Commitments will be recorded on the chain Awakening Long-termism

Commitments recorded on the chain, Awakening Long-termism

Author: Hao Weng, co-founder of Wai Bo Three Views

01  BYD’s Counterattack

Recently, the oil price in Australia has skyrocketed, and neighbors have started to switch to electric cars. I also started searching for information about electric cars online, and the results were surprising. In the sales ranking of electric cars in Australia, the Tesla Model Y ranks first, followed closely by a model called BYD Atto 3, ranking second. Upon further investigation, it turns out that Atto 3 is actually BYD’s Yuan Plus. What’s even more surprising is that the Atto 3 in Australia is priced at 50,000 Australian dollars, which is about 80% higher than in China. It made me realize that BYD is no longer representative of the low-end market.

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BYD has a strong sales momentum in China, leading Tesla in electric vehicle sales, and has made many breakthroughs in electric technology. However, I did not expect it to be so popular overseas.

After further understanding this company, I found that BYD has been persistently investing in research and development, focusing on the research and development of key technologies such as electric vehicle batteries, motors, and electronic controls. The period from 2015 to 2018 was a low point for BYD, and although BYD was incurring losses during this period, their research and development investment steadily increased from 3.6 billion to 8.5 billion. In 2017, BYD had a research and development staff of 27,488, accounting for about 14% of the total number of employees, with a total research and development investment of 6.26 billion yuan, accounting for 5.92% of operating income. They have always ranked first in the number of research and development patents in the field of electric vehicles in China.

In order to be able to cope with technological upgrades at any time, BYD has invested in the construction of a complete industrial chain, from batteries, motors, electronic controls to vehicle manufacturing. Nowadays, many companies often advocate “buying is better than researching, and renting is better than buying”, practicing light asset operation. From a short-term perspective, such a strategy can achieve maximum economic benefits. However, from a long-term perspective, the development of the company may be subject to many limitations and lack application scenarios for technological innovation.

It is worth mentioning BYD’s expansion into the international market. Through long-term brand promotion, BYD has already gained a certain market share in countries such as Australia, France, and Germany, and has acquired strong pricing power.

After completing this research, when I observed the electric cars driving on the streets again, I suddenly realized that there were already so many BYD Atto 3s on the road.

02 Miyazaki’s Romance   

On July 14th, animation master Miyazaki Hayao just released his final feature film “How Do You Live?”. This is a closing work that he spent ten years creating, and it is a summary of his views and opinions on life, society, emotions, history, and culture.

Hayao Miyazaki aspired to create animated works with artistic and depth since he was young. However, for the first thirty years, he failed to gain attention because the quality of animation he pursued often did not meet the short-term demands of the market. But he never compromised.

It was not until 2000, when he was 60 years old, that his works gradually gained recognition worldwide. From “Princess Mononoke” to the Oscar-winning “Spirited Away,” his works became popular globally. Many viewers saw his brilliant achievements but forgot the firmness he had maintained for forty years behind the scenes.

Hayao Miyazaki movie poster

The true value is not fleeting, but requires time and effort to accumulate. Growth is the accumulation of years, as well as the process of self-awareness and responsibility. Taking responsibility for one’s choices, not seeking excuses, not easily bowing to reality, and sticking to the initial promise made to oneself, is a kind of romance for adults.

This firm belief and the spirit of long-termism are also the reasons why companies like BYD and masters like Hayao Miyazaki can continue to innovate, grow, and break through over many years.

03 Adult Rites Missing

In this era of pursuing consumer enjoyment and instant gratification, long-termism often seems out of place.

I often wonder why the Jews, a small population, have so many outstanding talents? In addition to factors such as intelligence and unity, I found that the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony may be a reason worth considering.

In many cultures, the coming-of-age ceremony is an important custom. It is not only a physical and moral test but also a symbol that indicates a person’s transition from a child to an adult. The Jewish “coming-of-age ceremony” derived from the Talmud means “having an obligation to fulfill Jewish laws.” Completing the coming-of-age ceremony means that the child’s mind, physique, and abilities have entered a new stage and can sit on an equal footing with adults. After this, they must fulfill Jewish teachings, traditions, and ethics, participate in family division of labor and Jewish community activities; of course, they also enjoy many rights that belong only to adults, such as reading scriptures in the synagogue and getting married.

In short, completing the coming-of-age ceremony means that you should take responsibility for all your actions, like a true adult.

Ancient China also had similar coming-of-age ceremonies, namely the “crowning ceremony” and the “hairpin ceremony,” which can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty and lasted until the Ming Dynasty.

Noble men in the Zhou Dynasty held the crowning ceremony when they turned 20, which meant they could get married afterwards. Being crowned meant that the male was recognized by the community and had become an adult. On the other hand, girls held the hairpin ceremony when they turned 15, and after completing the ceremony, they could get married. If a girl married early, she could hold the hairpin ceremony earlier. If she reached the age of twenty and still hadn’t married, she should also hold the hairpin ceremony because at this time she was already a fully mature woman and no longer suited to dress like a girl.

