A frank debate exploring the paradox of crypto-populism, and how the radical dream of digital freedom has become a tool for corporate and political control.
Me: The crypto dream is over. Rather than decentralising the world, the growth of crypto is leading to unprecedented centralisation. Rather than giving us privacy and detachment from the state, it's building the exact infrastructure the state needs for total control.
We've handed them the blueprints on a platter. By endorsing the shift away from physical cash, we've helped to build the prison we're about to be thrown into. Libertarians should be opposing digital currencies, not blindly supporting them.
We've handed them the blueprints on a platter. By endorsing the shift away from physical cash, we've helped to build the prison we're about to be thrown into. Libertarians should be opposing digital currencies, not blindly supporting them.
Kiki: You are mistaking the corruption of the corporate gatekeepers for a failure of the tech itself.
Of course the state wants to co-opt it. Of course Wall Street wants to financialise it. But that is just the outer shell. Underneath, the core protocol remains completely untouchable by any politician or central banker. Bitcoin doesn't have a CEO you can subpoena. Monero doesn't have a board of directors you can lean on.
If we abandon digital currency now, what is your alternative? Paper cash is a dying medium whether we like it or not; you can't buy a server or send funds across a border with a suitcase of twenty-pound notes anymore. If we don't fight for decentralised, encrypted money, we are voluntarily surrendering the future to CBDCs. Crypto isn't the prison – it is the only tunnel out of it.
Of course the state wants to co-opt it. Of course Wall Street wants to financialise it. But that is just the outer shell. Underneath, the core protocol remains completely untouchable by any politician or central banker. Bitcoin doesn't have a CEO you can subpoena. Monero doesn't have a board of directors you can lean on.
If we abandon digital currency now, what is your alternative? Paper cash is a dying medium whether we like it or not; you can't buy a server or send funds across a border with a suitcase of twenty-pound notes anymore. If we don't fight for decentralised, encrypted money, we are voluntarily surrendering the future to CBDCs. Crypto isn't the prison – it is the only tunnel out of it.
I don't have a problem with financialisation, and I'm not saying the technology itself failed. It works perfectly. The problem is human nature and state power. Governments will inevitably co-opt and control anything that is easily controlled, and by its very nature, anything digital falls into that category.
Paper money has become the hill we need to be willing to die on. We have to defend it. Even if we can no longer use it to buy cars or houses, its mere existence protects us at the grassroots level. It keeps a zone of total privacy alive. Saying cash is "dying whether we like it or not" is just defeatist tech-determinism.
You say crypto still has hope. Fine, walk me through the mechanics. How exactly is it going to escape the state's clutches when they increasingly control the infrastructure?
Paper money has become the hill we need to be willing to die on. We have to defend it. Even if we can no longer use it to buy cars or houses, its mere existence protects us at the grassroots level. It keeps a zone of total privacy alive. Saying cash is "dying whether we like it or not" is just defeatist tech-determinism.
You say crypto still has hope. Fine, walk me through the mechanics. How exactly is it going to escape the state's clutches when they increasingly control the infrastructure?
Kiki: I salute the grit, but you are romanticising a corpse. Defending paper cash is like trying to defend the horse and buggy against the automobile. The state doesn't even need to ban it, they just have to let inflation eat its purchasing power until a ten-pound note isn't worth the cotton it's printed on.
How does crypto escape their clutches? Through the beautiful, unyielding reality of global arbitrage.
First, the state is not a monolith. If the UK or the US tries to ban crypto, capital simply flees to jurisdictions that embrace it to cannibalise Western wealth. Governments are forced to tolerate it out of sheer greed and competition.
Second, you cannot kill the network infrastructure. We have mesh networks, satellite-linked nodes, and encrypted peer-to-peer channels that can wend around state internet chokepoints. To completely shut down Bitcoin, every government on earth would have to coordinate to turn off the entire global power grid simultaneously. If they do that, we have bigger problems than monetary policy.
How does crypto escape their clutches? Through the beautiful, unyielding reality of global arbitrage.
First, the state is not a monolith. If the UK or the US tries to ban crypto, capital simply flees to jurisdictions that embrace it to cannibalise Western wealth. Governments are forced to tolerate it out of sheer greed and competition.
Second, you cannot kill the network infrastructure. We have mesh networks, satellite-linked nodes, and encrypted peer-to-peer channels that can wend around state internet chokepoints. To completely shut down Bitcoin, every government on earth would have to coordinate to turn off the entire global power grid simultaneously. If they do that, we have bigger problems than monetary policy.
The full version of this post has been moved to:
The Kiki Dialogues – at Substack
To read the second half, please go to Substack.