Thousands of startups are entering the cryptocurrency space and attempting to determine how their business model meshes with the numerous edicts handed down to us by unelected bureaucrats at numerous government agencies such as the IRS, FinCEN, and the SEC to list three agencies just in the United States.

Blockchain technology currently depends upon transaction fees to prevent spam. These fees suffer all of the known problems with microtransactions that prevent blockchains from being used for necessary low-value transactions. Truly decentralized applications must offer users the appearance of free transactions if they wish to compete with their centralized alternatives. This paper outlines an approach to eliminate the need for fees and thereby enabling a wide range of previously untenable decentralized applications.

The distribution of currency is extremely controversial and ultimately a political issue. Whenever new currency is created it transfers value from the previous holders of the currency to someone new. A similar economic outcome could be achieved by a savings tax that reduces everyone’s balance and gives it to someone else. If markets were perfectly efficient then the purchasing power of someone’s account would be the same whether the inflationary approach or the tax and transfer approach is used.

I have long been of the opinion that proof-of-stake is superior to proof-of-work. Today I would like to challenge my own beliefs against the lessons I have learned from over a year of experience with proof-of-stake. In the past I have argued that proof-of-work is wasteful and that the same end result can be achieved much cheaper with proof-of-stake. Today I would like to consider if there is some value to proof-of-work.

It has long been accepted that blockchain technology is a perfect fit for the Financial industry. Now it is time to consider how the technology could benefit the Insurance industry. Maybe someday it will also take over Real Estate and completely conquer the FIRE sector of the economy.

Today I would like to present my concept for a Mutual Aid Society (MAS) on a blockchain. For lack of a better name for this concept I will refer to this system as MUXER. Muxer is a social network of giving you can count on when you need it the most.

I have said many negative things about Ethereum in the past, but today I would like to change that. Due to recent disputes within the BitShares ecosystem I have come to appreciate a certain qualities of Ethereum that the BitShares community could learn from.

My prior blog post created quite a controversy among many in the BitShares community. I cast a vision for BitShares as an an non-violent alternative to government. These ideas are considered niche and a distraction by some. Today I am going to justify the raw business benefits of a vision.

A new year, calls for a renewed vision and direction for BitShares. For too long BitShares has been evolving without any clearly and consistently stated purpose or direction. Today I would to cast my vision for BitShares in 2016 and the years beyond. The most high level vision is to create a well ordered society that is governed in a manner that fully adheres to the Non Aggression Principle (NAP).

The reason proof of work is considered secure is because it is more profitable to join the honest network than to attempt to attack it. The more money you can earn mining for the honest chain, the more costly it becomes to produce an alternative chain. At the core of this security is the concept that all actors pursue profit first and that any rational attack will only occur if it is profitable to do so.