By Mark Sauer
Truth has seemingly become a hard thing to come by in recent years – or, perhaps, we never had it to begin with; just our unconscious, manipulated, perception of it.
Donald Trump told 30,573 mistruths during his presidency – as reported by the Washington Post in January of 2021. Before I go further, let me state that I don’t necessarily believe the WP statistic is accurate either – case in point. What I’m getting at here is that we have never before had a period of time where information became so violent. With access to abundant information has come the overwhelm of too much information – where what is “true” has become nearly impossible to discern or where the agreed upon truth(s) have become so polarized.
The truth has become many narratives and we’ve lost our connection to what is inherently true, our objectivity. There are a lot of reasons for this: from a narrative twisting president, to social media algorithms and their echo chamber effects, to manipulative media sources. You’re likely aware of all of that and have read/heard plenty about it already. Instead, I’d like to discuss where we’re going and the technology we presently have at our fingertips to bring about massive change and a new paradigm of Truth and Transparency: the blockchain.
The Old Paradigm
A paradigm of stories, of narratives – both conscious and unconscious. Where the ultimate goal was to acquire more financial capital: capitalism was our Truth.
The stories I tell about my product or service (“marketing”) support my case for the price I want to receive for it. Other suppliers of said product or service may affect my ability to charge more or less based on their story, and what the market was ultimately willing to bear – what buyers were willing to pay – which cumulatively dictates the supply and demand of its ultimate “value.”
I can tell you all day that my ‘consciously created clothing line’ – www.Spiritualnarcissist.me (shameless “marketing” plug found here) – was produced using only the most sustainable fibers with as little impact on our earth as possible when being manufactured at our LA based, family-owned facility where all our workers were proudly paid a living wage.
Now, that’s my narrative. It’s true, but you don’t know that for sure.
This paradigm will pass because now, instead of me having to tell you a story about what I did, you’ll be able to see it easily and transparently within blockchain. Without question you will know that what I’m telling you is inherently true.
The outlier here is, of course, “brand equity”. People LOVE a brand for its cachet – for the identity they take on when they wear it – and, ultimately, its story. And that will still be the case – to an extent. The nuances of styling and preferential aesthetics, which are not quantifiable and ever changing will always affect value. But how something was made, the impact on the environment, the ultimate quality and utility of any good or service will be logged in the blockchain – and transparency will rule value, not stories.
Then New Paradigm
“Intrinsic Value” – This term has been used by philosophers in the realm of ethics for millennia. It has also been used in capital markets in recent centuries.
In capital markets, Intrinsic Value is a way of describing the perceived and/or true value of an asset. This is not always identical to the current market price because assets can be fundamentally over or undervalued. Intrinsic value is a common part of fundamental analysis, which investors use to assess stock values. Different traders will have different ideas of what constitutes intrinsic value for a stock, with some giving prominence to strong fundamentals and others looking at its potential for growth. Hence the “perceived value” piece.
For a philosopher, ‘intrinsic value’ has traditionally been thought to lie at the heart of ethics. Philosophers use a number of terms to refer to such value. The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that thing has “in itself”, “for its own sake”, “as such” or “in its own right.” Many philosophers take intrinsic value to be crucial to a variety of moral judgments.
In our search for true and inherent value, capitalism has wagered the masses to be its arbiter and deliver us, through its scales of supply and demand, a value we can all call “intrinsic”.
This diluted version of the truth, swayed by cultural preference, or should I say cultural delusion, has led us astray more times than any of us can count. Thus, a new paradigm is being called forward and is at our fingertips. Yet most of our fledgling society (the old paradigm) can’t extend their gaze past their lust, greed and the narratives that accompany them. Reaching for crypto-currency for its short-term, fiat currency, appreciation with no regard for its underlying technology’s utility. Just another capitalistic war to be waged. More on that in another blog post…
The Blockchain will usher in the new paradigm – story time
Imagine you’re at the grocery store buying an apple. On that apple there’s a sticker with a QR code. You scan the QR code with your phone and that apple’s entire history becomes accessible to you in that very moment. You can see where that apple was grown, the farmer’s name who grew it, the biological diversity of the soil it was grown in, the herbicides and pesticides used, the mineral content of the water absorbed by its tree’s roots, the human’s name who plucked it from its tree, the trucking company that took it to its sorting facility, how it was cleaned, who cleaned it, what company transported it to your city, the distribution company that delivered it to your grocery story, and, every aspect in between. You look at the price: $1.11. Next to it sits another apple. It also has a QR code – and a price of $2.02. You scan the code and come to learn it was cultivated at a far superior farm, in a regenerative-organic environment. No herbicides or pesticides used. And the soil was rich with biological diversity, teeming with life. This apple’s nutrient density could be seen now in the blockchain – for both apples – and directly correlated to their individual price relative to its fellow apples blockchain history.
This is the future of intrinsic value. This is the new paradigm.
We will no longer seek out a story. We will seek out the truth – and it will be readily available for our consumption.
Imagine this…
Imagine it’s 4000 years before the birth of Christ and you’re an Egyptian floating a 100-thousand-ton stone through the air with your ankh. You turn to your friend, Thoth, and say, “6 thousand years from now, people will say aliens did this.”
If only the blockchain existed then and was maintained. Imagine if stories of our history weren’t told by the victor, but by a chain of truth. Of complete transparency, and was intact for millennia to come. This is the paradigm we are entering and one we should approach with reverence, excitement and respect. It will not be comfortable for those attached to the old paradigm – attached to their stories. The truth is coming. Intrinsic value and its fidelity will rise to a level thought impossible by philosophers of the past and feared by dictators of the present.
