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Our Chance to Unlock the Hidden Potential of the Internet

by AlexMay 29th, 2023

Too Long; Didn't Read

Centralization and money are one of the key obstacles for humanity to unleash its full potential. The first one limits resources available to general public, and the second one blocks creativity. Being an integral part of our lives, Internet could help to move our civilization forward. But it got “infected” by the aforementioned hurdles. Qortal could help to “heal” the Internet and change our behavior by providing us a healthier and more reliable environment.

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The Internet gave access to everything, but it also gave everything access to us.

(James Veitch)

General overview

In a nutshell, Qortal is building a new decentralized infrastructure for different aspects of our life: as for the Internet, as for a new economic system. It is about putting the power back to the people. Qortal could help with crypto payments adoption, because it provides tools for a true peer-to-peer (p2p) asset trading.

Qortal Trading Portal is much safer and reliable than traditional crypto exchanges, because it utilizes local wallets and the keys to them never get exposed unencrypted. Qortal has a number of features that make it unique. These features should allow people to migrate every aspect of the Internet (plus, a lot of other aspects of our life) to Qortal. I would like to focus on some of them: minting (not mining), potential mesh network usage, and Qortal’s development team.

Also, I would like to mention that Qortal authentication approach enables developers to build dApp on Qortal 10 times easier than on the traditional Internet without the need to worry about handling users’ credentials.

Minting

Qortal’s developers built its own blockchain from scratch. In order to use Qortal, you need to download and install Qortal Core (that supports the Network and the blockchain) and Qortal UI (User Interface, sort of a browser). Qortal blockchain is about 4 Gb in size, which is astonishing compared with that of Bitcoin, for example (around 500 Gb) [1]. What’s more, it gets smaller over time. There are more than 10,000 Qortal nodes (computers running the Qortal core and UI) running all over the world already [2].

Minting has nothing to do with PoW or PoS mechanisms. It is based on sort of PoT (Proof of Time). This model rewards users based on their contribution being a full node for a longer period of time. To become a minter, one should get their node running and get a key (that can be assigned to one machine) from a minter who is 5 level or higher. The more time one runs the node, the more influence he gets/the higher his level is, the more QORT (Qortal native coin) he earns. Qortal users level system is what will be used during the voting on proposals (Qortal voting system will be released soon) and help to decide the future of Qortal.

To participate in minting, you just need a simple computing machine capable to run common operating systems [3, 6]. You don’t need mining farms providing tons of computing power to compete with others and win. The latter is what made Bitcoin quite centralized. Qortal is decentralized, because PoT is about sharing / collaboration, not competition. That is what, probably, everything in this world should be based on.

Mesh networking

This technology will enable peer-to-peer communication without the Internet. It will allow to replace traditional internet service providers (ISPs), making Qortal even more decentralized, independent and reliable alternative to the current methods of digital communication. Special protocols like Reticulum will allows devices to connect wirelessly and freely [3, 4, 6].

However, there must be a thorough research done on the safety of wireless technologies for life on Earth initially. For example, some research shows that even a widespread wi-fi technology is dangerous for human health [5].

Qortal’s development team

The goals set by the Qortal developers requires them to build some unique software. The code to implement the majority (if not all) of the aforementioned features is written from scratch. This requires a lot of creativity. I believe that the development of the features was possible due to genuine motivation of Qortal’s development team members who have their full-time jobs and work on Qortal development in their spare time.

Basically, they just want to try to make a better world and are driven by their passion. They saw problems (mostly centralization) and potential solutions (mostly blockchain). The latter has been used for over a decade, but is abused and misused in today’s world by people to maximize their profits, rather than implementing a system that would benefit everyone. For example, making profits with the help of Bitcoin mining requires a lot of computing power that is affordable only to those with huge financial resources, not a little guy. So, the developers wanted to use the blockchain and crypto to build such a system that would correspond to the values initially set by their creators [3, 6]. Speaking of creativity, I’d like to mention the importance of intrinsic motivators over extrinsic ones. This has been demonstrated in the “Candle problem” experiment (initially developed by Karl Duncker in 1945, and modified by Sam Glucksberg). It is based on the cognitive bias called functional fixedness. The experiment showed that monetary rewards narrow our focus, dull thinking, block creativity and restrict our possibilities [7].

So, in a nutshell, I believe that true motivation of DevTeam enabled them to build some unique solutions and use unique approaches to achieve true decentralization.

