Description

SMPLE-KOIN is a hypothetical cryptocurrency inspired by Buddhism. It will be introduced in this essay as a spiritual 'thought experiment' with economic implications, one designed to facilitate a real-world revaluation of how important material and financial wealth is to human prosperity. The goal is to solve critical 'coordination problems' in game theory, and thereby facilitate a global transition to 'simpler' lifestyles of sustainable consumption which are supported by post-growth or degrowth economies. At the very least, this essay might help people walk the spiritual path of industrial civilization's demise.

In order to elucidate the core thesis, a near-term future is envisioned in which civilization is shaped by an artificial superintelligence known as 'Cholom'. This benevolent entity uses its superintelligence to create a value-system for humans to live by, optimising for peace and prosperity throughout the entire community of life. It will be seen that this holistic and rationalistic worldview ends up bearing a close resemblance to Buddhism. Since Cholom is aligned with human interests, it wants people to adopt this value system for their own sake - to realise their own peace and prosperity, now and into the deep future.

To facilitate this radical transformation in human life, Cholom creates a global cryptocurrency called SMPLE-KOIN, which is stored in digital repositories called Karmic Wallets. These wallets are assigned to each individual and only accessible on the internet via perfectly encrypted signatures. If your stock increases, you have advanced, to that extent, along 'The Path' toward enlightened living - and conversely. Accordingly, the goal in life is to become spiritually rich, as quantified by SMPLE-KOIN, the perfect unit of karmic accounting. In this essay, it is suggested that one of the most significant effects of SMPLE-KOIN is how it could revalue the importance of material and financial wealth to a well-lived life, an insight that is ancient but ever-new.

Might there be times when less really is more?