Blockchain from the sky

 Blockchain is a revolution

　　From the ancient history, human beings are living in the mode of "centralized" organization more and more generally. The so-called "centralization" means that the main social activities of mankind are carried out around a certain "center". Go to the "production center" of the enterprise at work, go to the "shopping center" to buy goods, and go to the "treatment center" of the hospital for medical treatment. If you pay attention to the trajectory of your daily life, from morning to night, you just go from "A center" to "B center" and then to "C center". We often say "interpersonal relationship". In modern life, most of the relationships are between individuals and the "center". The proportion and influence of the relationship between individuals is very small, even though it seems that individuals are dealing with individuals.

　　The "center" plays a central role in the "centralization" model. Take the bank as an example. This "center" uses its reputation to absorb excess funds from depositors and lend them to borrowers who need funds. From the perspective of capital movement, the bank is a bridge connecting deposits and loans. But from the perspective of information flow, banks isolate deposits and borrowings, especially depositors and borrowers, and establish independent relationships between banks and depositors and borrowers. In this relationship, the depositor and the borrower respectively provide the bank with personal information such as real identities, deposit or loan requests, and content of related activities; the bank obtains this personal information by means of financial services, security protection, fund provision or return, etc. , Stored with the help of technological means. Here, banks are not only financial institutions, they are also trusted organizations and "information centers." Broadly speaking, other modern "centers", like banks, are not only a certain kind of institution, a credible organization, but also an "information center."

　　With the rapid development of information technology, the personal information aggregated and stored in the "center" has grown tremendously, changing with each passing day, and taking a qualitative leap. They can be used to describe people's faces, understand people's thinking, and predict people's words and deeds. This is the "big data" that people are familiar with. These "centers" have a new name of "big data center". For the “central” business, “big data” is a helper in services, a tool for management and control, and a wealth of business; but for individuals who provide such data, it is a potential privacy threat. Inexplicable deprivation of freedom and loss of intangible wealth. In this sense, the "centralization" of human beings means that the "center" may override the individual. In the minds of some pioneers, "centralization" is not the ideal mode of human life. Sooner or later, it will encounter a severe impact, leading to devastating reconstruction.

　　The "centralized" model has existed for a long time, but it has been particularly developed in modern times. It has its own reasons for existence and historical destiny. On the one hand, the "center" builds an ever-expanding and far-reaching connection between people. Human social life is richer, more convenient and free. People who are far away and completely unfamiliar can pass through the credible "center". On the other hand, with its unique organizational form, the "center" has its own internal operation logic, value boundaries and restraint mechanisms, as well as the support and checks and balances of the external society. The social life around the "center" should be Said to be controlled by the overall history. In layman's terms, the "centralized" model, while promoting human well-being, still has historically stipulated ethical and moral boundaries or bottom lines, as well as clear definitions of legal rules; it is not an ideal model, but relative to an idealized construction In terms of it, it is the most realistic model. Moreover, before the emergence of a comprehensive and excellent alternative model, "centralization" can be regarded as the best existence in social life. It is impossible to imagine how depositors and borrowers can realize large-scale, long-distance, and large-amount financing between the surplus and shortage of funds without the "center" of the bank.

　　However, regardless of ethics and laws, they are merely binding forces and cannot prevent the "center" from infringing on personal privacy, freedom and wealth-all personal "big data" is controlled by the "center", and the "center" "Any occasional misuse, abuse, or misuse of management will cause serious damage to personal rights, let alone those "malicious uses" that deliberately seek to gain "central" narrow interests. What followed was repeated reiteration and overweighting of social ethics, and legal rules were perfected time and time again, accompanied by severe punishments. However, these can only be a historical, relatively, and partial solution to the "central" problem of "bad or evil". Since the "center" is the source of the "bad or evil" problem, ethics and legal rules have no power to dissolve the "source".

　　The logic of human thinking is also the accumulation of historical evolution, or a reminder of advanced technology. The yearning for a "good" social life pattern logically leads to the conception of a technical model that removes the "center": in this world, can you There is a technology-led social life model, which only brings human well-being, and there is no "central" control that causes those "bad or evil" things to appear?

