by Larry Seabrook and Barry Ziman
The moral imperative of reparations should be accepted by all. But in accepting the moral justice of reparations, the challenge becomes the cost. Conventional payments would either be so trivial, as to be only symbolic, or massive to the extent it will burden our country with debt, while also engendering antipathy from many in the white community. Thus, the creation of a speculative and unique class of asset, a cryptocurrency authorized by the United State Government, granted only to those descendants of United States’ slaves, individuals and families with a proven genealogical linage, will create the catalyst for savings, investment and constructively equitable capitalism. Moreover, the cryptocurrency solution to the challenge of reparations for African-Americans could cost a nominal amount on the government’s balance sheet.
A government-backed cryptocurrency distributed as reparations could offer economic upward mobility and investment potential for millions of descents of American slaves. Today, for African-Americans the iron chains of slavery is their legacy, but the economic ascendancy of the internet based currency Bitcoin may create a new economic tool to counteract the instability of the dollar and it may offer a solution to the challenge of slavery reparations.
It should be considered that a United States government authorized cryptocurrency for purpose of reparations would have financial credibility, making it a formidable and reliably secure reserved for corporate America. It would also be a way for corporations to demonstrate their newly professed social justice aspirations. It’s time for the African-American community to reap the benefits of hyper-speculation in a government issued asset, with long-term potential for value appreciation and moreover, even over-exuberant speculation.
Only Federal Reserve action can break the ongoing legacy of economic repression of descendants of African-American slaves with a government-backed cryptocurrency issued to Americans for purposes of slavery reparations. The symmetry of using a block-chain based currency to empower economic equity and break the historical chains of slavery not only has a poetic ring, but also has the potential to transform the social and economic landscape of America.
While the true inventor of Bitcoin is unknown, it has become an alternative economic universe, embraced by economic and corporate elites. A free floating United States authorized cryptocurrency, with all inherent speculative value as is evident in Bitcoin could be the needed tool to promote social justice. The massive value appreciation for the entirely unregulated Bitcoin, now trading at highly speculative levels, informs the free-floating potential of a competing cryptocurrency. The alternative to Bitcoin would have its accounting ledger maintained and entrusted to the United States government. While a cryptocurrency maintained by a federal reserve ledger could raise the fear of government confiscation, that risk should not be a deterrent to its informative economic potential.
At present our deep rooted societal problems are not addressed by the concentration of capital induced by a zero interest rate environment and sustained quantitative easing policy. Hyperinflation and capital appreciation focused in frivolous art, mega-mansions, unregulated and unsanctioned cryptocurrency, non-exchangeable tokens, SPACs, and other random tulip bulb-like fixations does not build America, nor build economic equity. In fact, it has had the reverse effect of building greater disparity between the elite and the rest of the American people. This country needs to confront its long denied responsibility to the African-American community and cryptocurrency reparations might just be the key to unlocking the chains of injustice for the descendants of slavery.
Larry Seabrook is a former New York State Senator, State Assemblyman, and New York City Councilman. Barry Ziman was his Legislative Adviser in the New York State Assembly