Here we have outlined a theory of the value of money which assumes that, as better forms of money are discovered, their value will converge proportionally toward the sum of all scarce things on Earth.
On the basis of this theory, we have outlined how small administrative units, DeLiechts, could arise and replace large states.
Now we will outline how current state/public assets could gradually pass under the administration of DeLiechts.
Introduction:
It is sometimes admirable to walk through a large city and wonder how so many people can voluntarily cooperate with one another so that everything works. How is it possible that transport functions in Paris, and that in New York there are millions of people who are able to live side by side without killing one another? This is not the result of central planning; it is the voluntary cooperation of people who evidently recognise certain common rules. If that were not the case, the city would not function, there would be no roads, and it would not be possible to get anywhere.
Cities are natural groupings of people. In the past, city-states existed — in Italy, in ancient Greece, and so on.
The borders of today’s states are now somehow fixed, and all effort is directed toward keeping them that way. In the past, however, borders changed constantly, and it would be naïve to think that they will not change in the future. Rothbard was a supporter of decentralisation; he defended organic units, “states by consent” — he could even imagine a city divided according to religious affiliation (Nations by Consent).
The question, however, is how to achieve the reduction and fragmentation of states without wars. Is it even possible?
Let us briefly summarise the plans of the DeLiecht project:
We have crypto wallets that are geolocationally linked to individual cities/villages. Residents of cities who own real estate in a given locality begin sending regular anonymous monthly payments in satoshis. In accordance with the previously presented theory of the value of money, these amounts will gradually appreciate, until the day comes when they can no longer be ignored — there will be significant financial resources in these wallets.
Spending from these wallets will be tied to a majority quorum — whatever the majority votes for, that is what the wallet will allow the funds to be spent on.
The exercise of voting rights will be a function of payment history — the longer a DeLiechter has contributed, the stronger their vote.
However, we do not yet have a mechanism by which the new DeLiechts would legitimately acquire existing state assets.
Here is an idea for how this acquisition could take place:
On day D — the launch of the DeLiecht project — a “signal” will begin to be emitted from the geolocation centre of each city, spreading outward in a circle at the same fixed speed. The circular area absorbed by the signal is considered the future property of the DeLiecht: parks, roads, schools, and so on — everything that currently belongs to the state. (Let’s call it „DeLiechtization“).
We can imagine, for example, that the signal would spread at a speed of 1 metre per second. In 30 years, the signal would reach a distance of 263 km (163 miles).
That means that after 30 years, the surroundings of Paris up to a distance of 263 km would fall exclusively and indisputably under the Paris DeLiecht: roads, railway lines of the state railway operator, all parks, forests, waterways, and so on.
The signals of other cities would also begin to spread — villages and small towns near Paris. These signals would therefore inevitably collide after some time, and it would be necessary to resolve their mutual interactions.
A larger city should have greater weight in relation to a smaller city, which can be solved in several ways. A small city could, for example, expand at a slower speed than a large one.
If we allowed a city of one million inhabitants to expand at a speed of 1 metre per hour, then a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants could expand at a proportional speed, that is, one tenth of that speed. In 30 years, this city would therefore “grow” to 26.3 km / 16.3 miles.
It will be necessary to find an optimal formula for the spreading of the signal, using, for example, a brake based on distance, population size and a minimum protective zone, so that small towns are not disadvantaged in relation to large ones — that is, so they are not absorbed by a nearby metropolis — and, on the other hand, so that a large city does not disproportionately dominate another nearby large city.
If a signal encounters the signal of a neighbouring DeLiecht, the overlap may be settled by agreement between these two entities. They may exchange territories so that the new arrangement reflects the geographical particularities of the place, the cultural differences of the territories, and so on.
An abandoned town in the desert will take a long time to encounter the perimeter of another DeLiecht, whereas two large cities located close to each other will collide much sooner.
After a reasonable period of time, for example after 30 years, the spreading of the signals may stop, since the entire Earth will be covered by clearly defined borders of individual DeLiechts.
If the speed of the signal’s expansion does not change, it will be easy to calculate when a particular part of a road, will pass under the administration of our DeLiecht, and which part will pass under the administration of the neighbouring DeLiecht. In this way, the DeLiecht can prepare in advance, or even already begin repairing a part of the road that does not yet belong to it, but will fall under it in a few years.
The formula for the expansion of the signal will be built into the DeLiecht wallets in such a way that everyone who joins will be able to see what perimeter their city/area has already reached. At the same time, this formula will serve as a sign that the wallet downloaded by the new DeLiechter, to which they have begun contributing, is the correct one from the unified DeLiecht community.
If a city or village sets up its wallet later, the elapsed perimeter will be loaded in — because it seems better if the signal begins to be emitted simultaneously from all points, so that DeLiechts that join later are not deprived of potential territory.
During the transfer of ownership of assets from states to DeLiechts, people will realise that they had never really thought about the basis on which the state owns water, forests, air, land, and so on. What entitled it to own all of this?
DeLiecht will become the new constitution — a constitution one can opt into, and one that can be changed if someone is not satisfied with it, which is not possible in the current situation.
Conclusion:
DeLiecht shows a path toward the creation of small administrative units through the acquisition of economic strength. They rely on a theory of the value of money which indicates that every newly discovered form of money fulfils the intuitive idea that the monetary whole proportionally reflects the sum of all wealth in the world. Today’s most perfect money is bitcoin/crypto. In the future, when transactions can be made by thought and when there exists some virtual database/blockchain of all transactions, this future money will reflect the idea of a proportional share of a unit of money in all the wealth of the world better than today’s money does.
Today, different cultures are being mixed too quickly within certain territories — for example, rich states are being flooded by people from poorer regions who bring with them their cultural habits, which do not always suit the original population. Likewise, economically poorer regions face cultural threats when foreign people or companies buy up entire areas and disrupt the original flow of a given locality.
The DeLiecht project can stop or slow down overly rapid cultural changes which current democracy is evidently unable to deal with. It will return decision-making powers to property owners within their own territories. In London, most real estate is still owned by Londoners; in Germany, by Germans. DeLiecht will assign London back to the English, and Berlin back to the Germans.