　　The technical model of the blockchain is coming in time. The reason why blockchain is a "technical model" rather than a technology is that it combines the technologies of multiple disciplines such as cryptography, mathematics, computer and network science to construct a new comprehensive technology application system . This is just like building the world’s tallest building, which requires the use of the latest design, machinery, materials, and construction management. It is necessary to integrate computer science, physics, material science, engineering, management and other multidisciplinary technologies to build a new construction project. Technology System. Since it is "new", the blockchain is a great creation of mankind. However, since this creation does not come from a certain subject field, but the sublimation of the comprehensive application of leading technologies in multiple subjects, blockchain is an innovation in the sense of systems engineering, not a breakthrough in a certain subject theory. Calling the blockchain a brand-new "technical model" more accurately expresses its inherent regulation.

　　The main functions of the blockchain technology model are "decentralization" and "multi-centralization". It has a clear direction to eliminate the "centralization" model in the world today, and the mainstream way of social life is facing huge challenges. "Decentralized" and "multi-centered" obviously have different meanings. The former is negative, revolutionary, and aimed at the current model; the latter is affirmative, constructive, and future-oriented creation-the ambitious goal of blockchain is to reconstruct the human society through the application of comprehensive technology. The basic network without center" or "multi-center": the "center" in front of us will collapse one by one, and each node of the network will become the "center"; technical rules become the highest law of network operation, and technology platforms become connected individuals The communication infrastructure and technical procedures have become the trust guarantee for people's communication; individuals only exist and communicate "anonymously" on the blockchain network. As a living "virtual person", there is no risk of identity exposure and no wealth loss. Worry, not to worry about being deprived of freedom by being "monitored" on the network; personal information is no longer stored in any "center", but distributed, recorded and stored "truly" on each node of the network , Which can be traced but cannot be tampered with, becomes the basis of subsequent personal life and the basis of communication.

　　In a nutshell, the blockchain must not only "destroy" an old world, but also "create" a new world, and complete a complete transformation of the life pattern of human society. From this point of view, the blockchain is a revolution. It will revolutionize the life of all the "centers" in the social life model. At the same time, the blockchain is a reconstruction, and it must build a "centerless" technology network that replaces the "center". , Or a "multi-center" technology network with "nodes as centers". Blockchain shocked the world as soon as it appeared. Its powerful and thorough "revolution" and "reconstruction" are the source of the shock.

　　Let us speculate about the future of the bank and predict the fate of other "centers". Under the blockchain model, depositors and borrowers disappear and become "people with surplus money" and "people short of money". They directly finance funds through the technology platform, and no longer need banks to centralize deposits and issue loans; in the past, financing funds were based on "Bank credit" is now based on a "credible" technology model; "people with money left" and "people short of money" don't need to use their real identities to finance funds, and both parties in the transaction act "anonymously" as long as the technology model recognizes them as "true and reliable" Therefore, no one party, including a third party, knows their true identities; moreover, the information on the direct financing activities of the "people with money left" and "people short of money" will be permanently stored on the Internet, open and transparent, and become the next financing activity Foundation. Since financial communication can be so direct and credible, without the need for a third-party "credit" or "monitoring" to ensure, the end of the bank's "center" is an inescapable fate. There is no doubt that under the blockchain model, other "centers" will also move in this way. Enterprises no longer need them, shopping malls no longer exist, and it is only a matter of time before hospitals close. A society without any "center" appeared before our eyes.

"Utopian Thinking" in the Technological Carnival

　　Some people may ask, isn't the technology platform "the center"? This question is the key to the blockchain model. The technology platform is not a "center", but the blockchain network itself. It is composed of all the computers (or machines) that join this network. There are network nodes but no "center". Entering the blockchain network, you will become a member of this world. According to the rules of this world, you will use "anonymous" yourself to establish contact with "anonymous" others, and use the concept of consensus and technical methods to connect with others. Or exchange data (information, value, assets, etc.) with the computer and "live" freely on the Internet. This seems to be another world outside the real world. The wonderful thing is that this is the world within the real world. At the moment when the industrial society is turning to the information society, the "network" is the main time and space of human life. In this time and space, the blockchain replaces the "centralized" model. It is a real existence that is visible and tangible. Because of this, the blockchain cannot help people praise in surprise, support in praise, and give birth to strong worship in support.

