A Case For Unions And Bitcoin

By Bitcoin 雜誌 - 2 年前 - 閱讀時間：11 分鐘
12 年 2022 月 12 日，星期三 08:XNUMX AM

A Case For Unions And Bitcoin

How unions and Bitcoin both serve to protect the interests of working people through dissemination of governance.

I am part of a subset of Local Union (ATU1555) based out of Oakland, California, proposing that our union allocate a percentage of our treasury and monthly union dues to bitcoin.

I wish I could take credit for the original ATU1555BITCOIN idea, but I cannot. After our tenth or probably more like twentieth bitcoin breakroom discussion, the former president of our local asked if I had ever considered how bitcoin could be applied to the union.

這個問題的答案是“不，我沒有。”事實上，在那之前我從未參加過工會會議，除了代表面臨紀律處分的成員之外，與工會的互動很少，也不了解工會的工作。

ATU1555BITCOIN Is Birthed

November 26, 2020 was the day the ATU155BITCOIN idea was birthed; the date I remember only because I was working a holiday (Thanksgiving) shift at a time and location that I haven't worked since.

When the union and bitcoin idea was originally raised, it went in one ear and out the other. Not because it wasn't a great idea; I had come to the conclusion a couple of years prior that Bitcoin could and would empower anyone and anything. Still, between my never having stepped foot in our union hall and not being aware of any unions that were involved with bitcoin, it didn't instantly dawn on me how our union could specifically benefit from it.

幾個月後快轉到 8 年 2021 月 XNUMX 日，這一天特斯拉不僅創造了歷史 的美元1.5億元 bitcoin buy and accept announcement but also making Bitcoin headlines that day (as if the Tesla buy wasn't news enough) was Miami Mayor Francis Suarez's announcement that he was working on a resolution to 添加 Bitcoin to the city's balance sheet.

MicroStrategy 創造了歷史性的 250億美元 bitcoin purchase on August 11, 2020, was a big deal to bitcoin proponents such as myself, but for a household brand such as Tesla (which has a 370 英畝的製造和辦公空間 距離我們其中一個十英里 工作報告地點) to add bitcoin to its balance sheet was a story anyone could resonate with — Tesla's bitcoin purchase was a big deal for the world.

Mayor Suarez's bitcoin announcement was the icing to Tesla's bitcoin buy cake, and it was now clear that it was time for me to revisit that fine idea from a few months back to see if it would be possible for our union to follow the lead set by MicroStrategy, Tesla and maybe now even Miami by allocating a percentage of our treasury to bitcoin.

Bitcoin Is Code For What Unions Stand For In Theory

Regardless of if you are a die-hard bitcoin maximalist or a staunch union activist, chances are you've never considered how aligned unions are with Bitcoin's ethos.

Only after months of research and consideration did I conclude that the alignment between unions and bitcoin is so strong that I now contend that bitcoin is code for many of the principles that unions stand for in theory.

The Synergies Between Unions And Bitcoin 包括：

工會是普遍的： 工會代表並保護全球勞工的利益。

Bitcoin Is Universal: Bitcoin is permissionless and borderless. Every second of every day, someone somewhere in the world is benefiting from Bitcoin's monetary properties.

工會是分散的： 工會透過採取各種策略來防止雇主壟斷治理，為工人提供了參與決策的機會。

Bitcoin Is Decentralized: Through and through Bitcoin is decentralized in ways that can't be replicated. Voluntary and often anonymous network participants are dispersed worldwide, making Bitcoin the most secure, distributed, and neutral network in the world.

工會是民主的： 工會領導班子選舉、章程修正案、議案均遵循一人一票的基本規範。

Bitcoin Is Democratic: Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism (how transactions are validated) and Bitcoin's governance (how the protocol's ruleset is decided) are at their core, a type of vote.

工會就是自由： 工會代表並保護勞動人民的利益，確保工人受到公平、有尊嚴的對待，並作為擁有權利的自由個體享有追索權。甚至組成工會的權利也是自由的原則。

Bitcoin Is Freedom: There’s no personal freedom without economic freedom, and Bitcoin economically empowers millions of people in ways inconceivable prior to Bitcoin.

