Was Bitcoin the Big Bang of Enlightenment 2.0?

People have been experimenting with centralized power structures for thousands of years. I maintain that we can only solve our global problems with completely new political, economic and social systems, systems that are structured like neural networks, namely decentralized. They will emerge and no one will be able to prevent them.

Anyone who has ever looked at the contents of our heads can only wonder how this gray mass of cells can produce so much intelligence. There are no corporate or party headquarters, no presidents and board members who decide everything for the body with wisdom and benevolence.  At the cellular level, we only find nodes and connections. That's it.
Trillions of neuronal connections produce thoughts, feelings, habits, ideas and survival strategies. We now know how it works, even if we don't know why it works. One thing is certain: consciousness is created by decentralized networks.
So what does our brain have to do with the organization of our society?

For thousands of years, philosophers and politicians, thinkers and cranks have been devising new models for organizing human coexistence. None of these models has worked in the long term in the past. Pharaohs were gods and therefore had the right to dispose of people. They could have pyramids built and use slaves for this purpose. Doubts about their divine status and thus their power were usually resolved by beheading.
Today, the party pharaohs of democracies rule, legitimized by elections. They would still like to remove all doubts about their infallibility quickly and permanently, because power always corrupts, with no exceptions. All social models, whether monarchy or empire, whether communism or socialism, have all failed due to similar symptoms. The so-called elites have always abused their power and had to suppress the citizens who wanted to resist.
Now it is the turn of the democracies of this planet. The powerful have overdone it, corrupting politics. Our democratic system is approaching a turning point. It needs wars to survive, multinational corporations and hedge funds are plundering the state and the state must plunder the savings of its citizens. The system of exploitation through forced growth and inflation has maneuvered itself to the abyss.

Politicians are increasingly using crises, including those such as the corona or climate crisis, to enforce "special measures"; censorship is simply called "avoiding disinformation". A system on the verge of collapse tends towards absurdity.

So-called elitist groups such as the World Economic Forum have come up with the so-called Great Reset as a new form of government, unsolicited by the citizens. The analysis that nations could be overwhelmed with solving global problems wasn´t entirely wrong. But it was probably completely wrong that the solutions for all people on this planet could come from a few clever minds at the WEF. The approach of replacing national, centralist organizations with global centralist organizations is like putting out fires with gasoline.  Humans have always colossally overestimated themselves. Every organization that governs strives for more power, makes mistakes and thus destroys itself. The more power it has, the more serious the mistakes and the more rigorous the oppression.
People want to help shape their lives and have a right to do so. Centralist organizations that want to make everyone happy by disempowering them with their measures, will provoke great resistance from the citizens. In my view, we will only be able to find solutions to our problems by reaching a consensus with all the inhabitants of this planet and through global cooperation.

Could it be that:
1. the age of centralized solutions is over?
2. decentralized networks will create local and global solutions?

Decisions about the fate of individuals and entire nations must not and cannot depend on individuals, parties or institutions. Individuals cannot fulfill this responsibility, nor can presidents or autocrats withstand the pressure of this task. Least of all can they centrally control the interests of all groups and individuals. Today, every national decision has a global impact that is far too complex to predict. Just take the demand for rare earths for the energy transition.
Today, in 2023, all vectors are pointing towards major global changes. Old recipes such as interest rate manipulation and subsidies are working less and less. Concepts such as capitalism, socialism and communism have proven that they cannot prevent inequality, poverty, polarization and wars. Democratic organizations, together with central banks, cannot solve social injustice and climate problems.

Rather, power has passed from the elected institutions to multinational corporations with unlimited resources. The system is the problem. If the system creates the problems, then the solution cannot come from within the system. The political actors who want to save the world today are themselves the cause, as actors in a system that cannot be changed from within. The hubris inherent in humans can be seen in developments such as Elon Musk's X project and AI guru Sam Altman's Worldcoin. They truly believe they can lead humanity into a happy future with their company's ideas.
Centralist organizations can and will be corrupted, blackmailed and exploited. Majority shareholders radically assert their interests. Uncomfortable CEOs are simply replaced. Authorities have proven that they use all means at their disposal to push through their interests. Just think of the revelations of the Twitter files.  Large corporations like Google start out with noble motives and over time turn into power- and data-hungry manipulation monsters. Citizens' data will be misused with absolute certainty.

There is no way to prevent it - what can be done will be done. Intelligence agencies can confiscate or shut down servers and no one can prevent it. Authorities can force companies to censor or extradite customers. The EU's Digital Service Act is the best example, as is the attempt at chat control.