The power of true motivation. Unlocking the hidden human creative potential

We have the resources. Money is an interference. Because it limits our ability, and it limits our dreams.
(“Introduction to a Resource Based Economy”)

Wait a second. The thing that really was holding me back is… me.

(“TMNT (S06 E15 - Graduation Day Class of 2105)”)

There are a lot of problems in today’s world, and creativity is exactly what we need to solve them. Intrinsic motivation is the foundation of creativity. It is about our desire to do something because it matters, because it is a part of something important or interesting. Think about GitHub, for example. There are plenty of projects / software developed by people not for profits, but because they have that inner drive that inspires them to make something helpful for this world.

In general, though, as you can see, nowadays, what business does is not based on what science knows [8].

Assets and Profits redefined. Universal values

Technology and industry have distanced people from nature and magic and human values.

(Laura Esquivel)

The development of technologies should go hand in hand with the moral growth of humanity. Sense organs allow us to communicate with the world around us. We judge things based on the information we get via them. Precious metals, diamonds, dollars, crypto are external things that we put value into. And we value them because we can perceive them. But the real gold is inside us. It is our universal / human values.

In today’s world, business is about maximizing profits. Changing our world view in such a way, so that the internal spiritual aspects of our existence would lead our actions, could help to generate the real profits – betterment of the world for everyone.

Business redefined

Earth has a lot of resources. Nowadays, money is used as sort of an interface to manage them. I would say, that money is a crutch that humanity uses to compensate underdeveloped consciousness. Our universal values could be another basis that the aforementioned interface could be based on. An intrinsic interface that would allow us to deal with resources directly. Managing the Earth’s resources is probably the only real business we should master.

Seems like people are starting to realize this and trying to change our traditional understanding of economy and business. Examples include The Venus project, Seeds and the projects it tries to help: The NYX, Abundancia & Ubuntu, Finca Sagrada and plenty of others. These projects are based around the idea of rational management of the Erath’s resources and trying to provide an alternative to our current economic system. They are about ReFi (Regenerative Finance) [9].

Basically, as far as I understand, they are about trying to use money for the last time to build such a system that would not require money and allow humanity to live with nature in harmony.

I believe that projects like Qortal could help the growth of our intrinsic values and ultimately build the aforementioned system.

There is no trade.

There are no markets.

There is no currency.

Those who wish to contribute, do so through collaborative design in an open-source environment.

Do you need to get paid to get out in the morning?
Do you need to be paid to ensure your own health, the health of your family and friends?

Paid to show stewardship for the habitat and society that supports you?

(“InterReflections“ movie (by Peter Joseph))

Nature-inspired design. Adaptability

What nature has to teach is more than we have ever imagined.

(John Lanie)

Biomimicry helps us to solve problems by looking to the natural world for inspiration. We can learn a lot from nature. Living organisms have to adapt to survive. Just like that, software has to be built upon some principles that will help it to adapt and survive as well. These nature-inspired principles are responsiveness, heterogeneity, decentralization, redundancy, and cooperation (aka PROTECTION framework (resPonsiveness, heteROgeneity, decenTralization, rEdundancy, and CooperaTION)) [10].

I believe that the Qortal project is going to be a great success, because its platform is based on the PROTECTION framework:

= responsiveness (there will be a voting system that allows to make proposals in order to adjust Qortal to changing conditions);

= heterogeneity (for example, Qortal supports different cryptocurrencies, not just QORT);

= decentralization (Qortal is based on the P2P connection);

= redundancy (currently Qortal uses traditional ISPs, but mesh networks might be used in the future, making Qortal more reliable);

= cooperation (minting is about collaboration, not competition);

These principles should help Qortal to survive during tough times. Plus, it has a great community driven by passion.

Those that seek to create in this world, those who embrace change as a natural force, helping to unify humankind as one entity in one shared direction, realizing that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere, will always be one step ahead of the traditionalist, the preservers, the elitists, who in defence of their separatist identities and egoist fears, seek to divide, conquer, oppress and destroy.

The pursuit of livingry will always be one step ahead of the pursuit of weaponry.

(“InterReflections“ movie (by Peter Joseph))

The headline image was composed by me with the help of the books, database, blockchain, video call, talk, web, basket, pyramid images (sourced from Pixabay).

Screenshot sourced from “TMNT (S06 E15 - Graduation Day Class of 2105)”.