　　People's thinking is always prone to exaggerating and criticizing the insufficiency of the current model, and it is always prone to affirmation and yearning for the perfection of the ideal model. This is easy to understand. On the one hand, the current model is indispensable with such problems, which brings people many obvious confusions and difficulties, and people’s personal feelings can easily be transformed into negative dissatisfaction; the ideal model has not yet operated, the perfect side is easy to describe, and there are no existing problems. Feeling is easy to be diluted, weakened or even ignored; on the other hand, only the perfect pattern in people's mind can produce eager yearning, and can also generate huge motivation to create it. It can be seen that it is natural that people do not look at the current model so objectively and strongly advocate ideal construction. We know that exaggerating and derogating reality, exaggerating and exaggerating ideals are typical "utopian thinking." With the emergence of the blockchain model, the "ghost" of this kind of thinking has been rampant for a while.

　　On the one hand, the current "centralization" model is pointed out by thousands of people. Anyone who understands the secrets of the four major US technology companies GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) and China's three major technology companies BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent), they can't add to their personal identity and daily information. , Produced a huge psychological fear. It is judged that the privacy, freedom and wealth carried in personal information are unknowingly exploited by these companies for free, and will continue to be plundered until the end of personal life. It is precisely in modern social life that people are inseparable from the services provided by these companies. After all, social interaction is indispensable for information exchange, commodity trading and payment, financing exchanges and other activities. In this way, the bright place is a service that feels good, some kind of convenient access, and "free" preferential treatment, but the dark place is unknowingly paying a heavy price in life, sometimes endangering life. As long as you log in to these company platforms, pay attention, it is a company platform, not a technology platform, then you are on a path of no return. These “centers” are so creepy that even moderates can hardly help but unrelentingly expose and criticize them. Of course, radicals will call on society to stop and destroy them, and strive to find new “non-centered” models to replace them.

　　On the one hand, the blockchain model is extremely popular. In the eyes of many people, a technology application system can fully protect personal privacy, freedom and wealth, and can replace the "centralized" model of human society. No matter what kind of high evaluation, it is not an exaggeration. Looking at the current "centralization" model, especially those "centers" with very high levels of information technology, their contribution to human society is actually incalculable. When we use instant messaging software to enjoy fast and extremely low-cost information exchanges around the world, use online payment to safely and conveniently achieve commodity sales or fund transfers, and use search engines to quickly obtain certain knowledge and skills, we feel comfortable and comfortable. There is no dissatisfaction, satisfaction, and happiness. The blockchain model can retain the existing advantages of these "centers", and at the same time destroy the "center"'s possible infringement of personal privacy, freedom and wealth. The characteristics of this model can only be expressed by "perfectness". In the history of human society, perfect things only exist on the other side, only in people's spiritual world. Now that the perfect blockchain comes, it is simply a "technical god" that has suddenly fallen into the world. what does that mean? Isn't this the arrival of a top form of human society? Is it that such an absolutely perfect model might end the history of human society?

　　Half of the history of human society has always belonged to utopia. This is not to say that half of the history of real life and half of the history of utopian thought constitute the whole of human history. Rather, half of the real life history of mankind is the process of putting the concept of utopia into practice. In fact, all thoughts about utopia are all implicated in the real life of human beings. They are used either to escape from reality or to criticize reality; the most positive is to reconstruct reality. Obviously, the utopian thinking of reconstructing reality is tolerating imperfection, incompleteness and non-absoluteness. Therefore, it will adopt an attitude of inheriting and transforming the existing existing mode of reality, selectively retaining and destroying, and removing the valuable in the existing mode. The elements are integrated into the new model. In this kind of utopian thinking and reconstruction, we see that the historical evolution of human society is an inherited development, rather than completely "out of nothing" a concept emerges from the human mind, and then directly changed into reality according to the gourd painting.