Decentralized networks are an alternative. Decentralized networks communicate via thousands of nodes. A node that transmits data can run on any computer in the world. In most cases, as with Bitcoin and the Nostr communication platform, open source protocols ensure that the rules are adhered to and the data is distributed correctly. There is no corporate headquarters that could be stormed, nor a board of directors that could be blackmailed or deposed. Data can be sent in encrypted form and the secret services cannot force anyone to read it. The developers of the protocols are often sitting on a beach on a Caribbean island or swinging in a hammock in Vietnam. Any software developer can program applications on the open source protocol as solutions to local problems.
Since Bitcoin and Nostr, there have been tools to organize the most important elements of governance and coexistence in a decentralized way - money and communication.

With decentralized networks, for the first time in history, humanity has the opportunity to create global intelligence in which all people can participate. Decentralized networks replicate the structure of the brain. Intelligence is created through connections, connections between people via the Internet and software protocols. Collaboration is rewarded with added value.  Applications for limitless money transfer, micropayments for small services and countless applications are already running on the Bitcoin protocol. Nigerian farmers' associations will soon be able to order organic seeds in Ghana, for example, without having to rely on the centralized CFA currency. Families will be able to manage and distribute family assets securely without banks and send money to each other via encrypted chat. None of these applications can be corrupted, censored or destroyed.

Decentralized networks could be the beginning of a new age of humanity. If people are given the opportunity to work together globally and help each other to solve problems, then solutions could emerge everywhere that no centralized organization would ever have dreamed of.
During the Enlightenment, people in Europe emancipated themselves from the church. They managed to separate church and state and make education accessible to all citizens. It is time for people to emancipate themselves from central banks and governments and separate money and state once and for all. The state's monopoly on money is just as outdated as the church's sovereignty of faith. Once people learn to use and live out this freedom, a development will be set in motion, as in the Enlightenment, that no one can yet imagine.

For the first time in human history, everyone can now escape the oppression of "debanking" or "deplatforming". Anyone can use Bitcoin and Nostr to trade and communicate with anyone on this planet - without government middlemen, media corporations or banks. With Bitcoin and Nostr, the individual citizen is no longer dependent on central organizations. FIAT money as a tool of oppression has had its day. Media corporations and propaganda machines cannot manipulate news on Nostr. Where there is no boss, no one can be blackmailed. Decentralized networks empower citizens to evade the power of governments and large corporations. Artificial borders, which central organizations have to set up in order to lock citizens in their aquarium, no longer exist.

The effects of decentralized money and communication are unforeseeable. Like mushrooms, all kinds of new plants will spring up in all kinds of different places, all communicating with each other via a decentralized network. All over the planet, the brightest minds are working on concrete solutions to all the problems of this brand new technology. Bitcoin and Nostr are just the flagships of the decentralized movement, hundreds or thousands of new applications will emerge. Open source enables developers around the world to program new applications based on existing ones. An African trader who wants to buy seeds in a neighboring country needs different applications than the Afghan woman who wants to escape the oppression of her clan. Countries that welcome this new technology will prosper because entrepreneurs and developers will settle there. Countries that refuse to develop will have to do without the intelligent developers.
We are in the first minutes after the big bang of decentralized development. Our descendants in 100 or 200 years' time will probably grin at the first attempts at decentralized technologies, just as we smile mildly today when we compare a Ferrari with the first cars.

Satoshi Nakamoto's discovery or invention of Bitcoin was the big bang for a new era. The tender plant Bitcoin has weathered all the storms of the early days and has successfully fended off all attacks so far. The network is getting stronger and stronger, the genie is out of the bottle and will never go back in. It is not just the philosophers and theorists who are in demand now. Programmers and digital pirates will shape the future. The powerful will not like losing power over the citizens. But who could reverse the Big Bang?
As always, when an old system disintegrates, there will be upheavals, but also endless opportunities. Those who cling to old structures will be swept away by the tsunami of change. Ideas at the right time cannot be suppressed. At the Bitcoin conferences, I have met so many brilliant people who are all fighting and programming for freedom, independence and justice.

The scent of Enlightenment 2.0 is in the air. Manipulated money has long been an instrument of oppression and exploitation, just as centralized media corporations have been factories of manipulated news.
Decentralized structures and all the people who design these applications give hope for a new golden age of humanity.

Let's shape the decentralized future!