16.29.3. "What is the "crypto phase change"?"
- I'm normally skeptical of claims that a "singularity" is
coming (nanotechnology being the usual place this is
claimed, a la Vinge), but "phase changes" are more
plausible. The effect of cheap printing was one such phase
change, altering the connectivity of society and the
dispersion of knowledge in a way that can best be described
as a phase change. The effects of strong crypto, and the
related ideas of digital cash, anonymous markets, etc., are
likely to be similar.
- transition
- tipping factors, disgust by populace, runaway taxation
+ "leverage effect"
- what Kelly called "the fax effect"
- crypto use spreads, made more popular by common use
- can nucleate in a small group...doesn't need mass
acceptance
16.29.4. "Can crypto anarchy be stopped?"
+ A goal is to get crypto widely enough deployed that it
cannot then be stopped
- to the point of no return, where the cost of withdrawing
or banning a technology is simply too high (not always a
guaranteee)
After reading through this document I can see that not only was cryptocurrency not a random mistake, but even
Monero was a dream long sought after by the greatest minds on the planet. What does that mean? It means to get ready, because this thing is slowly coming together in a big way.
heres a great post I found on
reddit exactly about this:
The thing is that most Bitcoin infrastructure is running away from killer apps at warp speed, in the whole rush to be AML/KYC compliant. Enough influential people are actually relying on Bitcoin's traceability that the traceability is very unlikely to ever be fixed.
Anonymity and privacy are important in a LOT of places. They mean that a lot more people have access to economic exchange, over a lot more of the world, with a lot fewer gatekeepers saying who can buy and sell and what they can buy and sell. And that's the thing that makes crypto currencies interesting.
But a lot of the gatekeepers are legal authorities with considerable public support on their side. That means that any actually interesting new means of exchange is going to piss off the Man, period. And the well funded players in Bitcoin aren't interested in doing that.
Without the Silk Road et al, which were enabled by very limited anonymity, nobody except a few monetary cranks would ever have given a damn about Bitcoin. But Bitcoin is running away from that.
Furthermore, even in perfectly "legitimate" uses, fungibility is critical, and you don't get fungibility with a traceable currency. So Bitcoin is self-sabotaging even for the cases it's trying to address.
Basically Bitcoin is only covering applications that are already perfectly well served by fiat and banks, leaving all the actual crypto currency applications on the table, and sucking up into a giant Chicago-school delusional ball.
That leaves a vacuum for Monero and other privacy currencies to fill. Once the Bitcoin spying infrastructure is fully in place, a lot of people are going to realize they're unserved by Bitcoin.
These posts do a great deal to explain why so many OG Bitcoiners are excited about Monero. You both get an A+ in Nerd History!
Here's your next reading assignment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_FreedomSuggested essay topic: If Bitcoin and Monero are indeed Phase 1 and 2, is Ethereum Pretty Good
TM enough for Freidman's Phase 3 in the context of the following Szabo quote?
Anybody who
thinks they can flesh out a protocol in secret and then
deploy it, full-blown and working, is in for a world of
hurt. For those who get their Pretty Good systems out
there and used, there is vast potential for business growth
-- think of the $trillions confiscated every year by
governments around the world, for example." [Nick Szabo,
1993-8-23]
For extra credit, explain why or why not the cypherpunk conception of "crypto-anarchy" is distinct from the libertarian idea "radical capitalism."
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