubt that it can truly replace a working and able government. We can used and take advantage of smart contracts though, even the government can do that. So why not we have the best of both worlds in our hand? We don't need to sacrifice any of them.

[KennyR]

Maybe a perfect voting system can be developed through the blockchain. The government can't be run by the platform. Then whats the difference between a smart contract and human beings. Already few countries have begun to use the blockchain technology for the voting purpose. Estonia is one among the country that has developed it. Maybe similar kind of development happen around the globe in the future. E-governance is possible through the smart contract, but not the government.

[jitjitmew1]

in the long term maybe a technology akin to bitcoin,but short term,no,no chance,those who are in power are afraid of btc and will try to destroy it at all cost (with no success of course).

[Dhoe]

can bitcoin replace crypto? for now even for the future it can be said, bitcoin can never replace the government, because even the government will absolutely not accept such an ideology, we should not make parables too high, and do not expect too high,,

[Fundamentals Of]

No, this is impossible to happen. Pure democracy is even an illusion. It is an idea, a good idea, but is simply an idea. In the human scheme of things, you cannot expect that the ideal is possible to happen. Human beings are not ideal creatures. You cannot expect purity from human politics.

We may mean good about this but we should cease expecting too much from cryptocurrency, blockchain, smart contracts, etc. They are not as powerful as we imagine. They cannot create paradise on earth.

[iTradeChips]

Unfortunately, cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology are still new technologies that man has not been tested and applied to many aspects of our society. We are even in some sort of introduction phase in the financial technology sectors and we have not yet felt the full potential of the blockchain technology. It is a good idea to use blockchain for elections for that would prevent manipulation and cheating from others. But first, there should be a government willing to do that experiment and is willing to support such technology and the applications to make it work.

[BrianH]

Everyone has said no, but have you looked at crypto-collaterized stable coins like DAI? In >6 months, it has maintained almost a perfect peg 1:1 to the US dollar - solely by the actions of decentralized persons. That is better than centralized coins like USDC and nearly as good as Tether.

No, this is impossible to happen. Pure democracy is even an illusion. It is an idea, a good idea, but is simply an idea.

Switzerland operates as a pure democracy. They are the 6th richest country in the world, per capita. It is a reality. Why not move that voting system to the blockchain? Why can the blockchain not be the "leader?" Most cryptos have a consensus voting mechanism. Why do people feel they need a figurehead?

If people don't believe in smart contracts, then how are smart contracts expected to replace simple things like real estate contracts, health records, etc?

Maybe a perfect voting system can be developed through the blockchain. The government can't be run by the platform. Then whats the difference between a smart contract and human beings. Already few countries have begun to use the blockchain technology for the voting purpose. Estonia is one among the country that has developed it. Maybe similar kind of development happen around the globe in the future. E-governance is possible through the smart contract, but not the government.

Fascinating! I did not know Estonia had moved voting to the blockchain. That's not all... Brilliant!

That's a fair point. I was thinking more in broader terms, such as the blockchain being used for establishing rights, voting, allocating funds and providing a currency. Individually appointing positions for defense, etc. would not be practical for the entire population to do. You can't replace people with technology there (at least not yet).

[AniviaBtc]

No. Smart contracts can't do everything in the world, in fact they can do very little. Ethereum and other smart-contract platforms aren't used in real world like it was envisioned, they are used for creating tokens and trading them, that's it. The DAO promised to revolutionize companies, and it just died at launch due to bug, and no one tried to relaunch it, because they understood that it was a stupid idea.

It is more like it just helps the people to have financial freedom and have something to fight inflation and poverty.

Support from a certain project is what most of the companies lack of, they are just abandoning the process when they see nothing more out of it just like what the DAO did.

Sometimes, application in the real world set up is what most of the people are looking for in a certain project in a platform and it is hard to focus on that when it comes to cryptocurrency.

[Pmalek]

Those cryptocurrencies cannot scale to the point to support an entire economy. They weren't able to handle the load of CryptoKitties a few years ago, what makes you think they can do more than that?
Most governments don't want a pure democracy. You are given an illusion of democracy, but that designation reaches only as far as the interests of your government. Try to go above that and you will experience the same democracy that many whistleblowers experienced.

All those suggestions made in the OP will never be decided by the people. You can protest against war, but war will still happen. You can complain against the banking elite, but they will keep pulling all of the strings and most people will just nod their heads and go along with it.

If you want privacy, your government is the wrong party to turn to. You have to find ways to keep it yourself because they surely aren't interested in you staying under the radar.

To answer your question, no, such a system wouldn't work.   

[Cling18]

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.

[Suharti12]

Government systems and cryptocurrencies are different, government systems need personal control over everything, while cryptocurrencies are digital currencies. 
Inever thought that would happen, but if everyone owns Cryptocurrencies then the possibility that happens is that the change of currency from manual payment systems or Fiat will be replaced Online by Cryptocurrencies.

[breathlessz]

Government systems and cryptocurrencies are different, government systems need personal control over everything, while cryptocurrencies are digital currencies. 
Inever thought that would happen, but if everyone owns Cryptocurrencies then the possibility that happens is that the change of currency from manual payment systems or Fiat will be replaced Online by Cryptocurrencies.

for everyone using crypto, I think the main step is the legalization of the government. if the government legalizes it let alone changes to using crypto currency, of course people will obey it, because of the change in the payment system. and I think it's only a matter of time until now, because there are countries that have legalized it

[palle11]

We don't understand that government is all like control. The government make the society orderly as it is now despite that there are problems and issues of human relations and we can compare that to when if there were no government? The situation is far better with people at the corridors of human affairs, to lead, guide and control the activities of human.

That said, we can't have cryptocurrency taking over government because that will lead to uncontrollable confusion. People won't have any fear to kill the next person because no body to send them to jail 

I think the government and Cryptocurrency can exist together as we see it going at the moment despite government making plans of control but we don't totally see such happening.

[Leviathan.007]

Thet's totally possible to see more people are getting into crypto after hating their government and of course, the governments are going to fight it but in my own idea nothing can replace the other thing, and even after years when more people start to work on cryptocurrencies, nothing will be replaced the other thing and I think when the government sees the attention to crypto they will be forced to show the white flag and accept crypto instead of fighting against it, It's all depends on people.