Making Change With Cryptocoins: A Personal Experience
What Getting Shot Taught me About the Necessity of the Blockchain/Cryptocurrency Industry to Create Socio-Economic Change
Unfortunately, a major issue within our industry right now revolves around mass adoption. The average consumer seems to have a hard time understanding why a new system of economics is needed to ensure the evolution, survival, and future of the human race. While current cryptocurrency and blockchain organizations fail to explain the social impact and societal benefit of our industry, we are allowing our industry to grow without a solid sense of legitimacy and with virtually no urgency for adoption by consumers, merchants, communities, etc. I have been reflecting on this all week and have been working to come up with a theory and some possible solutions which I will discuss at the end of this post.
* I am hoping that sharing my story here will, not only, give you a better understanding of myself; But also, I hope it will stand as evidence that there is a real need for economic change and explain some of the reasons why.*
The Incident
January 25th, 2016 I was coming home from dinner with a close friend, his brother, and his brother’s friend. As we were on the freeway, everything seemed normal. Nobody had cut us off, we hadn’t cut anyone else off, everything was going fine. Suddenly, from the rearview mirror, the driver and I could see a car speeding up from behind us. We thought nothing of it, just kept driving. Then, as the car drew nearer and was finally about to pass us on the left-hand side, someone in the back seat said, “Oh, they want to race!”, and my heart dropped to my butt. Something just didn’t seem right, and within a few seconds, my suspicion was confirmed. Before there was time to say anything else, the car had pulled up alongside us and started to roll down the window. I could feel myself saying, “Oh no, no, shit”. The person inside the car seemed to have a bandana on the lower half of his face, he threw up a gang sign, pulled the hammer back on his gun and began firing. My friend driving the car, swerved and pulled off into a ditch. He was already screaming, and I was just trying to calm everyone down. I remember him saying he was shot and me saying, “No, I think we’re okay…” I looked down to see blood coming from my thigh and lower calf and then I reached for my phone to call the police.
Seeking an Explanation
Knowing what I do now about PTSD, I understand why it took so long for me to remember a lot of details. When I first got to the hospital, I had a hard time remembering even what the car looked like that had attacked us and I couldn't remember what it felt like being shot. It wasn’t until much later that I got a better understanding of what happened, and I was able to remember the sensation itself after 6 months. For the sake of this post though, I’m going to try to sum it up quickly. Our assailants were caught, although we have yet to hear anything new in over a year about them being tried specifically for our incident. We were shot at by two of the three men in the car 13 shots total, all into the driver’s side door (with a 9mm and a 45mm). The driver of our car was hit three times and I was hit twice, nobody else in our car was injured. The men they caught were all born and raised locally (in cities less than 45 minutes away from my hometown, Tacoma), ages 19, 21, and 23 at the time of the incident. We were one of 5 other incidents that were all seemingly random shootings or attempted robberies. In total, 3 people died because of these young men and many more were seriously injured. It was revealed, when the men were caught, that this was not any sort of gang initiation and there was absolutely no reasoning whatsoever in why our car was targeted. We didn’t flip them off or cut them off on the road before, nothing like that. I feel this is important to note because many people, looking from the outside in, have and will try to write this off as gang activity, road rage, or something similar and it was not. None of the 5 incidents that occurred at the hands of these three men were targeted, planned, or invoked in any way.
Finding a Bigger Issue
When the Washington State Patrol detective came over to sit with my mom and me, to explain what they found when the other car was seized and what would happen next,
This comment has stuck with me since that day and is a big part of what drives me to the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry now.
Is an act of violence ever truly random? It's one thing to hear about a shooting at a school or movie theater and say to yourself, "yeah, the world is going to shit", it is another thing entirely to be a victim in one of these situations. What happened to me has created a desire to see suffering on all sides cease! I am theorizing that those of us involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries have had more severe or a higher frequency of interactions revolving around behavioral economics; And, that more of us have had to deal with the impact current economic systems have on societal interactions and progressions firsthand in relation to the 'average consumer'. Either way, there is no doubt that our society is suffering at the hands of capitalism and fiat currencies.
Our industry provides a solution to the problem that both fiat currency and capitalist economics pose to our social environment and our personal well-being. THE ONLY solution in the foreseeable future.
A Time For Change
THIS IS IT. We only get one chance to do this right! We have to stop allowing our industry professionals and organizations to hide away from the tough questions regarding the connection between our society and our economy. I will admit, trying to research the correlation is not easy. However, our industry should die trying, this is what we should be selling. A solution to the most common of problems amongst humans from all corners of the globe; economic inequality, how it changes our view of self, as well as our social interactions. I believe focusing on this, will create the urgency our industry needs right now.
I will continue to explore this topic in the future, but right now I'd like to know more about YOUR personal experiences.
What has happened in your life to make you a cryptocurrency enthusiast?
What problems are you looking to solve through the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry?
What problems are you looking to solve through the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry?
Super good breakdown of your personal experience! Thank you for sharing :)
I couldn't agree more that blockchain & crypto have much more value in changing our social structure & the very essence of how a society should operate, than just the beauracracy and technical components. So much to explore...
Thank you for all of your support. We are going to hit the ground running dude, rebuild this industry from the ground up and make it about the true vision of our industry.
Sorry to hear about what happened. However, there is something to be said about folks to turn a life altering event into something good. Something to be learned from. In my short time here, I've seen quite a few posts in that regard.
