by Daniele Fabbri | Dec 11, 2018 | News
Nature 2.0 will hold a series of events in Berlin and Amsterdam, exploring blockchain technology in preparation for their participation as one of the tracks at the biggest blockchain hackaton in the world: the DutchChain Hackaton 2019 in Groningen.
What is Nature 2.0?
Nature 2.0 is an open community who wants to explore the use of cutting-edge technologies in order to create a better society. Taking advantage and combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain technology and autonomous assets, “Nature 2.0 aims for an ownerless layer of natural resources and intelligent agents that promote sustainable public utilities in a world of abundance”.
In an article on Medium, “Nature 2.0 The Cradle of Civilization Gets an Update”, Trent McConaghy illustrates their mission, inspired by the natural world, were flora and fauna coexist in ecosystems exhibiting features of resilience and anti-fragility, and are based on commons.
Technology allows to replicate the symbiotic relationships presents in nature, and will help design a post-scarcity society, one functioning as a positive-sum game rather than a zero-sum one.
Through the use of AI, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and autonomous assets, it becomes possible to design Public Utility Networks (PUN) that are self-owned and that self-manage.
Think about self-driving cars: once they become a reality, there would be little use for privates in owning them. It would rather be better to make them autonomous assets, managed by an artificial intelligence, and allow them to receive payments via digital currency.
Nature 2.0 and Universal Basic Income
Cars would then provide an Uber-like service, but there would no drivers to pay, no management, no corporation. It would be a swarm of cars, self-regulating, with no concept of identity or scarcity, and autonomously using part of the payment they receive in order to maintain (repair, upgrade) themselves. And the remaining will be used to finance UBI.
And cars were just one example, the same could work for trucks, electric grids, wind farms, roads, etc. Then the UBI extracted from those redesigned PUNs would be distributed through blockchain, the only requirement proving to be human (an example of blockchain based UBI is that of Manna).
“The abundance from machines gets transferred to humans”
More information at:
Nature 2.0 website
Trent McConaghy, “Nature 2.0 The Cradle of Civilization Gets an Update”, Medium, June 6th, 2018
by Hilde Latour | Jun 15, 2018 | News
Picture: Deep Dog at the Beach by Botgirl Questi, 2014, CC-BY-NC 2.0
On June 6th 2018, Trent McConaghy, founder of Ocean Protocol and BigchainDB states in his article “Nature 2.0, The Cradle of Civilization Gets an Upgrade”, that a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain can result in a future of abundance. Profits from self-owning machines can pay for a Universal Basic Income (UBI), according to this expert in the field of automation.
A Blockchain is a database with new characteristics compared to traditional databases, as McConaghy explains:
- “It’s decentralized — no single entity owns or controls it. There’s no single point of failure
- It’s immutable — once you’ve written into it, it’s there for good. (unless intentionally changed)
- And it has assets – you own something if you have the private key. “
Furthermore, Blockchains can not only be used for data storage, but also for processing data and communications. Blockchains, like Bitcoin, can be seen as information-centric Public Utility Networks (PUNs), states McConaghy, and “as “trust machines” these minimize the human trust (in banks) needed to operate. In doing so, these allow ever larger organizations of people to interact without trust issues arising. McConaghy says that the most important characteristic of blockchains is “incentives”. According to him, “a person can design a network that gets people to do stuff, by rewarding them with tokens.”
Then he takes us a step further and explains that Blockchains can also be designed as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which is a computational process which runs autonomously on a decentralized infrastructure. McConaghy explains: “A DAO is autonomous code that can own stuff.”
Trent also refers that AI and DAO combined can generate value by making and selling art, using Genetic Programming (GP) (as in this example), or Deep Dreams (a twist of Neural Networks). It can be achieved when a computer program ‘orders’ an artwork to be generated, sells it on a digital marketplace for crypto currencies and repeats the process (generating a new artwork). Over time, it accumulates wealth, without any human controlling it, while evolving with its own GP coding.
“This is possible with today’s technology” and AI-DAO’s can get rights using today’s law, McConaghy states. The impact of the combination of AI and DAO is huge because it combines database resources with autonomous decision-making. Making and selling art is only one example, but self-ownership can be done with self-driving cars and even roads, windfarms and energy grids, according to McConaghy. He concludes by stating:
“Many dream of Universal Basic Income (UBI), because it can address worries about job loss in the face of AI, and help more people to chase their dreams and self-actualize. Blockchains make the distribution side straightforward. Anyone that provides some proof of being human (even if imperfect) gets an equal amount of income arriving to the UBI chain. The challenge is how to pay for it. Nature 2.0 gives a solution to this! In short: profits from self-owning machines pay into the UBI chain.”
