{"id":7321,"date":"2017-12-30T11:28:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T19:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7321"},"modified":"2017-12-30T11:55:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T19:55:14","slug":"democracy-earth-year-2017-review-santiago-siri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/12\/30\/democracy-earth-year-2017-review-santiago-siri\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Earth – Year 2017 in Review (from Santiago Siri at Democracy.Earth)"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

D<\/span>ear Earth Citizen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Our world is rapidly changing. Here at the end of 2017, it is clearer every day that nation-states are not the only game in to<\/span>wn anymore. The recent changes in our geopolitical landscape are markedly defined by the internet<\/span>: they involve, on one hand, Facebook gathering an unprecedented amount of power and allowing its business practices to be\u00a0a disruptive force for democracy<\/a>.\u00a0And on the other hand:\u00a0Bitcoin.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Surging from $940 to $19,000 USD in only one year, 2017 marked a point-of-no-return in Bitcoin’s ability to promote the divorce between\u00a0Money<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0State.\u00a0<\/strong>Peer-to-peer models and disintermediation are being widely discussed, reaching mainstream media and culture. And as populations from countries such as Venezuela\u00a0🇻🇪,\u00a0\u00a0Zimbabwe\u00a0<\/span>🇿🇼, Argentina\u00a0<\/span>🇦🇷,\u00a0and Greece\u00a0<\/span>🇬🇷, start to rely on cryptocurrencies as a safeguard against their own banking systems, the configuration of a new status-quo is hard to ignore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those profound changes are emboldened by the evident failures on both levels of political control:\u00a0the Land<\/strong>\u00a0(governments that monopolize the law on territorial jurisdictions) where the US\u00a0🇺🇸\u00a0is joined by France\u00a0<\/span>🇫🇷, Greece\u00a0<\/span>🇬🇷, Japan\u00a0<\/span>🇯🇵\u00a0and more than 65 other countries with a downgraded\u00a0Democracy Index<\/a>; and\u00a0the Cloud<\/strong>\u00a0(global corporations that monopolize access to\u00a0user data, a.k.a. the new oil),\u00a0<\/em>where we have witnessed large-scale cyberattacks exposing billions of internet users, and\u00a0the irony of a security agency – the NSA – making us more insecure.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n


\nThose are not individual events, but pointers signaling the widespread decay of the economic and political frameworks in which our institutions operate. But there is good news too: as hierarchical and centralized systems disintegrate, the road is paved for new models to take place.\u00a0Non-coincidentally, 2017 has also marked a pivotal point\u00a0for Democracy Earth Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nWhere have we been<\/strong><\/span>?<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Institutionally:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Physically:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0🇺🇸\u00a0🇫🇷\u00a0🇦🇷 🇧🇷\u00a0🇩🇪 🇵🇹 🇪🇸\u00a0🇲🇽 🇹🇼 🇩🇪\u00a0🇦🇪 🇰🇷 🇻🇳 🇬🇧<\/p>\n

Digitally<\/span>:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

We ended 2016 with a very clear understanding of the requirements needed to create an organization capable of reaching impact at a global scale. So this year,\u00a0we worked on those\u00a0foundational building blocks.\u00a0<\/strong>The Social Smart Contract<\/a>, our White Paper published in September, was written on Github with contributors from all over the world\u00a0<\/span>🌎, and it is now a living document gathering the digital hive mind<\/span>\u00a0to think about how we can govern ourselves on a planetary scale. Witnessing the creative and intellectual forces unlocked by the open source collaborations around this paper has been both a humbling and fascinating experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sovereign<\/a>, our token-based liquid democracy software, was soft-launched in its alpha version\u00a0with a simple request to our community: use it to make suggestions and polls about the software itself.\u00a0One more time, the response was beyond our imagination<\/strong>. Our focus on delivering a social-media like UX resonated with our users, who jumped in utilizing our features and making the most of the platform since day one!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0__________________________________________
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the year<\/span>\u00a0we have\u00a0developed<\/strong>,\u00a0discussed<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0demonstrated<\/strong>\u00a0open source governance on the blockchain,\u00a0the geopolitical nature of Bitcoin<\/a>, and the power of liquid democracy tools at the World Economic Forum in\u00a0Dubai<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>🇦🇪, the Sorbonne in\u00a0Paris<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>🇫🇷, the Civic Tech Fest of\u00a0Taipei<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>🇹🇼, as well as @CodeMoBerlin<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>🇩🇪, @#ColaborAmerica17 inRio<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>🇧🇷, and the BIEN conference in Lisbon\u00a0<\/span>🇵🇹.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We raised the profile of the decentralized democracy movement, starting the year on stage at the\u00a0World’s Fair Nano in San Francisco<\/a>, and appearing in stories and profiles by theOECD<\/a>, the\u00a0World Economic Forum<\/a>,\u00a0Forbes<\/a>,\u00a0New Scientist<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Futurism<\/a>\u00a0in the months ensuing.\u00a0Finishing the year, we introduced Democracy Earth\u00a0🌿\u00a0at the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0and launched our\u00a0Ambassador’s program<\/a>\u00a0– a key initiative to empower leaders from all over the world with our message and software. We could not be prouder of our very first Ambassador,\u00a0Sunny Sangha<\/a>\u00a0from the UK\u00a0<\/span>🇬🇧,\u00a0who gave this extraordinary TEDx talk<\/a>\u00a0and is starting a liquid democracy movement in Birmingham.\u00a0Most exciting of all, we saw the expansion of our digital footprint with the growth of the Democracy Earth community, now numbering more than 92,000 subscribers and followers across\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0GitHub<\/a>,Slack<\/a>,\u00a0Medium<\/a>,\u00a0 and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In keeping with the\u00a0decentralized nature of the Democracy Earth Foundation, for the first time ever this December, members of the team came together from all points of the globe. We\u00a0converged<\/a>\u00a0in the Sierra Nevada mountains where we worked on finalizing plans to hold an\u00a0Initial Coin Offering<\/a>\u00a0in early 2018 –\u00a0the last in\u00a0a sequence of events, aimed at creating a massive global movement for blockchain-based liquid democracy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

It’s been an extremely productive year, filled with accomplishments and recognitions.\u00a0Yet we are only at the very beginning.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for reading, and thank you as always for being part of the Democracy Earth community.\u00a0 Be well, and we wish you an extraordinary 2018!<\/p>\n

🌎<\/p>\n

Santiago Siri<\/span>
\nFounder & President<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Democracy\u00a0Earth\u00a0Foundation
\nA 501(c)(3) nonprofit in San Francisco, California.
\ndemocracy.earth<\/a><\/p>\n

Donate:\u00a0opencollective.com\/democracyearth<\/a><\/p>\n

Support our work with Bitcoin:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Connect through\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>
\nConnect through\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Our mailing address is:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n

Democracy Earth Foundation<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
1246 36th st<\/div>\n

San Francisco<\/span>,\u00a0CA<\/span>\u00a094122<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Dear Earth Citizen, Our world is rapidly changing. Here at the end of 2017, it is clearer every day that nation-states are not the only game in town anymore. The recent changes in our geopolitical landscape are markedly defined by the internet: they involve, on one hand, Facebook gathering… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7321"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7327,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321\/revisions\/7327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}