　　In comparison, the utopian thinking of evading and criticizing reality must be perfect, thorough and absolute. Because the more so, the greater the contrast between the reality model and the ideal construction, and the greater the significance of avoiding and criticizing reality. If such a utopian thinking is used to reconstruct reality, then the existing model will inevitably be "useless" and must be overthrown and rebuilt. It can be seen that these two types of utopian thinking are strongly subversive. It’s not without regrets. Although we can theoretically define this kind of thinking by "evasive" and "critical" and distinguish it from the "reconstructive" utopian thinking, in real life, people rarely have this kind of thinking. Classification. In general utopian discussions, too extreme states of thinking are more likely to appear. "Evasive" and "critical" utopian thinking often occupy the mainstream position. As a result, in the process of "reconstructing" new models, people Either completely deny the existing model, or just play the utopian fantasy in the world of the mind. In short, between ideal construction and reality existence, people are more in love with a clean cut, and don't like the disconnection between each other.

　　At present, people’s cognition of blockchain has some characteristics of "evasive" and "critical" utopian thinking. The technical model of blockchain has been promoted to the pinnacle of perfection, and many fields are taking such idealized ideas. Construction serves as the basis for "rebuilding reality". In such a situation, the blockchain is striding out of the boundaries of the "technical model", becoming a social life model that people pursue regardless of the law, at any cost, and without fear of setbacks, and it has become a social worship altar. The cult of "technology" that has appeared in the history of human society, and the lessons derived from it, are once again looming before us. The famous words of British philosopher Bertrand Russell echoed in my ears, "The only lesson of history for humankind is to forget the lesson of history."

Blockchain is not "God"

　　Before us are two operating modes of social life. One is the "centralized" organizational model, and the other is the "decentralized" technology model of the blockchain. The former is that people organize activities around a large number of "centers", and the latter is that people communicate directly with each other through technical systems. From the perspective of time, the former belongs to the past history and the present reality. If the latter can replace the former substantially or even completely, then it must be the future ahead. Originally, the industrial society is transforming into an information society, and there is no inherent inevitable requirement for all kinds of information in the operation of social life to be concentrated in some "centers" or distributed in "non-centered" networks. These two different modes are not Show that they are absolutely compatible with a certain social form, or absolutely not compatible. In other words, even in the present, the "centralized" model and the "decentralized" model exist for a reason and do not conflict with the form of the information society.

　　In that case, why can the "decentralized" blockchain model be able to substantially or even completely replace the "centralized" organizational model? This question brings us to the basic level of the comparison of the two models, namely the comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of "organization" and "technology", especially whether they can be substituted for each other, and at what level of substitution.

　　"Centralized" organizational model, from the perspective of human social history, is the product of human characteristics or weaknesses-one is the limitation of the individual's energy, the other is the selfishness of the individual's human nature. These two characteristics determine the overall evolution of human social history. It requires the existence of a certain transcendent social aggregation form above the individual person. On the one hand, it can break through the limitation of individual energy, and on the other hand, it can coordinate, use and control the selfishness of the individual person. His disposition makes it beneficial to the progress of mankind as a whole, rather than harmful to the development of society. The "central" organization can just dissolve or even eliminate the double deficiencies of the individual. This model has been the mainstream existence of human society since ancient times, and it is justified.

　　The "central" organization, which is a collection of people, also has weaknesses. Based on the fact that it is aimed at individual people, if an organization exceeds a certain boundary to suppress, harm and destroy people, then the normal function of the individual in human society will be severely inhibited, and the organization's own survival will not escape the end. The fate of the end. This is obviously not shortsightedness of general organizations, but a perverse act of social progress, which is an "evil" of organizational form. Because of this, human society has always been accompanied by written or unwritten ethics, laws, rules and other systems, as well as mutual supervision, mutual games and checks and balances between various organizations, in order to ensure the relationship between various organizations and individuals. Maintenance is within the time and space of "remove evil and save good". In terms of the overall history of mankind, such an organization and the relationship between individuals have been maintained, although there have been so many ugly organizational actions in human history, and the “organized” plundering, killings and wars have not yet disappeared. A large number of individuals have become "snowflakes" in an avalanche.

