BITCOIN IS THE FREEST ECONOMY IN THE MODERN WORLD

NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) – When people think about some of the freest economies in the world right now, obvious options, such as Singapore and Switzerland, usually come to mind first. You can get a decent gauge of the freest countries in the world by taking a peek at the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.
Although there are plenty of economies that can be considered ‘mostly free,’ the reality is that the only place that could possibly receive a perfect score at this time is the Bitcoin economy. Let’s take a look at how the Bitcoin economy would stack up against the other 178 economies ranked by the Heritage Foundation.
Rule of Law
This is the section where many would assume the Bitcoin economy has most of its troubles. There are two aspects to the Rule of Law category: property rights and freedom from corruption.
It’s rather difficult to judge the protection of property rights in the Bitcoin economy due to the fact that there isn’t much property that needs to be protected. If someone wanted to take the idea of cryptoanarchy to its fullest extent, they would probably not have their name designated to the ownership of a car or house.
People who operate solely in the Bitcoin economy are responsible for protecting their own property, although they could hire outside help in a situation where something is stolen from them. When it comes to any kind of digital asset, it is difficult to find a better system for protecting property rights. Owners of bitcoins are their own banks, so there is no reason to worry about having their digital property stolen from them through taxation or other government action.
There has been plenty of corruption in the Bitcoin space, but this has happened whenever a bit of centralization has been added on top of the protocol. For example, various exchanges and online wallets that have been hacked or stole their own customers’ funds are a type of corruption that will only be possible until more decentralized, low-trust systems are built. The point of Bitcoin is choosing ‘can’t be evil’ over ‘don’t be evil,’ and removing the possibility of corruption should help the Bitcoin economy receive high marks in this area.

This post was published at Inside Bitcoins on Oct 20, 2014.