Crypto, Climate, and Basic Income

What if we could get over our fear?

Feb 12, 2022

Photo by Lewis Kang'ethe Ngugi on Unsplash

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Hello Friends!

In a worsening world, living better often starts by moving outside of our comfort zones. So I spent some time to write about universal basic income and what it could mean for climate change solutions. See that piece here. After finishing that piece, I couldn’t get basic income out of my mind. Now I know why.

This week, I want to share an enticing idea on digitalization and the eventual adoption of UBI—universal basic income. I came across an article on CoinDesk describing a unique, innovative, and exploratory partnership to explore an important idea. This idea doesn’t come from me, but rather from leaders like Jack Dorsey of Block (formerly CEO of Twitter) and Aarika Rhodes, a full time teacher in Los Angeles who is running for Congress there.

The basic idea is this: Use cryptocurrency to fund UBI.

It is an idea worth exploring. Digital currencies can be like other digital products in that there is infinite supply and nearly zero cost. (Yes, I know, Bitcoin has all that energy going into it right now, but almost none of the other cryptocurrencies operate that way. Let’s keep our minds open.) In essence, crypto can be created to provide people the means for obtaining their needs without any connection to national currencies, budgets, taxes, or expenditures. Precisely how to do this is yet to be determined, but there are many possibilities.

Although the creation and use of digital money can be anxiety provoking, the way to address it is to embrace it—especially if it can help us get to a true UBI. The crypto world is full of what it calls FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—and that’s half of what makes prices swing so wildly. The other half is this incredible opportunity digital currency could provide. The wild swings create the anxiety and tend to accent our own fears—and the perception that the world is getting worse.

Knowledge is a good medicine for most anxiety. We feel anxious when we don’t know, when we feel out of control, when events seem to be sweeping us along toward a destination that is unknown or which we know we do not want at all. But the events keep happening… that is what I mean be a worsening world.

To live better in it, we need to understand crypto, what it is, what it is not, and where there are opportunities for it to help shape something we cannot even imagine. Like a truly universal basic income.

Therefore, one starting place is the study of crypto. Each reader here would do well for their own lives to seek to understand what it is. Crypto is not going away, and in fact, it is going to continue to grow. Choosing to invest or not is your own choice—that’s not what I am talking about. I just think people need to understand it. Too many of us prefer not think about yet another change, but if we refuse to do so, some of the greatest opportunities of all time could be missed… like the creation of UBI.

So when folks ask me what they can do about climate change or how they can live in the face of it, “study crypto” is one of my answers. Trade crypto if you like, but study it to help determine how it can be used for innovative programs most people want—including basic income.

If you think about this, I would love to hear your thoughts. Please add comments or email me. I’d like to know the problems you see or opportunities I might be missing.

Feel free to share this email on twitter, social media, or with your email friends.

For your convenience, here are a few articles I have written lately that may help you wade in. As ideas develop, I will share them with you.