　　The relationship between technology and organization is complex. Sometimes technology can replace certain functions of an organization, sometimes technology is a tool used by an organization, and sometimes technology also contains organizational forms, which are intertwined vertically and horizontally, and they are not separate systems. An indisputable fact is that any single technology has no possibility to replace the organization. This is because the organization is a multi-functional or full-function system, no matter how advanced a single technology is, it can only play a role of limited function replacement in the system and become a tool used by the organization. There is no talk of subverting and replacing the organization. Blockchain is a technology model that is a combination of multiple technologies. Logically speaking, it transcends the limitations of a single technology and has a basis for alternative organizations. However, it includes the limitations of technology types and functions derived from the operation of the model. Whether expansion can replace all the functions of the organization in an all-round, multi-level and systematic way, and eventually replace it, is still a huge problem. In other words, if the blockchain model cannot cover the functions of the entire system of the “centralized” organization, the blockchain is likely to eventually become a technical module of the modern and future “central” organization, rather than the “new master” of the dynasty.

　　Taking a step back, even if the blockchain model has full coverage of all the functions of the "central" organizational model, there is also a problem of comparing the social operating costs of the two models. The history of human society tells us that some "utopian" visions have realizing logic, but the cost of social operation is too large to be supported by the resources of this planet, so we have to take the second place and choose reality as "imperfect". Way of social operation. The blockchain model uses the most successful bitcoin. Why the designer only arranges a limited amount of "issuance" for a limited time? One of the reasons is that its operating cost is too expensive. Once the "issuance" is too much, the entire blockchain The model may not get enough resources and self-destruct. Here, a simple economic cost theory has opened up an unfathomable resource gap in front of the blockchain model to lead the operation of society, which is difficult to cross.

　　What's more, any technology has "natural enemies". If a certain technology in the blockchain model, especially the core technology, is attacked or breached by "natural enemies", then the entire model will either fall short or cease to exist; or it will require a complete set of corresponding technical defense and protection systems. Fight against the attack. From the latter point of view, it is quite interesting that this kind of technical support technology and technical protection technology system construction is not only costly, but from the logic of implementation, most of them require a third-party "central" organization to start, Design and construction require less direct intervention and continuous maintenance by the "central" organization. The safe operation of a "decentralized" model needs a "central" organizational model to protect it. Under certain circumstances, is it possible to simply use the "central" organizational model in social life instead of a "decentralized" area Block chain, more effective?

The thing from which all things are born will return to it after all things are destroyed. -Anaximander

　　The most important thing is that the "initial intention" of the blockchain model is to protect personal privacy, freedom and wealth that may be lost when personal data is controlled by the "central", and to eliminate the source of the "central" organization to eliminate such "evil" . However, can the lack of individual energy and the selfishness of individual human nature be suppressed, eliminated or eliminated by the blockchain model? From the current theory and practice of blockchain, there is no possibility at all. In fact, the early use of blockchain is closely related to the "dark web" and other social-related "centers" that avoid the control and legal sanctions. We have to think, if the blockchain becomes the main mode of social life in the future, there may be technical solutions for the lack of individual energy, and the “evil” that comes from human nature’s selfishness will grow wildly in the blockchain model. Is it becoming a technological social cancer over time? Those superb technologies that protect personal privacy, freedom and wealth will together wrap the selfish "evil" of individuals in anonymity and top secret, inspire the crazy growth of the ugly side of human nature, and finally force humans to return to the "centralized" mode , Replay the institutional theme of ethics, law and rules?

　　Yes, the blockchain is revolutionary and reconstructive, which cannot be denied. However, its complete replacement of the "central" model is not only doubtful, but impossible. It is just a technological model revolution, which will have a significant impact on human social life, and will replace the functions of many "central" organizations, but it cannot completely replace the "central" organizations. It is not perfect in itself, it is not the "God" of human social life, and it cannot even be said to be the "God of technology".