Why do we build? How will blockchain technology change society? by Dialika Camara (Devcon5)

[Applause] my field of Economic Opportunity I say this because leveling the playing field is precisely why I became a lawyer I view the law not as something that is intended to maintain social order just by maintaining the status quo I see it as a reflection of our values that they are today but also as they change with our changing understanding away as possible through technology are changing desires of how we will interact with one another and in this way I would have to say that every legal question for me at least begins as a values question necessarily with when you create the law and have to decide for yourself what is it that we are creating for what are the values that underlie our system if you're creating a contract of business partnership once we want to uphold and prioritize above all else in case of the prices what would i this to our decision these are the kinds of questions to go into legal in controlling and I mean if we think about it here right what happens when something goes wrong what happens in the blood she doesn't work as the expected work what happens when this broad I think we've all made before we know this conversation you know this discussion but what are the values that guide us to our sleep do we resolve the issue on the basis of ensuring that the original words of the original language is executed exactly as it was written down or do we consider that well actually the outcome that we want is quite different because our purpose is equity so how do we get to and it will outcome which path we take these are the kinds of questions that go into values these are the kinds of questions that you must answer before you create their law and in addition to making the law and having your values we have to also have governing structures that allow diverse people to shape and bring light to those deities so if I consider all of this in the context of blockchain technology and the kinds of governance structures that we want to have in our systems I wonder about the second question how about watching change society and improve people's lives I have to say that this question is a bit harder for me and I say that because on the one hand I'm here because I absolutely believe that this is a revolutionary technology that can be that equalizer to bring economic prosperity to people all possible irrespective of their geography irrespective of their background and I'm so inspired by on the other hand I also think that watching technology can possibly replicate power imbalances that we have today and possibly a permanent and destructive yeah so where do we end up 200 years from now where will we have waited well I mean I'm not here to predict the future and I can't and no one can but I do think that it's confidence and some it's something I can confidently say that the technology for me will not be this and I say that because we're all on board that the technology is revolutionary the technology is a huge leap forward this we know what we don't know is how those values will be shaped through our governance structures what we don't know is who will be able to in times of crisis determine the path that we take and the reason I say that these questions are the more fundamental questions is because we've actually been here before we've seen systems built around these kinds of questions and issues and I think we can learn a lot and in particular I think we can learn a lot from the American experiment so if you'll allow me I'll just give a bit of background here I think we'll be able to understand what I mean because the stroke program independence was in fact very much an economic scholar much like our own it was a struggle for economic justice because these new settlers had come to the u.s. in search of new lands let's call it and were wanting to govern themselves they came for some it was a fun experiment or other thing was a a laughable attempt at competing with the British monarchy which was at that time a ridiculous concept but nevertheless they created a society for themselves something they were proud of 13 colonies governing themselves desiring to live by rules under their own terms nevertheless they were still tied to this monarchy because in every interaction in every economic transaction the monarch was unavailable demanding these levying taxes requiring that no matter what these others would have to pay for this the monarch and this was of course not what they want a self-governing structure but what does that look like they the seventeen hundred's they thought maybe we can find a way to coexist with this monarchy maybe we can find a way to make it a bit better or maybe we can make our own mark maybe we can have a limited kind of government structure of we're I mean it's still monarchy but at least we're in charge so I guess it's a bit better these were the kinds of ideas and discussions that were floating around at this time until January 10 1776 because it was on this day that the entire tone of the conversation changed and in fact the entire revolution changed and this was because this is the day that an anonymous paper was published and this anonymous paper was called common sense the idea behind common sense was that we're looking at this problem from the wrong angle we're thinking about how do we break away from this monarchy where are the problems with this King but the argument here was that the fundamental problem is centralized power and the argument was of course against centralized power but is also argument for visualization because the author who we now know as Thomas Paine argued that only through decentralization could you have a system that is accountable to its users only through decentralization can you allow for democratic processes to Mabel people to rule ourselves but not only do you have decentralization you have a system where you don't need to look for answers when they came there's no need to have the key in the middle we have the law our law is what governs what we do so much so that I mean we said that the wise King imagine the words that we have written down are enough to cover all of our interactions do I have anyone in the middle why be accountable to somebody who's not accountable to us not only would you have to have decentralization of the systems work you would also have to have an idea that every participant of the system