There is a very real possibility that we are on the edge of a post-scarcity society. The good news is that there are more opportunities for more people to have more of everything they need than at any point in human history. The bad news is that because we are still entrenched in exploitive and consumptive ecosystems created in a world where scarcity existed (and exists) – prices are going to go up and we are all in for some serious pain.
Lately I’ve been exploring ‘DeFi’ – decentralized finance. The ‘DeFi Summer’ happened in 2020 – essentially, a bunch of really smart people realized that using cryptocurrency, they could create new money from air – just like banks have been doing since banks were invented. The issue has always been that banks were necessary as the brokers of trust, but with the advent of trustless systems of financial governance – i.e. smart contracts, the banks are no longer needed.
DeFi is super complex. It makes my head spin. Gradually, I’m starting to ‘get it’ but the bottom line is this: it mostly works but every financial lesson I’ve learned in life screams that it shouldn’t. Watch this video to have your mind blown:
That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. NFTs – are largely a way to mint your own currency. Whatever someone will pay for it is what it is worth. Lots of these NFTs are now starting to jump into things like yield farming and defi. Here are a couple of NFT projects that are fairly deep in it:
Most major projects though are taking a more cautious approach. Generally, they start out with their PFPs (profile pics) in a 10k avatar project, then they issue some sort of IP (intellectual property), then they announce or start working on a game, finally, they launch a currency (for in-game use) that is also tradable on decentralized markets…and the next step is – see above.
Here are a couple of projects that are currently taking this approach: Punks Comic, Raini.io, Mighty Manateez, Deadheads, Satoshiverse, Bored Ape Yacht Club – and so many more. All of these currencies are (or will be) tradable for fiat currency. So, you can trade the NFTs or you can stake the NFTs to earn.
As I mentioned, the downside is that as more and more money is created, we are going to see money become increasingly worthless. Eventually, the whole scarcity – inflation – control system is going to break. I just hope it breaks the right way.