1/ Crypto’s biggest potential impact to society is in sustainably distributing wealth, capital & ownership to a larger % of the world.
This is also its biggest risk: crypto can exacerbate inequality if it is not made accessible to everyone—especially those who need it most.
2/ Inequality is growing to unsustainable levels comparable to that in the early 1900s prior to WWI & the 1700s prior to the French Revolution & sweeping changes throughout Europe.
The top 1% (~80M people) now owns the same amount of capital as the remaining 99% (~7.9B people).
3/ Historically, there are only two solutions to extreme levels of inequality:
1. Revolution: Violence or war that leads to wealth redistribution to those who fought & won
2. Intervention: Political change that raises taxes on the rich & increases benefits to the poor
4/ But is there another way? One that doesn’t require war or heavy government oversight?
Is another option even possible when the system, power, rules, governance, capital, tech, etc. are centralized among the 1%, as they have been for millennia?
Historically, the answer is no.
5/ Today’s society also faces something new that no other generation has: global technologies that have further centralized power and wealth, as well as automated work and reduced demand for labor, particularly among the middle class.
Tech is accelerating inequality.