The story of history is a story of war and commerce; with the two inevitably intertwined. Always a store of value is required: land, precious metals, opium and spices, semiconductor chips, scientific know-how or access to information. What if crypto, and blockchain based protocol, could change that?
Anthem Hayek Blanchard believes that the blockchain, and specifically blockchain protocols of the kind his company is developing at Herasoft, can remove the distrust and ‘game-theory’ which have led humans to connect violence with commerce, over the millenia. He points out that the protocol market has “between 2-3 trillion” in liquidity, and “the keys to Ethereum are worth more than any bank on the planet.”
“the keys to ethereum are worth more than any bank on the planet.”
For centuries accounting methods, much like maps, were fallible things. This is why networks of trust, family, professional and religious relationships, were so important. Most blockchain evangelists point to the role of decentralization in keeping the government out.
Anthem is different because he believes emerging technologies won’t simply lead Bretton Woods to fade away; they will go further, to remove some of the key incentives toward exploitation, fear and distrust, that have plagued human history, human character and the human spirit from our beginnings.
It’s quite an argument.
Anthem’s own story personifies a key inflection point in the history of western finance. He was raised by his adoptive father, the precious metals pioneer, James U. Blanchard III, who helped restore Americans' right to own gold and also founded a rare coin and bullion company, Blanchard & Company - at one time, the world’s largest.
Named after an Ayn Rand book and an Austrian British economist, Anthem sees himself as carrying out his father’s legacy on the blockchain.
Named after an Ayn Rand book and an Austrian British economist, Anthem sees himself as carrying out his father’s legacy on the blockchain. His contribution, as he perceives it, is towards a world which is more free, less encumbered by fear and distrust, and structured quite differently to the world we all live in today.
