EarthBucks is Now Owned By EarthBucks Inc.

Today I’m happy to announce I have filed to create a new corporation in the state of Texas to own EarthBucks, called EarthBucks Inc. Creating this corporation was made possible by early adopters who have purchased enough EBX at this early stage that I have been able to bootstrap the project for a second month in a row, enabling me to pay the filing fees for the new corporation (and other expenses).

That EarthBucks is owned by a corporation represents a very different philosophy than most other blockchains and cryptocurrencies. This is an intentional decision specifically designed to address what I see as the biggest problem with Bitcoin: lack of clear leadership and therefore a total inability to respond to a dynamic environment, most notably the need to remove the maximum block size limit.

Obviously, many Bitcoin maximalists and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts will disagree with this decision. That’s fine - there are plenty of blockchains to choose from. If you think Bitcoin is better, then use Bitcoin (but be sure not to create any transactions, as that spams the blockchain!). EarthBucks is for sane pragmatists who recognize that while decentralization is important, useful, and good in many respects, that doesn’t mean leadership should be abandoned altogether. Instead, leadership is necessary to grow the project over some duration of time while protocol details gradually reach a mature state. It is also necessary for an indefinite length of time when crises inevitably arise that require decisions that could never have been anticipated in advance.

When EarthBucks is large, it will be extremely decentralized in several respects:

• Most significantly, users will have their keys and can transact with each other without a single mutually trusted third party, exactly like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
• The protocol will be too widely adopted to be changed by any single entity, even if that entity is EarthBucks Inc.
• It will be geographically distributed around the world in different locations.
• It will be politically distributed around the world in different countries.
• It will be operated by many independent entities.

But there will always be a corporation that owns the brand “EarthBucks” and that oversees any necessary changes or improvements to the protocol. All miners will continue to have a licensing agreement with EarthBucks Inc. to use the EarthBucks brand. Simultaneously, there will be a “white label” version of EarthBucks, called “EBX,” that will have lighter licensing requirements, including the ability to use the name “EBX” with no agreement at all, but a social contract and network effects will guarantee that even white label uses of EBX will follow the decisions of the EarthBucks company.

EarthBucks is partially modeled after the internet, which has centralized corporations ICANN and IANA that oversee the IP addresses and domain name system. The internet is vastly more decentralized than any blockchain, and yet it has these centralized entities that oversee the protocol. EarthBucks is similarly designed to have a centralized entity that oversees the protocol specifically to provide leadership and direction.

Creating a for-profit corporation to oversee the network also enables a different type of decentralization: public ownership in EarthBucks shares. Note that EBX the currency has nothing to do with ownership of EarthBucks Inc. A different type of asset, stock in EarthBucks Inc., has been created, which I own 100%. In time, I will raise money with the intention of going public to allow anybody to invest in the company. Long-term, my intention is that shares in EarthBucks Inc. will be traded on the EarthBucks blockchain.