I listened to this one again. Dan's comments about his philosophy and the future of the block chain are worth rereading. Impromptu partial transcript below:
Max Wright: Share for us what your idea of the philosophy of freedom and the philosophy that you brought to bitshares….
Dan Larimer: The philosophy of freedom, for me, is all about “don’t do unto other people what you don’t want other people doing to you.” That’s the non-aggression principle. But if you apply that consistently, you can derive my entire worldview and philosophy. I use technology as a means of reaching the ends. A means of reaching that freedom, that ideal, of implementing that technology in society. There are a lot of places online where Libertarians rant, “the government is doing this, the government is doing that. Let’s petition them, let’s ask them, let’s beg them.” Some people say that we should fight violently and overthrow them. But I am very much of the mindset that the free market needs to be able to provide security--needs to be able to protect our life, liberty and property against all aggressors. That means that the free market needs to produce solutions that can protect us against today’s governments, without requiring that today’s governments disappear first. The solution needs to be so powerful and so effective that they work today, even in the middle of what many people consider to be a “big brother” government, a “1984” surveillance society.
Max Wright: Let’s talk about where this technology is going.
Dan Larimer: Where the Internet and block chain technology can take us as a society, where every transaction you do is settled on a block chain. Where every dispute that you have is resolved on a block chain. Where your reputation and identity are managed on a block chain. Where your voting happens on a block chain. And where all laws -- that you agree to follow -- you can sign to, and post it on a block chain. Whenever you go to do business with someone, you bump your phones together and it verifies that you've got compatible arbitration agreements automatically. And when you make that purchase, you've got a signed record, a signed receipt of what it is that you are buying and what terms you agree to. So you've got these verifiable, provable signatures, you've got built-in arbitration, you are only accountable to your own laws, and every member of society can be bonded by posting a bond on the block chain in security against compliance with the laws that you have agreed to follow. And all of this stuff can be done in an entirely voluntary manner that does not depend upon initiating force or violence against anyone. It can be done in an entirely legal way because it only depends upon free speech and voluntary association. So I envision that block chain technology will allow us to create a world where the incentives for being part of the... block chain community, that the efficiencies you gain are so strong, that your profits are so much higher, that being rejected or shunned by that community forces you to deal with people outside it -- people who have to charge higher fees, require security deposits for your utilities, for your rent, everything under the sun. The cost of doing business outside the system will be higher than the cost inside the system. I can see this creating a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle, where the more people that join and participate and start doing commerce entirely on a block chain -- merchants and consumers -- never having to lead back to the fiat world. You’ll start to see a growing snowball effect until it gets to the point that no one will dare being a government official because they would be excluded because they are participating in the initiation of violence against others. So these things are possible. I believe there is a solution. I do not believe that violence is a necessary response to violence -- that you must create governments in order to have law and order. I believe that good people don’t have to resort to bad things just because bad people exist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczMKASQk6s