More information at:
Trent McConaghy, “Nature 2.0: The Cradle of Civilization Gets an Upgrade”, Medium, June 6th 2018
Special thanks to André Coelho for reviewing this article.
by Quentin Mathys | May 15, 2018 | News
Cryptocurrencies have taken over the news in recent years and I’m sure some readers have even looked at a Bitcoin Trader review, looking to see if it’s something they should invest in. But outside of trading, not many people understand the potential applications of Bitcoin and blockchain. This is why today, we’re going to be talking about Swiftdemand. SwiftDemand is a basic income blockchain experiment in which each user who is signed up daily receives a certain number of Swift tokens. The project’s white paper gives a clear understanding of the implementation of this Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) providing Universal Basic Income and how the Swift Protocol works.
The concept of SwiftDemand is to create a transactional currency that provides basic income. Hence, four types of accounts are required to ensure that the ecosystem works:
- Citizens – The registration to become a Swift Citizen is open to anyone and is for free. However, a unique individual should only be allowed to have one account that receives the basic income and is validated by an Identity Provider.
- Entities – There are accounts not tied to individuals and are allowed to exist for business or privacy purposes. However, these do not receive any basic income.
- Delegated Nodes – these are responsible for maintaining full nodes, containing every single transaction that has occurred on the blockchain, and for creating new blocks for the tokens. Delegated nodes are elected by Swift Citizens, and the elections occur every 6 months.
- Identity Providers – These ensure the validation of the Swift Citizens identity, create new citizens by generating a key pair, i.e. a public and a private key allowing to encrypt information that ensures data is protected during a transaction, and include the identity on the blockchain.
As specified by SwiftDemand creators, the goal of the Swift protocol income distribution is to provide a faire method of providing Swifts to all Swift Citizens. Swifts are distributed on a daily basis under the form of a basic income and, today, the grant is set at 100 tokens. However, it is subject to change as the amount of tokens distributed depends on the number of Swift Citizens that exist in the ecosystem.
It can be said that SwiftDemand is on the verge of becoming a cryptocurrency for basic income distribution. It depends on the number of new members registering but with the growing popularity of virtual currency, the chances are highly in favor of SwiftDemand. If you are interested in learning more about top crypto to invest in for higher profit probability, you can go through blogs and websites discussing the same.
It is also important to note that the basic income has to be claimed by the Swift Citizens with a maximum of seven unclaimed days of Swifts. For example, it means that if a Swift Citizen claims its basic incomes every four days, he will be granted 400 tokens every four days. Another way to earn Swifts is through referrals program. When any Citizen successfully introduces a new user to SwiftDemand, his/her account is granted with 500 tokens.
This attempt at implementing a universal basic income has the potential to make basic income more visible. Despite a complex protocol, the platform is free and easy to use. Even though the Swift currency does not have any value outside the Swift ecosystem, citizens have the opportunity to sell goods and services, transfer their tokens or make purchases, creating a parallel economy ruled by basic income values.
More information at:
Swift Protocol White Paper (Draft)
One Pager – SwiftDemand
“Swift Demand: Swifts Token Attempt At Basic Income Project?“, Bitcoin Exchange Guide
Article reviewed by André Coelho.
by Andre Coelho | Apr 14, 2018 | News
Blockchain is a kind of register, or digital ledger, of economic transactions. According to specialists, it is incorruptible since it exists as a distributed network of registers, and hence impossible to hack.
Moreover, put simply, blockchain is a simple yet ingenious way of passing information from one location to another in an automated and safe manner. Firstly, one party involved in a transaction initiates the process by creating a block. This block is verified by computers distributed around the internet. The verified block is then added to a chain, which is stored across the internet, creating not just a unique record, but a unique record with a unique history. Falsifying a single record would mean falsifying the entire chain in millions of instances and this is thought to be virtually impossible. Accordingly, blockchain technology poses a number of exciting opportunities for businesses. Consequently, you can learn more about these opportunities by reaching out to an organization that offers blockchain development services.