To the meat of you post, I can see exactly what you mean. Changing the system, and hopefully for the better. That is one foundational goal of this cryptocurrency experiment, yes?
Here's a real head scratcher; what can be done to keep the same scenario from happening in the future? Consolidation of currency or power?
Great post and followed!
What lovely insight. I really think that our new system will be largely voluntary and participatory. Another example for the need to not only educate consumers about the benefits an industry product in competition with all 900+ others, but about the general economy. I didn't realize that our own government, only accepts taxes paid with US dollars, and that by creating a currency and mandating taxes acceptable only by that currency drives it's value. I think that the blockchain industry puts an end to unconscious consumption, and makes it hard to trap people, trick them, or enforce them into accepting and using a system they know nothing about, and that literally drives our race's devolution. I know some may see it as idealistic, but I am thinking in terms of what makes sense economically, socially, and politically as an entire human race moving forward through evolution. I think that people are truly evolving, will problems vanish forever? Jeesus Christ, I sincerely hope not, and I really don't think so. As major as economics seems for our planet to get under control, these are just the growing pains of jumping from a stage 0 to a stage 1 civilization. I guess (sorry rambling all over the place) I truly believe that the difference will be ourselves. if the entire purpose of this industry is to escape the current economic model, we will be careful not to fall down the same path again
Well written post, it's true our generation has the key for a change.
YES! It only takes the initiative to come together and create it.
I like the fact that cryptos are not controlled by the ptb. Instead, they are under the control of each individual. That right there is how it should be. And with the transparancy there is no room for shady practice.
Yes! Exactly! I personally believe that the first place blockchain and cryptocurrency tokenization systems should be initiating is in the realm of budgeting/funding for local governments. That's actually a major part of my starting Imagine Conscious Collective and something I would like to gain social support for through our first project initiative. I am in the very very early ideation stage with it, but the idea is to use Steemit as an introduction to community members and citizens in our local area. There is much more to the project obviously, but I won't ramble on and on. If you'd be up for getting in on the ground floor, and helping co-develop or want to be involved in any way let me know !
I am very interested in learning more!
I don't think I'm driven to use cryptocurrencies to address any social issues. I just want to escape the rat race of working for a living. I would prefer to do things that are engaging and productive without the concern of making money.
I'm not sure I believe cryptocurrencies will resolve crime and violence. I think some crime is driven by money, but I think much of the violence out there (e.g., school and theater shootings, terrorism including both domestic and international) is simply deranged minds who somehow believe they will benefit or feel better by destroying lives and causing fear.
The rat race is a social issue. Needing to be a part of it in order to engage and produce in our society is a social issue. I really encourage you to speak out about your perspective, I think you will find that there are many other people that feel the same way you do. To put it in short, our valueless monetary system breeds people to believe that it doesn't matter what they do. That others don't matter. All that matters is their survival which in turn, of course other factors play a major role, creates a sociopathic sense of self and others which leads to actions like what I mentioned in my post. When people are going around just robbing and killing for money, as a source of income.... What is crime driven by? Thank you for your input. Why would anybody benefit from destroying others, or believe that they might? I respectfully disagree and think that these ideas possibly hold us back from societal growth and understanding. There are two perspectives to every story. By assuming some people are just inherently bad, it dismisses them from being capable of change.
nice poste !! <3
Thank you so much for reading love! <3
you are welcome !
you too Thank you for sharing <3
Whoa. That musta shooken you up a bit.
There was one bridge missing in the story I was expecting - how exactly do you see the connection with the experience and blockchain tech?
I have an assumption, though feel it'd be a more powerful story to integrate that one piece - could be something as simple as 'situations like this would be less likely to happen if new means blockchain-driven means were available to create financial stability, as has been done on Steemit."
Even though I could read between the lines, that is one key piece that'd greatly boost the impact of the moral the story.
;-)
I appreciate your input. I feel that blockchain and cryptocurrency in itself doesn't do much to improve society on it's own as we have seen in the industry so far. However, when researching connections between economics and crime it is hard to find a succinct theory or really anything that connects the two in quite the way I wanted. I have a theory i'm going to be posting as a bridge of sorts to explain how our current fiat currency is valuable in and of itself but does not encourage valuable behaviors or actions in society. I call it the walking dead theory, which is also a marxist argument against capitalism. Essentially, this experience has only led me to consider that when it comes to 'random' events such as these, there are definitley things going on behind the scenes that create a ripe environment for them to occur. It was a little hard for me to keep my post a suitable length and add in all of my scattered ass thinking lol. I love your feedback and appreciate you leaving a comment. I guess I do need to get better at explaining things out rather than relying on people to read between the lines to understand, I'll make sure to implement it into my future writing. <3
Happy to be of service.
The more I've written over the last year here, the greater the skills developed. Part of the biggest reward is being able to pass on tips and lessons such as these. One little tweak with the addition of such a simple part could go a huge way in the end impact of the story. I can see you're committed to a great path and would love to watch your success unfold, so it's an honor and privilege to be able to offer such small feedback - knowing that if it is implemented, the ripple effects could be pretty friggin' awesome... :-)
Nothing is ever coincidence. The systems in place have a gross effect of the average feeble mind in terms of survival.. stealing from peter to pay Paul is the way they play that game. If stealing from anybody, including myself comes as thought of survival, that is a sign of systematic disorder and illness among the people. Money is a currency, it is an exchange of energy.. and whether we label it bitcoin or steem, it’s value will always be based on how much the collective gives it.
Thank You For Sharing 🔥