工會保障工人權利： 透過罷工、立法改革、集體談判和其他策略，工會保護勞動人民的權利。

Bitcoin Protects Property Rights: Bitcoin is permissionless money that is uncensorable and unconfiscatable in that third parties aren't necessary in order to acquire, store or transact in bitcoin.

工會成為敵對經理/政治家/雇主的目標 誰期待 維持現狀 這對他們不公平。

Bitcoin Is Targeted By Adversarial Media/Politicians/Bankers 谁愿意 維持現狀 這對他們不公平。

工會因危機而演變： The unions that we know today, which represent all workers, were the result of the Great Depression. Before the Great Depression, unions predominantly represented "skilled" workers and openly 歧視少數群體。

Bitcoin Evolved Due To A Crisis: Bitcoin (the first successful implementation of "cryptocurrency" which was first coined in 1998 戴偉）於 3 年 2009 月 2008 日發布，作為脆弱、不公平和殘酷的金融體系的症狀和替代方案，該體系在 XNUMX 年金融危機期間幾乎永久破產。

權力夫婦

While it's nice that unions and Bitcoin share much in common, the real opportunity lies in the fact that if unions and the Bitcoin community were to form a coalition, the magnitude of the impact this affiliation could have would only be comparable to the AFL/CIO（美國勞工聯合會和工業組織大會）/共產黨/社會黨 1930 世紀 XNUMX 年代的聯盟，可以說帶來了美國史上最重大的改革；這 新價錢.

Though it is true that unions are not in full accordance with Bitcoin's ethos, let us not forget that there were 奪權、理念差異、不信任，甚至 暴力事件 AFL/CIO/共產黨/社會黨之間。但由於這些組織能夠看到其目標的重疊並在核心關鍵點上保持一致，因此他們能夠共同完成作為單獨組織可能無法實現的事情。

聯強

"With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men." - Clarence Darrow, American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

可以說，工會比任何其他機構更能代表人民，並且對今天我們認為理所當然的許多事情負責，例如：

但是，儘管工會可能具有傳奇色彩和影響力，但如果你接受這樣一個前提，即工會的存在不僅是為了保護工人權利，而且是為了代表勞動者的利益，那麼很明顯，工會為此可以做的比他們多得多。目前正在做。

美國的工會參與率已從 35 年 1945% 的高峰下降到 在10 2020％ while income, wealth, and opportunity gaps haven't been this inequitable since 大蕭條之前.

這些現實表明，如果工會能夠更有效地實現其目標，那麼勞工、工會和整個社會都會變得更好。

如果什麼 Bitcoin has achieved in its thirteen years of existence is an indicator, Bitcoin is unlikely to be going away anytime soon and as was the case with corporations, banks and now governments, sooner or later, unions will have to recognize Bitcoin and consider how it could help unions further their agenda.

Bitcoin: What's In It For Unions

美國工會會員人數正在下降

工會的力量很大程度上來自於其成員，美國的工會會員率已從 35 年 1945% 的峰值下降到了大約 在10 2020％.

For unions to align with Bitcoin would better position unions to

所有這些都可以大大幫助工會減少會員流失。

工會可以實現資產多元化

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero." - Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher

January 21, 2020, famed investor Ray Dalio famously declared on CNBC that "現金就是垃圾, okay? because they are going to print more." Then from March 2020 to March 2021 America's central bank proceeded to 增加貨幣供給總量 超過30％。

As if that wasn't bad enough, the dollar has lost 85% of its value since 1971 (the year President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard) and 96% of its value since 1913 (the year the Federal Reserve Board was established), according to the 聯準會美國通膨計算器。

對於一個聯盟來說，透過將一定比例的資金分散到自成立以來年化回報率超過200% 的另類貨幣和貨幣體系中，而不以現金或現金等價物持有所有的資金，在主要儲備金為主要儲備的世界中並不存在風險。貨幣正在經歷 消費者物價通膨 6.8% 和 房屋升值20% 在一年裡。

以新的獨特方式體現工會原則

工會有 很大程度取決於 19世紀以來集體談判、罷工和立法改革引發了變革。

Employers have been investing in technology designed to reduce the role of workers since the employee/employer dynamic began; with bitcoin, unions now have an opportunity to be the benefactor of technological advances by adopting what may prove to be the most disruptive technology of our generation, that would allow unions to proactively further their agenda of representing and protecting workers in ways that have never before been possible.

