One of the reasons I like cryptocurrencies is they remind me of natural systems. As I dive down the crypto rabbit hole, fascinated by everything I learn about this new paradigm, an analogy that helps me realize the benefits of cryptocurrencies is the similarities they share with nature's seeds.
This post is an expansion of an idea I threw out in my welcome post. I hope that it may help some crypto folks see natural processes through a familiar lens. I also hope that it would help some nature lovers understand crypto better. If nothing else it should serve as good entertainment :)
Seeds Are Cryptocurrencies
New tokens are being created every time evolution happens. New genetics are recorded at the time of reproduction. A flurry of tokens are released into the world. They have carriers that transport and distribute them throughout the ecosystem such as wind, animals, insects, gravity, water. Some of nature's tokens have very specific ways of being distributed and others are more general and accepting of many different types of paths.
Seeds Are Traded for Greater Value
Nature's tokens are traded. A plant trades some of its tokens to a hungry animal in exchange for manure [ @wwf ] so that it and/or its offspring may thrive in a fertile environment. Tokens are traded for resilience; only a few of a plant's tokens may one day become strong healthy plants themselves. The rest of the tokens are donated to the ecosystem for food and soil so that the ecosystem may continue to flourish and in return the donor and its offspring are granted resilience.
Seeds are Diverse
Nature has so many kinds of tokens with new forks of each token coming out to the ecosystem as constantly as reproduction happens - which is pretty dang often. This fractal behavior ensures resilience through constant adaptation. Even in a natural ecosystem dominated by one species there is still a great amount of diversity. There is no true monopoly in nature.
Seeds are Abundantly Available
Some plants may offer only a handful of tokens but many plants offer hundreds or thousands of tokens to the ecosystem in one reproductive cycle. When you think about how many plants there are out there, that is a LOT of tokens floating around. In gardening this is called a soil seed bank. At any given time, any given section of soil will contain a number of tokens that lie dormant and un-traded. Hence the analogy.
Soil seed banks usually contain quite a large quantity of tokens, especially when you consider weed tokens. Weeds are plants that are quite adept at survival and mass reproduction. This is why gardeners fail to eradicate weeds from their soil year after year. The abundance of tokens ensures freely available food [ @slhhomestead ] (berries, nuts, fruits, grains, seeds) for the ecosystem as well as resilience for future offspring.
Seeds are Deflationary
While it is true that there is a massive abundance of tokens in the ecosystem at any given time, those tokens are deflationary. There is a fixed number and they all have a shelf life. The number of tokens are regulated by the ecosystem's capacity to reproduce. Some tokens only last one season while others may last dozens of years if the condition is right. Some get buried and are lost (or rather deposited into the soil seed bank). From year to year, cycle to cycle, ecosystem to ecosystem, the given number of tokens in circulation will change.
These deflationary tokens with a shelf life are constantly traded. They are converted into other tokens such as soil and manure. (Even these tokens have their own diversity and deflationary attributes.) These conversions mean that tokens are actually never lost. They simply convert to another type of token where they play one particular role for a while, which helps in the generation of new tokens.
Competition is Collaboration
In nature sharing is caring [ @taskmaster4450 ]. Competition equals collaboration. Two plants may compete for the same space so that they may have the sunlight they need to thrive. But they both contribute to the overall ecosystem [ @boyasyie ]. They both release tokens to the ecosystem, not only for survival, but also for the greater good of the ecosystem. So that their tokens may be traded into other tokens as stated above in "Seeds Are Traded for Greater Value".
The ecosystem allows regular and continuous bartering of resources with others for the benefit of all. My tokens can be converted into tokens that help me, my friends and my competitors.
Every Seed Has A Different Strategy for Distribution
Some plants use huge token distributions and use large numbers to their advantage while providing a large abundance of resources for bartering. Some issue tokens that cling onto fur or fly in the wind to distribute token genetics as far as possible to help increase diversity. Some are tiny so that their tokens may fit into small crevices and some are large to attract certain miners, like squirrels and birds.
The point is that none of the token distribution, bartering and distribution strategies are incorrect and there is always room for new strategies to be developed. This is in contrast to monopolies that don't occur in the natural world which allow no space or platform for innovation of new tokens.
Seeds are Free
Tokens really are free. Maybe they don't look free to us because we are used to living in a world where resources are controlled. In nature this is not possible. If all of one plant's tokens were hoarded in one place, they would suddenly lose their value. Because without tokens in circulation they would be worth nothing to anyone else.
Nature does not manage all of the tokens in a particular ecosystem and then take some tokens for every token that is bartered. That would be theft and extortion. Mother nature does not operate in a scarcity model, else she would encourage fear and greed.
Yet we do live in a world of control and scarcity. So when we see cryptocurrencies they don't look free to us. They look like they cost us something valuable. In reality they only look costly when we come from a world of control. We see that we need to work very diligently to acquire some tokens [ @cryptoctopus ] that we want so very badly.
In a world that is free, tokens are free [ @mountainjewel ]. They are distributed to those that need the tokens. Actually they are distributed for the ecosystem at large. Tokens are discovered, acquired and converted on an as needed basis by those that contribute to the ecosystem.
Distribution is Free or Near Free
Distribution is nearly free. Yet any cost incurred benefits those involved. A plant may get a bite out of its leaves while some of its berries (tokens) are being acquired, by a bear for example. Those leaves (another type of token) are paid to the miner for doing the work of acquiring and distributing the berry tokens. And yet the plant can grow new leaves and branches from the place that was bitten (in gardening we call this pruning, in nature its token distribution) so that it can gain more solar energy and create more berry tokens. Which are really all the plant wants do do anyway. And so this minimal cost is actually negligible, if not actually free [ @acidyo ], because it benefits all parties involved.
Seeds Can't be Controlled
Only when we operate in or on the edge/fringe of a system of control and scarcity can our tokens be controlled. But when we leave that edge and enter the natural ecosystem, tokens can not be controlled. Yes tokens can be hoarded by the whales, but if too may tokens are hoarded then those tokens become worthless. Meanwhile there are still many other tokens available and freely distributed according to the nature of diversity.
In nature tokens cannot be controlled. They are just too abundant. They are just too diverse. There is just too much collaboration.
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I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, I encourage you to follow me as I will post more crypto brain fodder from time to time interspersed between my homesteading, wild food and other nature inspired adventures.