Introduction
Hello everyone! I am "CLains" (Christian Lains) and I recently completed my education with a master's degree in philosophy in 2013. After getting out of university I quickly became hooked on cryptocurrencies and the whole cryptoeconomy. First Bitcoin, then Litecoin, and for the last three years BitShares, and now i'm completely addicted to Steemit. To nurture these interests my brother and I co-founded BitSpace and we're currently doing presentations, courses and consulting for the emerging cryptoeconomy.
With Steemit I can now write about all of the things that interest me the most. Particularly the nature and internal value of consciousness; theoretically through philosophy, information theory and psychology; and practically through art, meditation, virtual reality and altered states. I am also interested in fintech, particularly blockchain technology, as a means of liberating the external expression of value for all people everywhere, much like the internet did for the expression of information.
Childhood and Youth
Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the future. When I was young games evolved from 2D to 3D graphics, the internet was in rapid growth, and before I was a teenager I was playing MMORPGs with kids in Singapore. The promise of a global interconnected web with virtual worlds seemed inevitable. When I was 14 I remember reading Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating (2001) and becoming completely, religiously absorbed by the idea.
When I was young I was doing all sorts of physical sports like football, skiing, rollerblading and taekwondo, and always very enthusiastic (bottom left):
..But later when I was older and it came time to choose something to excel at competitively, I decided to try becoming a professional gamer instead, as that seemed to be most in alignment with my enthusiasm and futuristic optimism. I ended up becoming fairly good, being sponsored and travelling all over the world, but never had the courage to drop out of school as the scene was still maturing (here in Turkey):
University
..So I stayed in school with the intent to study something I thought would be important. I never did well in school, being bored half of the time, and dyslexic the other half of the time, but still I was confident; either theoretical physics or philosophy for me! Having some experience with what it means to achieve things in a competitive environment, I realized I needed to chose something that I could do well at.
Compared to everyone I knew what set me apart was how much I was thinking about philosophical issues. I was always thinking about questions like: What is the meaning of life? What is Pain? What is Good and Evil? What is consciousness? Why is there something rather than nothing? And even before I became a teen I stopped talking to people about these thoughts as generally people don't like to discuss those kinds of topics.
So I enrolled in philosophy thinking I was hot shit but quickly found out that I was completely rubbish. I could neither understand other people's positions or write down my thoughts into a coherent whole. Thus began a painful three year process where I gradually learned to read and write at an acceptable level. Finally this culminated in a master thesis that I spent inordinate amount of time researching and putting together, and then being very proud of myself at the end feeling like I had accomplished something great.
Right after this point (2013) of pride I naturally become completely lost however. I was thrown from the cosy bubble of academia into the street and I had given not one second thought to the idea of getting a job and providing for myself. I had been the archetypal philosopher staring at the stars and now I fell straight into a well of being completely useless. My options were either 1) get a painfully low-wage job, or 2) get a one in a blue moon PhD studentship (still trying three years later).
Crypto Economy
Of course being the kind of person to always try to think myself out of a tricky situation, I put all my student loans into Bitcoin and Litecoin (figuring it would be the next big thing) and I started engaging with the traders over at BTC-e, who represented a new world of pioneering, internet savvy young people getting rich while doing psychedelics on the side. Sure enough, Litecoin went to the moon, and I was ecstatic and hopeful that this could lead to my future utopia.
This is when I found BitShares and the concept of DACs. The new vision was not only of a diverse range of currencies but a whole financial infrastructure and an ecosystem of new Decentralized Autonomous Companies. My passion for philosophy, the future and my urgent need to provide for myself all came together in the utopic vision painted by Stan and Dan Larimer. I bought Protoshares, and Angleshares, and for a time all was good.
Over the next 2 years we all know what happened. A long downtrend hit crypto and it hit most of the people involved as well. I had almost no experience with trading and did not learn fast enough. I became more depressed as my prospect for a free life of the mind was shut down by my ever shrinking stake in a utopic vision that seemed more and more distant as time went by.
At the same time the developments in the cryptocurrency space never quite abated, and there was always a sign that, just around the corner, change would come. I decided I could not simply predict and wait for the future, but had to become an active participant in the progress (not easy for someone with a philosophical temperament to realize!). So I began working on myself ("the man in the mirror") and published weekly "Motivation Mondays" to inspire myself and the BitShares community at large.
I also became more open to starting something related to cryptocurrencies with my brother, "spectral." We managed to invite Adam Ernest to the Norwegian Pirate Party yearly assembly, and we started thinking about how to create a Norwegian Gateway to BitShares. It quickly dawned on us that the regulatory issues surrounding cryptocurrencies was a mess in Norway, and that we needed to consider a long term strategy.
At the moment BitSpace is mainly a cryptocurrency hub for knowledge and consulting, stuff we can do without having to worry about regulatory issues. In the last 6 months or so however, there has been a surge of interest in consulting requests and interest in our company and what we are doing. We are getting contacts from investors and developers alike who are wondering if we can help them develop and think through blockchain-based projects.
With the Bitcoin price rising, and the Bitcoin halving drawing near, we are optimistic about the future. The last two years have been tough but we have learned a lot through this difficult period and I believe it has made us all stronger. For my own part the pressure to do stuff with BitSpace has really helped me get out there to confront my own fears and shyness which has made me much better able to socialize and engage with people.
Integration
Going forward, I am hoping that I will be able to integrate my different interests and pursuits. I love to unify different aspects of what I am interested in, everything from gaming, to spiritual practice, to philosophy, to futurism, to emerging technologies. We can't detach the search for freedom and abstract truths from the grittiness of the situation the world is in and our particular human experience. Unfortunately, social cliques, work environments and academia tend to reinforce specialization along centralized hierarchical organizations. With the advent of technologies like Steemit we can break these rigid structures and open up to a much vaster, free space of unrestricted human flourishing.
