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Circling back on the crypto FTX fiasco, Noah Smith has a new piece out theorizing, what happens if crypto just dies? Unfortunately it's paywalled so I couldn't read the whole thing, but I have been wondering this myself. More and more crypto exchanges have been dying off, especially over the last couple of years. FTX seemed to resemble one of the last exchanges embodying the spirit of crypto, and now it's gone.
By spirit of crypto, I mean the original cypherpunk, decentralized idea of a currency that operates outside the bounds of the State. As @aqouta and others have mentioned, big exchanges like Binance are actually more centralized, and if they continue to grow they can easily be incorporated as organs of the existing State apparatus.
As someone who has always been wary of censorship and centralized power, especially in light of the recent escalation in terms of woke social norms being shoved down everyone's throat, this is troubling to me. Both the right and left seem to care less and less about the overreach of the powers that be - in fact folks like Tyler Cowen think that the main difference in the 'New Right' is that they are more trusting of elites.
I'm curious for takes on either side of this issue. If you don't think we have anything to worry about with regards to State power, why is that so? Do you just think that with the rise of the internet/technology States are impotent, or is centralized power a good thing?
If you disagree with the premise above, then how can we work to push back on centralization? Especially with the rise of powerful tools like LLM and the rise of AI, is there any hope for the individual classical liberal ethos to survive the next century?
Always thought it was never realistic to pursue libertarianism outside of real power. Russia invading Ukraine proves this. At the end of the day money needs backed by something real. Like the meme nukes. People are putting their energy in the wrong thing if they want a better society. You can’t just break away from power. You have to win hearts and minds of America.
And I’ve known about bitcoin since 2008 and always thought it was cool. Hansens co-blogger on overcoming bias is the likely creator.
You’ve got to fight the culture war because culture is what matters. Teach the Constitution and what it means. Theirs no breaking away from power you must control the ethos of that power.
Or go work for SpaceX and conquor Mars and create a stronger force outside of present power structures.
He had 4. which one?
Hal Finney I presume.
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