Bitcoin 強度

While some may value fiat currency because it's backed by "帶槍的男人" as Nobel Prize-winning author Paul Krugman would say, others prefer gold because it has “intrinsic value” in that it's used in bling and cell phones.

反過來， Bitcoiners covet bitcoin because it is a neutral, uncensorable, unconfiscatable, permissionless money with superior inherent monetary properties, such as its portability, scarcity, recognizability, durability and divisibility.

Because of its unique qualities and monetary properties, bitcoin has the potential to give humanity a type of economic freedom the world has never known, from the start-up merchants in El Salvador who lack the payment systems to process digital transactions, to the Micheal Saylors of the world who due to inflation are watching their companies’ billions melt away like an ice cube on a summer day, to the Venezuelas of the world who are being crushed by 經濟制裁 導致比典型戰爭更多的絕望。

潛力 bitcoin has to positively impact humanity is far too great for unions to dismiss. Unions have an opportunity to ally with a purpose-aligned Bitcoin movement that could be a symbiotic relationship that would help unions regain their influence.

Unions: What's In It For Bitcoin?

"Bitcoin’s greatest threat is its success" - Ray Dalio - billionaire hedge fund founder

防禦過度監管

由 Bitcoin community aligning with unions, politicians will have to consider the political fallout that would result from their supporting anti-bitcoin legislation when a significant percentage of their constituents understands and has benefited from bitcoin because of their direct or indirect association with a pro-bitcoin 聯盟。

工會有著立法遊說、為政治運動和立法改革做出貢獻的歷史，其歷史可追溯至上世紀末。 19th世紀 並且有良好的記錄 增加選民投票率 在政治選舉中，不僅包括成員，還包括非工會工人。

Bitcoin 鯨魚

Since it's impossible to estimate the number of people and institutions who own multiple bitcoin 錢包， 報告 每 bitcoin inequality is worse than the wealth inequality of the United States as a whole — where 根據美聯儲的說法 1% 的家庭擁有大約三分之一的財富——這一事實不能被接受。

However, part of Bitcoin's original promise was to be more equitable than the fiat dollar-based system that we have today, and Bitcoin could be doing better as it pertains to the concentration of bitcoin in the hands of whales and non-decentralized institutions.

而 Bitcoiners understand that Bitcoin's equality properties lie predominantly in Bitcoin’s hard, neutral, incorruptible level playing field qualities that will result in any Bitcoin standard system being far more equitable than the fiat system we have today, it would still be a win for both Bitcoin and the world if bitcoin were better distributed; unions aligning with Bitcoin would be a driver of more diverse adoption.

提高意識/理解/採用

I shudder a bit every time a union member asks me "which Bitcoin?" in response to me asking their general thoughts on Bitcoin.

The percentage of people who still believe you have to buy a whole bitcoin in order to purchase it, assume that bitcoin and cryptocurrency are synonymous, or think of bitcoin in the same way they think of stock, is significant.

Bitcoin has a market cap comparable to Tesla, Meta (Facebook) and Nvidia, yet people's understanding of what Tesla, Meta and even Nvidia does is significantly greater than people who understand Bitcoin, which is indicative of a major disconnect as it relates to people's knowledge about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin community aligning with unions would reduce this disconnect.

結論

“A macro forecast that’s easy to make, and that's that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest, it will get closed. History always does it. It typically happens in one of three ways either through revolution, higher taxes or wars; none of those are on my bucket list.” - Paul Tudor Jones - billionaire hedge fund founder

As described in this article, both unions and Bitcoin have a once in every century opportunity to grow bigger, better and stronger by forming a coalition with an equally formidable movement that is in congruence with their core objectives.

Unions and Bitcoin are too vital to the trajectory of humanity for this opportunity not to be explored.

On January 12, 2022, ATU1555BITCOIN will vote on whether to allocate a percentage of our union treasury and monthly dues to bitcoin.

Regardless of whether the fund passes or not, ATU1555BITCOIN has the building blocks for what will serve as a template that unions globally will be able to refer to in their attempts to align with the Bitcoin 運動。

The best time for unions and the Bitcoin community to form a coalition was yesterday, but the next best time is today.

Unions and Bitcoin now, because the stakes don't get higher.

This is a guest post by the ATU1555 Bitcoin Fund. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin 雜誌.

原始來源： Bitcoin 雜誌