There are no doubts about it, since 2008, the year of its first appearance, blockchain has evolved from a single article (by Satoshi Nakamoto) to a global phenomenon. At present, numerous applications have been found and are being researched for Blockchain, so much so that an international meeting of people working with the Blockchain has been set up. And this year that meeting, the Blockchaingers Hackathon, happened in Groningen, in the Netherlands, from the 5th to the 8th of April (some results of the Hackathon can be watched here).
The Blockchaingers Hackathon had already been organized in 2017, at the same location, but this year Hilde Latour, Co-chair of the Universal Basic Income Europe (UBIE), was there to try and plant the seed of basic income in several blockchain working teams. There have already been proposals that merge the blockchain and basic income concepts, such as the one involving artificial intelligence and autonomous assets, presented at the Blockchain Innovation Conference 2017 of Vincent Everts by Jan-Peter Doomernik. The connection of this “crazy thought experiment” with basic income was further explained by Hilde Latour at that same Conference, possible to watch on this short five-minute presentation.
At the Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 Hilde was interviewed in two occasions, where basic income is generally described, as well as its possible integration with what is called the “machine economy“. In any case, according to Hilde, basic income can be viewed as a transitional solution between the present day monetary economy and a future society where goods and services will be available to all, without the intermediation of money.
More information at:
The Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 website
by Cameron McLeod | Mar 30, 2017 | News
Johan Nygren, a basic income activist, is currently exploring if basic income can be implemented using cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency are digital currencies whose value and number of units are regulated by encryption techniques, outside of any central banking system. Understandably, not everyone is going to have a clear idea as to what cryptocurrency is all about, but this is why sites like cryptoexchangespy.com exist. Doing a bit of research is better than doing none at all, especially when it comes to something as interesting digital currency.
If this is something that you are interested in then you can find out how to buy cryptocurrency here.
You might also have heard about Ethereum. Put simply, Ethereum is a global, decentralized platform for money and other applications. Using Ethereum – a block chain network – you can write code that controls money, and build applications accessible anywhere in the world.
Currently, cryptocurrencies can be used as a means of payment in various spheres. Additionally, freelancers who work in digital industries also accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment. If you’d like find out more information about becoming or hiring ethereum freelancers, the Freelance For Coins is a useful resource that can put you into contact with freelancers where you are.
A cryptocurrency-based basic income will be funded with taxes grown within a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. P2P is an architecture for building computer networks that’s focus is on equality and sharing among peers, each user consuming and supplying information to the network. Nygren’s experiment aims to use decentralized ‘swarms’ of users to distribute a basic income through what Nygren calls ‘dividend pathways’.
A dividend pathway is “the world’s first peer-to-peer financial security,” where every transaction opens up a pathway, to a global network of connected users. RES, Nygren’s crypto-currency, is then shared through a branching scheme with all who are connected to the pathways – those on the BitNation network. The branching scheme is analogous to our network of veins, pumping information instead of blood. With the growing interest in cryptocurrency continuing, this type of scheme will give more opportunities to businesses who wish to use cryptocurrency to pay employees. Business owners can check out these Interesting Bitcoin Statistics in 2020 to not only learn more about all available digital currencies but how they compare against bitcoin, before testing this new P2P model.
This model tests whether a network can electronically divert income to users, in this case using a small tax levied on financial purchases and exchanges made over a system called BitNation; the process is called Swarm Redistribution. Nygren writes that “the whole experiment is public, transparent, auditable, [and] includes a close-down switch in case a bug is discovered.”
BitNation, a Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation (DBVN), provides public services to its naturalized citizens. As a virtual jurisdiction, the main difference from traditional governments is voluntary allegiance to its constitution – membership is open to anyone and involvement limited only by the user. As a blockchain-based structure, government activities are transparent. Its mission, according to founder Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, is to “get rid of geographical apartheid” and offer “better and cheaper governance services.”
Nygren’s swarm redistribution theory assumes that ongoing transactions with the crypto-currency RES will infuse BitNation’s cybereconomy with a branchwork (think the blood analogy) of paid-forward value additions. This would mean extracting essentially a value-added tax (VAT) along the way and pooling a coffer for the basic incomes’ distribution. The model theorizes that growth is incentivized by the desire for personal return and altruism, or a desire to contribute to social resilience (more information can be found here).
BitNation’s current population of nearly five thousand users with roughly fifty thousand daily transactions involving the cryptocurrency ETH could eventually provide the structure for a basic income for its users.
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