Photo by Eugene Tkachenko via Unsplash.
Since I first heard of it back in 2012, I have always maintained that crypto is a textbook pyramid scheme. And it will remain so until it is backed by state-mandated violence, i.e., a sovereign guarantee, and/or by a physical asset that can be guarded with a threat of violence. And then, it’s just plain old money.
Indeed, without violence, there is no money.
And crypto fails on this account. Technology can build an alternative to violence, of course, by creating a system that punishes those who break the accepted rules in a way as to cut them off their normal lives and livelihood until they repent and make good any loss they have caused, much like the state does via the courts, police, and prisons. That will only happen when technology becomes so ubiquitous that it is not possible to earn a livelihood or even live a normal life without actively being a direct user (operative words: ubiquitous, active, and direct). We’ll get there someday. Maybe. But that day isn’t today. And thank dog for that.
And now, in 3, 2, 1, here come the hodl-boys to ‘educate’ me.
