3.6. Economic Life
Ideas
- The State controls its national currency.
- The currency circulates in the form of programmable cryptocurrency.
- This cryptocurrency implements the rules decided by the Démocratie Numérique.
- NFTs are the new property titles. They facilitate transactions and automate certain deductions.
- Everyone contributes freely to wealth creation.
- A universal income ensures freedom, security, and dignity for all.
- Software Democracy aims for an economy of abundance.
- Companies are encouraged to act responsibly.
State Accounts
The State must regain its historical prerogative and take back control of its currency. In doing so, it can control an essential lever for steering economic life.
State accounts must be structurally balanced or positive. Although the State can issue its own currency, there are circumstances where borrowing may be preferable; in this case, financing must be conducted in such a way as to limit the risk of dependence on private or international actors.
In the end, it is the citizens who have the final say on the State's budget, which will be voted on publicly each year.
Currency
Currency of tomorrow will be digital, whether the totalitarian system prevails or not. The challenge is to ensure that the State (and thus Citizens) control this digital currency.
With a currency under the control of the Software Democracy, a currency can be implemented to serve the real economy and limit speculation. The role of currency should be to facilitate transactions and streamline the economy, not to speculate!
National Currencies
In the Software Democracy, each State has its own cryptocurrency and makes sovereign use of it. These cryptocurrencies have the following characteristics:
- They are decentralized, and anyone can run a network node to secure it.
- They are programmable:
- Their operation and monetary creation rules are decided by the voting.
- Whenever possible, taxes are collected directly on transactions.
- They have a privacy function allowing anonymous fund transfers. Taxation applies to both types of transactions.
- They are very efficient, energy-saving, and extremely reliable.
- They are highly secure.
The Global Reserve Currency
A global reserve currency, natively accepted by all States, will be established.
- It will not be programmable beyond basic functionalities.
- All transactions will be traceable. Why? The global reserve currency will be used primarily by States and large organizations. Preventing anonymous transactions will impose transparency.
- Its security and reliability will be its primary qualities.
Today, one could imagine Bitcoin serving as a model for a global reserve currency, with a few modifications. Decred's system, which limits dependence on mining and integrates governance capabilities, is also interesting.
The NFTs
Today primarily focused on art, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens - EN FR) are the property titles of tomorrow's society. Each valuable asset will be uniquely identified, and possession of the corresponding NFT will be the legal property title for that asset.
Anyone can create NFTs for their work, whether it is artistic, manual, or intellectual, and whether the medium is digital or physical: a painting, the source code of a program, an object...
Beyond individual production, third-party entities are required to guarantee the uniqueness of certain assets; thus, the NFT corresponding to a piece of real estate must be certified by an official administrative authority.
For other types of valuable assets (cars, electronics), we can imagine that the NFT would be associated with the asset at the time of its production by the manufacturer, and then follow the asset. A central authority authorizes NFT issuers with a mechanism similar to certification authorities (PKI) used for digital identity, ensuring the authenticity of the NFT.
NFTs will have different characteristics depending on the type of asset, to include contractual elements. This will allow integration with the national currency to automate, if necessary, the taxation of transactions.
The wallets
Thus, each individual or organization will have at least two wallets, one for making payments and transactions, and one for managing their property titles. These wallets can be consolidated and linked to digital identity of their user (more precisely, one of the identities; official or pseudonymous).
However, nothing prevents anonymized fund transfers or the opening of additional accounts linked to a digital identity pseudonym, as the ability to perform anonymous transactions is a foundational element of individual freedoms and privacy.
The freedom to participate in economic life
The goal is to allow everyone to contribute wherever they want, to experiment, and to bring their creativity and energy to all sectors of the economy.
The Universal Basic Income
In order to simplify various assistance mechanisms and ensure everyone a minimum level of subsistence and dignity, States will distribute a Universal Basic Income at all ages of life.
This universal income will replace all specific supplementary income, thus allowing a colossal simplification of the State's administrative services.
This income will be automatically calculated based on the State's income and adjusted according to economic activity.
The guarantee of having this income allows everyone to choose the path of their engagement in economic life, knowing that they will have a safety net in case of failure.
Freedom of business creation and individual work
Thus, Software Democracy encourages entrepreneurship, independent work, creativity, and initiative.
Setting up a business-like structure is simplified and will be limited to creating a professional account on the national blockchain. Everyone can easily get paid for their services and skills this way.
Employment and long-term commitment to an organization will also be simplified; the goal is to create a flexible system that fosters agility, freedom, and performance. This will be done without social consequences thanks to the permanent safety net of universal income, and this flexibility can also benefit the employee.
It looks like a conservative paradise... And it is! But with a significant difference: individuals will have the freedom to work or not. And this completely changes the balance of power by forcing potential employers to treat and pay their staff properly, or else see them simply leave.
Software Democracy is based on trust, and this must also be expressed in work.
Valuing volunteer work
Universal income also allows for the recognition of invisible work: childcare by grandparents, artistic creation, volunteering, activities that all contribute to social ties without currently receiving any compensation.
Encouragement for positive participation
One of the worst flaws of the current system is that it encourages counterproductive behaviors from the point of view of the common good. Pharmaceutical companies benefit from a sick population, food companies benefit from overeating... And not only does this encourage negative behaviors, but it also encourages cooperation in this direction!
One of the main ideas of Software Democracy is to reverse incentives so that it becomes more interesting for companies to contribute to the common good rather than harm the population.
These points will be developed in more detail later, but let's give some examples here:
- Make producers who heavily use polluting inputs pay instead of making environmentally friendly producers pay for various labels and certifications.
- Structure the healthcare system around... health! And not illness and treatments.
- Have the effectiveness of medicines evaluated by genuinely independent organizations rather than by their designer.
- ...
In sectors where encouraging positive participation is impossible or too complex, companies could be made non-profit by law, or as a last resort, directly controlled by the State.
Monitoring overly influential organizations
Software Democracy cannot be threatened by private companies whose primary objective is to generate profit.
Companies' operations will be subject to absolute transparency rules, and they can be audited at any time by state services.
A company that has acted against the public interest may be reorganized or dismantled.
The role of the State
The State plays the role of facilitator of economic initiative. It guarantees the freedom to undertake, the clarity and stability of the rules of the game, and the transparency of markets.
As the executor of the people's will, it is one of the main economic contractors and thus plays a significant role in the economy in general. Generally lacking the means of implementation itself, it will often turn to the private sector to implement decisions resulting from the voting.
These market allocations will also be made transparently and auditable. When working within the context of a public contract, the selected partners for implementation will be subject to the same transparency and auditability rules as the State.