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I'd love to hear some thoughts on Lawrence Lessig's talk given at the Sydney Blockchain conference in December 2015. I was in attendance on the first day of the conference but sadly missed the second in which Lessig gave this talk: Deja vú all over again: Thinking through law & code, again. Lawrence guides the listener on a walk down memory lane to the genesis of the Internet framing it as a remarkably similar inflection point to where we find ourselves today in 2016 with blockchain technologies. He hammers home his point that the state is by no means obviable in context of "purely private contracts" (e.g. Etherum based agreements) while never touching on any of the more volatile topics around the monopoly on the use of force in any sort of human ethical context. Peaceful parenting is nowhere to be found ... if you were curious. Following the conference, I've learned that Lessig's talk was one of the most revered among many attendees ... both via personal discussions with attendees and conference recaps that have been published around the web. This gives rise to a bit of concern on my part over the feeling that we don't have very strong philosophical minds on the ground in the blockchain space at this crucial time in the development of this technology. I know Stef has been present as a speaker in past bitcoin/blockchain conferences which I'd love to see more of. I feel I did my small part with the few folks I spoke with at the conference to raise some critical and remarkably unasked questions to those within earshot. I suppose deja vú is the soup du jour at the "Philosophy of Humanity Café"! Hemlock anyone? With the recent launch of Bitnation [Estona e-Residency Program and Bitnation DAO Public Notary Partnership Announcement] and the myriad other blockchain based products and services being launched, the stage is set for a unique showdown, in my opinion, between the former and the future generations ... one that pits a generation that seems to value loose, ambiguous, and corrupt with strict, clear, and uncorruptable. Obviously there is a unity of these opposites that will ultimately unfold, however I can't help but to feel that an inter-generational battlefield is the "reality" that we actually inhabit. Depending upon the personal lens you view the world through each day, what it might mean to be on the "winning side" of history has never felt more critical to understand at a personal level to inform daily life. It's remarkable, exciting, and enervating all at the same time. Thoughts, observations, suggestions of other content ... all very appreciated! Good day to you all...

Hello! fellow Philosophers. EDIT: To be perfectly clear, I do not endorse Bitnation. I only mention it as an example of people working on decentralized insurance companies among other things, Decentralized insurance or DDROs are my only interest in Bitnation right now. And it is their essense that intrigues me not the means in which they may be applied, atleast at this time. There's a topic that I've wanted to bring to your attention for a while now and I'm exited to say the time has come. I'm not sure how familiar all of you are with the Bitcoin technology, but I believe it has the power to speed hack us to a free-er society in a variety of ways. For those that are not familiar with the back end of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a long list of every transaction that has ever been made, this transactions can carry anything from information about who owns what coin, to digital files that represent things in the real world. A google maps image of your house for example can be "hashed" and turned into a unique set of digits that once added to the blockchain along side a hash of a contract signed could prove transferred ownership of the house. This ledger is distributed among computers all over the world and in multiple jurisdictions and it is updated live. For a variety of reasons that I can get into if people are skeptical, Bitcoin's technology makes fraud very very very difficult. It also allows for what have been dubbed DAO's or decentralized autonomous organizations. This simply put means that one can create a program that runs ontop of blockchain networks and can not be destroyed or ended by any one party, since there is no central point of failure. The internet would have to be shut down, to kill Bitcoin and that which is being built ontop of it. The reason I mention all this, is because there are a few projects gaining strength that may allow for what could be decentralized, jurisdiction and bureaucracy free insurance companies. And if I remember correctly, insurance companies are essentially what DROs are, according to stef's DRO theory. I'll be writing an article about this topic during the next week or so that I'll be aiming to post on Bitcoin Magazine and will be interviewing someone deeply involved in Crypto currencies and insurance. But I also wanted to get your thoughts on this subject. If we had the possibility of having insurance companies that are not subject to government power. Than can we begin to build the anarchist heaven that we have dreamt of, ontop of the internet? Here is one project in particular that claims to know how to do something like this. Though I am skeptical of many of the claims they make, bitcoin insurance seems to me very possible and within our grasp. http://www.bitnation.co/ I can elaborate more or anything if you wish. I have not looked into DRO theory in a while though, so this is part of the research for the article. My question is. If we can create insurance companies ontop of the internet, with their headquarters being a website distributed throughout the world, and with its core members being anonymous. And if we can find ways to have users of insurance prove to these organization when damage to insure property has happened, than do DRO's come to life? How is government able to control and diminish the power of insurance today and why are DROs not currently alive? What would be the limitations of such a system, given that peaceful parenting has not yet become mainstream? Thank you. I look forward to your thoughts. (PS: trying to find the right forum for this post has resulted in my posting it in 2 different sub forums here, sorry for spam)