Consensus

To further understand value, we must understand consensus.

Consensus is basically the degree to which people agree on something, the ultimate reality of this agreement is both physical in nature and also virtual (our Digital Selves).

Consensus, like yin and yang, is in essence Principle and Process. There are 2 sides, 1 coin.

The principle is unity and the process is physical action. Both are required to create something sustainable, at any scale.

Higher consensus creates a more stable and lasting value or reveals a better evidence-based truth/information, it offers stability.

To know we possess something of value to others gives us security.

Ideally, when our basic physical needs are met, we constantly seek valuable things or valuable skills, veritable interests, and hobbies. When they aren't met, we seek comfort, or we are in survival mode.

In our “modern” societies, we currently regard virtual services as the dominant value store in our life, we rely on our digital networks so we must take great care of the principles and processes governing them.

We cannot "eat" symbols or use them directly in our physical reality, yet by constantly trading symbols for things, services, experiences we support and maintain their existence, thus sustaining more than one consensus.

High collective consensus about symbols motivates us to invest in them and in return, the financial efforts of investors get multiplied and the rewards can be amazing, but only if the symbols represent benevolent initiatives. Symbols/currencies representing negative or malevolent initiatives, no matter how beautifully painted or designed, will eventually bring about a lot of suffering and degradation.

Intuitively, when we are in the state of gratitude, we pay it forward, we pass it on. This is the free flowing nature of currency or symbols.

Even if a symbol or currency represents a pure, benevolent initiative, if most of the currency supply does not eventually circulate from person to person, many people suffer and the whole system can even collapse.

If people like something, they usually want to sustain its development. The more people like it, the higher the consensus about its value or utility. This is how crowd-funded ideas become real, how modern artists make a living, how emergency situations are resolved and how lives are saved. GRAT is also represented by a fast-growing consensus.

In the same way, currencies, most assets, contracts, and almost every exchange with another individual are all possible because of this, because we measure our reality constantly and decide whether to accept the value that others created before us.

Today the value of fiat currency (Yens, Euros, Pounds, Dollars, etc.) is insured by nothing but a false promise from the cabal running the Fiat monetary system. Have you measured the consensus about that lately?

You see, as humans, our hyperactive mind keeps on desiring things or skills valued by others, but deep inside, we seek appreciation from others, we would rather seek love, wonder, and joy instead of greed, vanity, or money.

Would you agree with the following?:

A house is more valuable than a car, a car is more valuable than a stove, a stove is more valuable than a knife.

A haircut is less valuable than car insurance, car insurance is less valuable than renting an apartment, renting an apartment is less valuable than a job, a job is less valuable than a successful business.

Did you notice how your mind started evaluating value, swinging from objectivity to subjectivity?

We usually regard something physical as having objective value, but information is also valuable. We don't own and therefore cannot sell abundantly available physical resources like air and water, or information that is offered for free, be it an advice about directions while traveling or open-source software.

Still, information must be stored on something ultimately physical (be it an organic brain or a USB stick), services require physical objects/tools.

No matter what we DO when we are evaluating or deciding how to save and multiply our efforts, we cannot completely get rid of the physical reality of storing value. Furthermore, information is only useful to us to the degree it can give us access to physical things, services, experiences, and ultimately the life we desire.

The ultimate outcome of learning new information is simply to create a richer physical reality for ourselves to enjoy or to play with in creative ways.

Dance while the music is playing! Another time might be too late.

Goods, products, are things that we can measure, we can evaluate them using our own criteria or knowledge which comes essentially from our information about those physical objects and all their parts, but also from a rough idea of how many other people regard those objects as valuable to any degree.

Physical objects have a slightly different characteristic than virtual services.

We are always measuring the subjective value of any physical object regardless of the set price. For a physical product, our own evaluation is the most important, because physical goods are in essence infinite - due to the fact that we can regenerate or recycle the materials needed to produce them.

If we don't agree with the price vs utility of things, no matter the high consensus, we won't buy.

In conclusion, if the value we get from things or services has an unfair price, the consensus doesn't make sense.

This is a bit different for a deflationary currency, for example 1 Bitcoin can be $23.000 and it would still make sense to invest in a small fraction of one Bitcoin long term, because this type of investment will appreciate long term against a limited supply of Bitcoins.

Similarly, the Gratitude Token is a finite asset or currency/symbol. That being said, its logical to expect the price of one Gratitude Token to be much higher than $1 in a few years.

Let's end this chapter with a proper quote:

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde