"SelfSell" The Dystopia Dapp
So, I'm bullish on Chinese block chain initiatives. There are lots of reasons to be bullish but what drives my dollars into Chinese initiatives is that China is in the midst of implementing a system of social control and surveillance that is without parallel in human history.
Social Credit, the blending of traditional financial credit scores with social ratings from interactions, online purchases, your friendships, and social media commentary on the communist regime, will determine what jobs Chinese citizens will hold, their ability to use public transport and related public infrastructures, and their eligibility for housing, loans and inadvertently, who they marry and socialize with.
If this all seems vaguely familiar, it's because it is. The dystopian sci-fi show Black Mirror, did an episode on what the world would be like if Uber ratings, and Airbnb ratings escaped these platforms and became general ratings used in all social, economic and political settings. The episode was called "Nose-Dive", which ought to give you an impression of how the writers thought such a world would play out.
To manage the Social Credit system China is going to have be shot through by smart contracts. If China plans to implement a system that will give the regime the power to verify the identities of 1.3 billion people and control how they interact with the economy, public services and each other through rating systems you can be damn sure that system will be smart contract enabled.
For this reason, I had an interest in Achain, a Chinese smart contract platform that has yet to really draw much attention from Western Investors. When I started checking out the DAPPS on Achain I found SELFSELL. While I will give a synopsis of the DAPP below, I'll let the company speak for itself:
https://www.selfsell.com/, follow the link and check out the video its about two minutes.
I will be honest, the concept of launching an IPO of yourself both amazes me and terrifies me. In many ways, the idea of selling your future value for capital up front is not new. Professional athletes and musicians often get paid on their potential future earnings. However, these are professions that have the capacity to net millions of dollars, the risk is high as is the potential. But how does this situation play out for people who are, well, just sort of average?
There is little doubt that it will be young people who stand to gain and lose the most from the platform. After-all, if you get to launch an IPO of yourself based on your future value that future value is less clear and more speculative (and therein, potentially high ROI) return the younger the person. A 40 year old bureaucrat ain't exactly an attractive human stock to park your money in simply because the earning potential of this person is getting close to its peak.
From a user standpoint, it is also when we are young that we need capital to invest in ourselves, an element that the creators of Sellself point out. At 18, we could use the capital to go to a good college, start a business, train etc. So, there is a good chance that cash strapped kids will be the key investment class showing up on the self-sell platform. What could this mean?
Well, it could certainly mean that for those who promote themselves effectively and create a successful brand, they could stand to amass the capital to do some impressive things. However, it also means that many people might plot a future value that is simply wildly unrealistic or becomes impossible due to conditions outside their control.
It also means the dynamic potentially is an older class of investors investing in the young. The potential for exploitation is high, especially with a smart contract system governing the terms and conditions of each investment. Imagine, you want money to train as a doctor. An investor steps up but makes your funding dependent on maintaining a certain social rating score, a strict curfew, no alcohol, no relationships. Such terms and conditions certainly are not impossible to imagine as safeguards investors would demand to secure a good ROI. Also, how does one live when one is a both a person and also an IPO?
It has already been mentioned that our social media platforms and online relations has created a gap between our online persona and who we are (https://steemit.com/philosophy/@tarazkp/aka-the-gap-between#@insightgenerator/re-tarazkp-aka-the-gap-between-20180324t122943569z). Imagine what the gap looks like when you need to be cognizant that you are a potential investment. How keen would you be to admit you were struggling with mental health issues or having a crisis of conscience of the life path you had advertised yourself pursuing?
There are many questions and not all of them can be answered. However, what is clear is if SELFSELL becomes a way of life, a way we expect to generate income to invest in ourselves, our world will never be the same.