However, in modern society, with the gradual disappearance of traditional customs, this sense of adulthood and responsibility also gradually disappears, replaced by a “giant baby-style” freedom. When all we pursue is material things and can only show ourselves through material things, we will become lost. The toy car we pursued as children becomes the pursuit of luxury cars when we grow up.

Our brains are very good at pursuing short-term rewards, which is the result of biological evolution. This means that we are easily tempted by short-term pleasures at the cost of long-term attention and money. This shallow freedom and instant gratification make modern people more confused.

Adult men pursue a gentlemanly character and knightly spirit, which is an embodiment of long-term thinking and deserves respect. However, in the wave of capitalism, this pursuit is scorned and replaced by the trap of consumerism. People become more and more objectified and become slaves to material possessions and capital.

The concept of long-term thinking is slowly disappearing. It emphasizes long-term planning, taking life as the unit of time, rather than immediate pleasure.

04 The Trap of Consumerism

Nowadays, people believe in the philosophy of “life is short, enjoy it in time” and pursue a life of freedom. At first glance, this seems like a beautiful and humanistic approach. However, in reality, it cleverly exploits human weaknesses and invisibly puts people in chains.

People’s lifestyles have also changed. Every day, we do assembly-line work in the company and then indulge in consumption after work. Busy yet empty, “free” yet imprisoned, this is also a significant reason for the high incidence of depression in society today.

Even in leisure and entertainment occasions, capital still manipulates people’s psychology through various strategies to achieve its goals. The gacha mechanism in online games and the matchmaking system in Honor of Kings are designed to make players continue to invest time and money. These strategies not only exist in the games themselves but also in sales strategies and the manipulation of social relationships.

For example, in Honor of Kings, through the matchmaking system, you are often caught in a cycle of either winning or losing continuously. The purpose is to stimulate the secretion of hormones, consume your time and energy, and increase the cost of quitting. Similarly, in the game of Landlord, you will find that you either continuously get good cards or continuously get bad cards, making you unable to resist the urge to rush for beans. And there is the stamina mechanism in Genshin Impact, which requires you to go online regularly, fragmenting your time and making you exhausted from playing a game. This makes us have to think: are we playing the game, or are we being used and manipulated by the game mechanism?

Consumerist culture encourages people to consume more and pursue material wealth, which is considered a symbol of happiness and success. Various smart organizations utilize information technology, communication studies, and psychology to manipulate your short-term behavior and immerse you in various consumption scenarios. It may bring instant happiness, but it makes you lose patience to spend time with your family and friends. Long hours of work and overtime may seem like a means to achieve life goals, but in reality, they sacrifice precious time in your life.

More importantly, this continuous consumption also generates massive waste of resources and causes serious environmental damage. Consumerism amplifies the weaknesses of human nature and is a sustainable disaster for humanity.

05 On-Chain Commitment

We live in a world filled with various promises: politicians promise to improve people’s livelihoods, companies promise to provide quality services, individuals promise self-improvement. However, not many promises are truly fulfilled. We need to consider a question: how to ensure the fulfillment of promises in a society lacking long-term trust mechanisms?

A healthy society should be built on trust. The current trust system is controlled by centralized institutions, which makes trust easily influenced by certain short-term behaviors. For example, government support can be obtained through short-term lobbying, thus affecting the formulation of relevant policies. Due to the lack of effective supervision and punishment mechanisms, individuals or organizations can easily violate their commitments and influence public perception and emotions through public opinion.

Under the influence of short-term interests, adhering to long-termism is challenging. The first problem to solve is a tool that can achieve long-term traceability. This includes goal setting and roadmap planning, data analysis and feedback during the process, and the establishment of long-term social relationships and reputation systems.

Blockchain technology is undoubtedly a tool that is more in line with long-termism and can indeed provide an innovative solution for establishing long-term trust mechanisms.

The core advantage of blockchain lies in its tamper-proof and transparent characteristics. These characteristics are very suitable for recording commitments because once a commitment is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with or deleted. This tamper-proof feature ensures the seriousness and reliability of commitments.

Let’s assume a charity organization promises to provide educational support for children in a poverty-stricken area in the next year. This commitment can be recorded on the blockchain with a timestamp. In this way, the commitment becomes tamper-proof and transparent, and everyone can view it on the blockchain and supervise the flow of funds and the fulfillment process. This forces charitable organizations to have greater motivation and responsibility to fulfill their commitments, thereby establishing good credit and reputation. This mechanism can greatly enhance social trust because it ensures the authenticity and reliability of commitments.

The promise of blockchain also has social attributes. Data consensus is a mechanism for constructing social relationships based on data. By analyzing personal data, it is possible to find people with common goals or interests. For example, if two people have recorded similar fitness commitments on the blockchain, they can be considered to have similar interests, providing individuals with a transparent and reliable social platform, forming a long-term mutual assistance social relationship.

Making a promise is easy, but fulfilling a promise is painful. It is precisely because of this that the fulfillment of promises becomes precious. If they are put on the chain from the beginning, they cannot be changed, are supervised, and every individual can participate in the revision or fulfillment of the promise, will we have a new respect for the phrase “a promise worth a thousand gold”?

Finally, I want to ask you: Are you willing to put your promises on the chain?

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