Because of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, the global economy flourishes without the normal limitations of nationalities and borders.
Bitcoin was conceived without consideration of, or restriction from, governments, nationalities, or borders. Because of its decentralized nature and ease of transaction, it is equally accessible to users in all corners of the world, so long as they have a device with a reliable internet connection.
This has led to a global financial system less influenced by national borders.
Easier cross-border transactions
Because most economic transactions in the past have dealt in traditional currencies, which are issued and controlled by governments, commerce usually pays strict attention to national borders. However, according to Pétur Árnason, Chairman of the Auraráð foundation, this is beginning to change thanks to blockchain technology.
Árnason says to Cointelegraph:
“The blockchain technology has brought to the stage new mechanics for commerce that will undoubtedly change the dynamics in the relationship between buyer and merchant. This revolutionary technology will reduce if not completely remove some of the boundaries that currently exist within a purchase process that occurs between national borders.”
Marco Montes Neri, founder of mobile payments platform Saldo.mx, has seen Bitcoin and blockchain technology surpass borders to a great degree, calling it a “regulatory agnostic.”
Neri explains to Cointelegraph:
“Within the store of value aspect of Bitcoin it is the first universal “nostro account” (for those who are familiar with correspondent banking) which creates an opportunity to connect payment networks. In reality is hard to integrate with those networks due to the state of the legacy systems, but it is matter of time (as payment networks evolve) that cross border settlement will occur there, either for securities or other forms of value. It just works.”
A tale of a truly global economy
Martin Jansen, a member of the Auroracoin development team, recounted a story of employing a programmer in India using Bitcoin.
Jansen tells Cointelegraph:
“Then we became more acquainted and it seemed he was extremely good at programing websites and learning new stuff. So I asked him, can you port this Hive stuff? He said he would look into it and after two days he already had a working beta version that actually looked more like an end product to me! I was so amazed with his skills and devotion, I decided to ask for his BTC address so I could send him some appreciation. After transferring 0.5 BTC he immediately responded asking if I lost my mind. It seems I just transferred the equivalent of his monthly salary (and he has a good job as a programmer).”
Thanks to blockchain technology, this business partnership resulted in, as Jansen puts it, “a Stargate-like bridge between our two monetary dimensions, and we seem to profit from it both!”
Jansen continues:
“This immediately made me realize we had found an absolute win-win situation based on blockchain tech. We found a timeless bridge between two different dimensions of wealth.
Here I was, paying at least € 1300 a month for my mortgage and another € 1100 for my car while he was living in a neat house for € 75 and drove a nice car for € 90. The product he delivered though, would cost me at least 20x the price if I would order it in my dimension.
Still, he was the luckiest guy around, because he found an idiot on another dimension paying a month salary, for only two days work.”
The end of borders?
For Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, founder of Bitnation, Bitcoin’s borderless aspects represent something much greater than simply easier international transactions.
Tempelhof says to Cointelegraph:
“The Nation state construct is an artificial concept, that was created during the Treaty of Westphalia 1648, cementing the global oligopoly on governance, which we now know as nation states. It has been around for less than 400 years, and has not worked out particularly well. The end of the Westphalian world order has been imminent for some time, through trends like cheaper transportation, global trade, and - of course - communications.”
Tempelhof continues by saying that globalization, and the technology that furthers its adoption, is better for local cultures than the nation-state system, and that “a post nation world enables both a more global world, as well as a more local world, at the same time.”
Tempelhof notes:
“Internet and the technologies it brought with it, VOIP, social networks, and of course -- digital currencies -- is in my opinion the final stage in that revolution. The ability it gives us to organise ourselves peer-to-peer, to transcend cultural and geographical boundaries all while strengthening our own cultures and groups, beyond the coercion of forced upon entities like the current Orwellien so called "nations" we live under.”
The end of government as we know it?
Finally, according to Tempelhof, the power of blockchain technology has the ability to end the entire modern concept of government.
Tempelhof concludes:
“As the final frontier, the blockchain in many ways replace the need for governments, if we consider government's most important role according to the ‘nightwatchman state principle’ as security of private property, and jurisdiction. I do not believe it will remove the need for human interaction - to the contrary. But it will remove the need of relying on centralised entities like nation state governments, and over time, in the next 50 years to come, make them entirely obsolete.
It's the future. And it's beautiful.”