Thread by @balajis

Disagree. By associating money with a private key, you give a literal incentive for every user to keep the key (a) private and (b) available at all times.

That’s the fundamental issue that previous PKI schemes didn’t solve at the individual level.

https://twitter.com/kaladin0/status/1368159597232488448

If you pin a post-it note with your private key to your computer, that’s available but not private.

If you write it down & keep it in a safe place whose location you forget, that’s private but not available.

So, for individuals, private AND available key storage is nontrivial.

Another way of putting it: private and available key storage for individuals is *expensive*, especially in attention terms.

Pre-crypto PKI could incentivize *organizations* to keep their keys private and available, but not individuals.

Cost wasn’t worth benefit. Till crypto.

For organizations, the economic damage of having their private keys lost was tangible.

For individuals it was abstract. But crypto is teaching people that private keys are like dollar bills. So they are learning to keep them private and available, like organizations have.

The internet meant you can assume every user has a connection. They can send & receive packets, store files, access the web.

Crypto means you can soon assume every user has a crypto wallet. They can send & receive encrypted messages, store balances, access the blockchain.