This is the dream -- cooperation through economic incentives rather than through economic or military coercion

That said, I wonder if it's sustainable because money tends to agglomerate over time, and power structures naturally arise

What keeps the system balanced?

No kings, no standing armies, no shared treasury. Just a cooperative decentralized network of merchants and towns with common interests in trade.

One like, one tweet about the German Hansa, the mysterious medieval non-institution.

Ethan Buchman (🐝,🦇)

This is the dream -- cooperation through economic incentives rather than through economic or military coercion

That said, I wonder if it's sustainable because money tends to agglomerate over time, and power structures naturally arise

What keeps the system balanced?

https://x.com/buchmanster/status/1873769448307626075

Remember that money is just an abstraction. An incredibly useful and powerful one, but an abstraction nonetheless. Hopefully one day we can figure out how to facilitate economic exchange with something more representative of the energy expended, resources used, and value added.

Web2/Web3 developer and builder of grassroots decentralized culture and governance. Not a maximalist of any kind. More soon.

Or maybe this new balance of power can be built with clever use of some of the technology we have today 👀

Nonetheless, things are changing. The Internet and associated technologies have made it much easier for smart people who are able and willing to think abstractly to make a very good living. In other words, this tooling is moving society towards a more meritocratic dominance system, where clever use of resources eventually becomes more relevant than just having raw power. 

Of course there are still many bad and exploitative people capable of providing tons of financial value. Maybe the next technological revolution will create a shift in power from raw ability to some balance between ability and high-quality character.