Yuval Harari and Craig Wright—a comparison regarding data

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Yuval Noah Harari had a public conversation with the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. The discussion touched upon several topics, but one stood out for me: data.

Harari said:

“(…) data is becoming maybe the most important resource of the 21st century.”

Furthermore, Harari stated:

“You have couple of centuries experience of regulating the ownership of machines, and factories, and all that. But we have very little experience in regulating the ownership of data.”

So, data as a resource and the ownership thereof. Harari also mentioned the problem of so-called data colonization, where most of the world’s data end up in just a few data hotspots.

“Which one would those be? California?” Christine Lagarde asked.

“The usual suspects,” Harari said and laughed.

I know someone who is not laughing about that, though. Dr. Craig Wright, the inventor of Bitcoin, sees the same problems as Yuval Harari does, but has solutions in store that are available today.

Just as a starter, Dr. Wright said that he hates Silicon Valley. No laughter after that statement. You can see for yourself here. 

Data as resources, but Bitcoin as an informational commodity

Forget everything you ever read about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets that are hyped concerning “price action,” such as pumps and dumps. Dr. Wright is working on the BSV Blockchain to enable the following:

In the video above, Dr. Wright points out that:

“One of the big problems of the internet was the whole concept of “data needs to be free.” Data doesn’t want to be free. Data hates free. Data wants to be valued. (…). And when it is valued, data becomes information. And information is critical.”

Currently, we collect data and try to extract value indirectly from it—as in the digital advertisement industry. With the correct implementation of Bitcoin, data can be valued directly. 

That is where Harari’s open question of how to regulate ownership of data is answered. Try valuing data first, and then we can regulate the ownership of data.

Dr. Wright even refers to the EU concerning data regulation in the video above. We are waiting for Christine Lagarde to hear Dr. Wright in a public conversation, so we leave the very European “think and debate”-phase behind us and finally get to the solution phase.

Transforming data into information by valuing it with BSV Blockchain

Data as resources, as Harari rightly said. How about Bitcoin as a commodity? Resources and commodities are not the same thing. A while ago, Dr. Wright said:

“Everyone gets this wrong. They think: ‘commodity, it’s just a good.’ It is not. It is the contract. The commodity is a certain amount of something, delivered at a certain time, with a certain refinement—that is a commodity.”

That was part of the intro of Dr. Wright’s keynote speech at a CoinGeek conference. He was referring to Bitcoin as a commodity. An informational commodity. 

We can put data onto the BSV blockchain, and by that, we can refine that data in a commodity environment. You put data in, and you get information out. 

All data on Bitcoin becomes information, as it is by design transformed through transacting in Bitcoin—and the transaction itself is information, not just data. A monetary dimension is added to the data.

Stop theorizing—act now—solutions available

I do believe Harari is genuinely worried about dystopian data scenarios. The beautiful feature of Bitcoin is the public ledger, though. 

Once data enters Bitcoin, it appears for everyone to see. Sure, we can encrypt the data, but we keep track of it. The Bitcoin transaction is publicly available, reducing fraud, corruption, and worse. Digital sunlight, so to say. 

In his public mission statement from just a few months ago, Dr. Wright announced:

“I have instigated several lawsuits globally (…) that will aid in educating law enforcement and setting the necessary precedents that will define how regulators and law enforcement understand Bitcoin going forward. As the creator of the system, I have a deep understanding of how it works.”

Famous economist George Gilder said Bitcoin SV is the epitome of information economy and showed admiration for Dr. Wright’s solutions. Gilder also stated that what he called “the scandal of money” as well as “a scandal of internet security” could be solved by implementing BSV Blockchain. 

Watch: Bitcoin Masterclass Day 1: Confidentiality, Privacy, Anonymity & Party to Party