has the same rights as everyone else right that cannot be taken away rights that are forever and fixed rights that are immutable and in order to ensure that everyone knows about these rights you would of course have to have a transparent system because you have to have a system where all of these rules are recorded on a central and essential document that gives access to everyone to be able to read and understand the rules of the system we have a transparent system so imagine a decentralized system of immutable rights that is transparent maybe for us this is maybe something that would take for granted or we think of course this is the obvious solution but put yourself in seven this imagine the world as it was in 1776 this was truly remarkable truly a brilliant idea then and now and with these ideals in mind of course we started with the American experiment the Declaration of Independence with these principles in mind was signed shortly after eleven years later the Constitution Campbell and the Constitution was where we actually put down the government structures that would bring these values to life unfortunately if you see what resulted it was finally smashing so whereas we originally had this idea of a decentralized system that is open and accessible for everyone that gives justice to all voices what we ended up with was a system that was actually quite close and that actually only gave access to a very means of cue and required land ownership as a tenant participation so I guess the question is in what happened what went wrong and I'm here to take accountability and say that lawyers that I want as I guess it's often lawyers messed this up and how did you mess this up we messed this up because we only look to ourselves for the answers understand that this revolution was a very legal one and it was a legal one because as I mentioned taxes that were charged and this affected the practice of law so nobly these men decided that they wanted to create a structure that would give life to those values that would provide that system of democracy and immutable rights that is transparent so they set forth to write this constitution the problem was it was lonely lawyers who were involved in this process if you imagine that there were so many people that felt that the system had not been accountable to them these lawyers including and so many people who wanted their voices heard but the system that actually resulted was designed by these men in this room this was their crime right because if you actually understand the situation a bit better thirty two of these men were lawyers and a time when what it meant to be a lawyer was that you were white you were wealthy you were a land only man you are a part of what would be considered at that point one percent of the population in no way reflective of a society as it was then and certainly not a question of society as the rest of it now these men undertook to create a system that way again bring laxity zones and I honestly think is with a bit of Law of the Constitution there were no diverse perspectives or voices that were included in the governance structure that were created there was only governance from one thing from one viewpoint and the problem with governing from one viewpoint is that you have blind spots and what I want to say is that all of us have these blank spots it's funny because in fact Abigail Adams one of the wives of the founders had to write a letter to her husband during this time as they were creating the system urging her husband to remember the ladies and she said this because she reminded him that in order to live up to those values that you articulated you actually have to give voice to women you actually have to give voice to everyone in order to truly have a democratic decentralized system and she was so correcting her position because she understood that this is not a problem of her husband it's not a problem of these men it's a problem of creating structures only from our perspective and falling into the trap of the leading that everyone sees the world in the way that we do how do we avoid this we avoid this by including other people you don't need to speculate about what someone else would think you need to just include them and hear their voices and understand how the values that she believed in are reflected in through their lens of the world and it's funny because what was created was such a remarkable system and I have to say that many of the aspects I make the Constitution so great are also two aspects so difficult to reconcile with the realities of society today and so acknowledging that the system that we have our tools in the utility amazing but it's a tool and not every tool is right for every problem blockchain is an amazing tool but the way in which we use it will determine how future users will interact with the system and whether or not they'll be able to interact because well the Constitution was an amazing invention in creation it also resulted in the crisis that has brought us here the 2008 financial crisis were also births in the US and while some might think is the system not working in many ways the idea that 1% of the population in the US was able to put the global economy in jeopardy is very much the system being accountable to those who was designed to account for so how do we then figure out for ourselves the we are also 11 years out from our main paper that sort of sparked a movement how do we create a system that avoid this pickle how do you create a system that allows diversity and perspective diversity of background to create governance structures I say that even if you want to say that Kody's long we have to understand though we're not here just to replicate the systems of the past we don't want to just bring new faces to broken systems we want to create new systems inclusive systems and whether or not the code is law we are the ones who are going to determine the value like that coat and we're going to be the one that determined how we can build her to be sure that diversity is included in our system from the beginning this is important for us because it's what will ensure the success of our system today and 200 years now and I'm so inspired and encouraged by the fact that we're all in this room precisely from different backgrounds from different countries speaking and talking to each other about how to make watching better so in that way I say let's keep building [Applause]