Roe v. Wade reaction, blockchain, and outdated systems.

Wikipedia updated 5 min ago, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of

the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion. The decision was issued on June 24, 2022, ruling 6–3 to reverse the lower court rulings; a more narrow 5–4 ruling overturned Roe and Casey. The majority opinion stated that abortion was not a constitutional right, thus overturning both Roe and Casey, and that states should have discretion in regulating abortion.

It feels as though we had just been set back by 50 years.

Regulation and laws are needed for society to function. But, the way our judicial system is running right now needs to evolve. To me, it does not make sense that women in certain parts of the country will not have the choice to decide over their own body when the majority consensus in the United States disagrees. According to Pew Research Center, 61% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (June 13, 2022). I can’t imagine the fear and pain women who might have to face life threatening situations due to the lack of abortions feel right now.

Every day, more power is getting taken away from the individual and increased control is granted to fewer entities. During times like this (that lately seem to happen too often) I try to remind myself of the things that give me hope. Thanks to the internet we are sharing our experiences to anyone across the globe, we are seeing injustice through the eyes of people like us. This rapid spread of information is allowing us to get together and create new systems that will give us back our rights.

My only hope is that we use emerging technology, like blockchain, to our advantage to unite us together, and to help us evolve outdated systems that no longer work for the people because obviously our current government is not going to help. An event such as the overturning of Roe. v Wade is not to be taken lightly. It is to be taken to the highest degree of seriousness because it exemplifies that our rights are in question.

One of the main reasons I am so drawn to blockchain technology is because it gives us new possibilities. Even though at the moment the connection of blockchain to our daily lives seems abstract, in theory, this technology that was built on hundreds of years of mathematics (and will continue to get better) can work to solve many systemic issues- financial and data ownership, new ways of transferring data/ information quicker and verifiably, as well as increased transparency in the systems we are in.

There is so much criticism and, at times, empty ape hype, but none of the noise will be able to take away the fact that the development of cryptography is revolutionizing the means to take back control from our centralized organizations. We’re definitely not there yet, there is still much progress needed to be made in the security and scalability aspects of blockchain, but signs of progress are present.

A small example, ConstitutionDAO, almost succeeded in buying one of the surviving copies of the original United States Constitution for $43.2M. Through the decentralized nature of a DAO - decentralized autonomous organization - a digital hub where individuals can combine to make purchases and share ownership, using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, individuals are united with a shared value. The constitution, which holds the basic laws of our democracy, a democracy run by "a government of the people, by the people and for the people’ (Abraham Lincoln, 1863), ultimately belongs to the people. Bringing back this shared vision through a DAO was truly inspiring to see.

I am taking this moment to think about the broad implications of this ruling, made by a few people, affecting the lives of many. The right to a safe and legal abortion should be non- negotiable. The governmental system is convoluted with politics and corruption. Anyone can go ahead and ridicule bitcoin, etc., but it's where we're headed if we don't want to keep going towards losing more basic rights and control.