Perhaps the covid-19 virus epidemic could become a catalyst for encryption solutions.
Original author: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) investment partner Max Skibinsky, focused on enterprise security and Bitcoin field
The outbreak of the new coronavirus may become a catalyst, allowing more people to discover the benefits of “liberal” solutions and technologies-such as encryption.
As a society as a whole, the United States is suffering from a crisis of trust. Many Americans believe in the three pillars of their lifetime beliefs: financial institutions, the US government, and the US media. Americans had hoped that financial institutions could protect everyone ’s assets, that American politicians would make informed decisions, and that the American media could truthfully inform people of the problems. At the same time, Americans also entrust financial institutions, the US government, and the media to consider the best interests of the public and provide guidance and assistance during times of crisis. However, none of this happened. What they saw was the catastrophic failure of financial institutions, the US government, and the media.
History is always repeating itself again and again. In 2008, the United States finally chose a relief bank and made a large number of people unemployed and struggling on the edge of life. But has the US government learned any lessons from the financial crisis? No! Those centralized institutions still put their own interests first and are indifferent to ordinary people.
The 2008 financial crisis almost destroyed Americans ’trust in banks, and eventually led to the birth and proliferation of cryptocurrencies. One of the reasons why cryptocurrencies will be born is that banks and related third-party institutions cannot protect people ’s assets at all. People want to permanently eliminate those disguised as “good faith financial intermediaries” and control their own money and fate.
There are many similarities between the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis and the crisis we are currently experiencing, because people ’s trust in the “three pillars” is gradually disappearing, especially during the new coronavirus epidemic, we realized :
1. The functional institution failed completely. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet prepared for response at any level. The US Food and Drug Administration’s policy has completely harmed the American public. They even banned people from testing at home, but forced everyone to gather in local hospitals for testing.
2. The US government, especially the American politicians, has completely failed. The US federal government is now estimated to be confused. They initially thought that the epidemic was not a big problem, so they did not want to spend money on security protection and no-fly flights, but in the end these airlines lost trillions of dollars. The US government also always publishes confusing and contradictory information, with no plans, no equipment, and no dependence on science and hard data. Over the past few months, American politicians have been engaged in political struggles, but have not resolved the issues that have affected the safety of millions of lives.
3. The American media failed completely. The mainstream media in the United States completely ignored the crisis and even downplayed the crisis in the first few months of the epidemic. At first, the American media had been telling people that the new coronavirus was just a flu-like illness, and spread completely false and dangerous false information. Incompetent American journalists did not pay attention to the results of “research” and “fact check”, and even lacked basic professional skills, which ultimately led people to lose confidence in the American media because they could not tell the public the correct information.
If we go back to the early days of the birth of cryptocurrency, we will find that it seems to be prepared for the “end of the world.” After all, as long as the US government, US financial institutions, or US media can do their job so that people can have a little trust in them, there is no need for such a peer-to-peer decentralized financial network.
Facts have proved that everything encountered in the United States now just illustrates the views of cryptocurrency supporters. Now, we need to rely on decentralized solutions built on basic mathematics to replace traditional financial and social systems (which were blindly trusted by people in the past), and we need to empower individuals. For those who are tech-savvy, their response to this crisis is very similar to that of 2008. Every centralized institution will say:
“We know how to treat you well, just trust us.”
But now it seems that more and more people believe in them, and decentralized organizations are beginning to surface. In fact, what people really trust is the “source code” and its operating rules in a distributed network. These contents are visible to everyone on the network, and can be reviewed and improved. Once people get rid of the urgent need for traditional financial institutions, the intertwined role of encryption and decentralization can develop rapidly in society. When all the dust is settled, the basic encryption technology will usher in the second pioneering moment-providing power for many vertical industries, so which industries will benefit from encryption technology?
1. Education: Online education and home learning will develop rapidly. Here we give an example. The Teachers ’Union of California always seems to be“ opposing ”with parents, and the conflicts are getting worse, which means that local teachers must establish reputation and compensation standards outside the traditional education structure. Therefore, for those teachers who master online technology, and make the Internet classroom work ability ten times higher than those who are not proficient in technology-there is no doubt that blockchain online education may be the best answer to this challenge.
2. Media: Nowadays, the importance of independent media is becoming more and more obvious. These media can sound the alarm or clarify the problems people are currently facing. Unfortunately, this kind of media only exists in our fantasy, like a fantasy hero in Pentagon-style movies and books. In fact, the real media is constantly declining, and the business model is also declining. Traditional media companies are trying to compete with technology companies with the same advertising revenue (thus, it is obvious that they have suffered heavy losses). Their employees are no longer the heroes of the past. Team Members are either overworked or unsatisfied with low compensation, and eventually become a company that regards content production as a short-term profit. These traditional media companies allow employees to make in-depth reports, instead of giving priority to providing the fastest and most accurate news in the best interests of the public. Frankly speaking, the rapid response capability, research capability, and ability to provide timely science and data-based news reporting capabilities of traditional media are currently zero.
We are now entering a new era of “self-media”, everyone can find a reliable source of information, in addition to the non-profit media model, the use of blockchain technology can make these “self-media” get paid, and the grassroots Journalists can also have their own broadcasting capabilities. Independent individuals will replace the “experts” and dozens of mainstream media in the past, and can provide in-depth and extremely specific reports in any field. We have seen many podcast stars on Substack, Twitter and YouTube, and encryption technology will help this trend develop more quickly.
3. On-demand workforce: If the new coronavirus eventually becomes a normalized disease like seasonal colds and flu, then remote work will become the default choice for the enterprise, and a highly flexible workforce (not subject to any geographic area) will be available immediately Used for any special tasks. The “on-demand” labor force will eventually become the “mainstream” labor force, just as mobile phones have become synonymous with telephony. As usual, distributed, decentralized and credit-free network companies can see the professional competence and past performance proof of the applicant on the blockchain to avoid the applicant ’s fraud. On the other hand, workers can also follow the blockchain Work records are remunerated to prevent companies from “paying their debts” and arrears in wages. The solution of the blockchain can “get” the above two problems. After a few years of adjustment, the company may fully adapt to the new normal “on-demand labor” in the future, just like writer Neal Stephenson (Neal Stephenson) The vision described in his classic work “Diamond Age” is the same. As long as laborers are willing to contribute, knowledge work will become something that anyone can “log in” from anywhere on the planet anytime, anywhere. The New Crown Virus epidemic will accelerate this trend and turn the scenes in science fiction into reality.
We have begun to see the budding of progress. The whole society is exploring how to learn and develop from this crisis. After seeing such a serious failure of the traditional model, perhaps the new coronavirus epidemic can become a catalyst for encryption solutions. We will also usher in a rational era based on science, research, data and facts-and this may be what the crypto industry has brought to the post-epidemic world.
Original link: https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-the-birth-of-crypto-can-predict-for-the-post-covid-19-world