Thread by @jonst0kes

Yes, but also crypto people are correct. I started building the case for why that's so in this series, but never really finished it or reorganized it properly. Only the parts are here, but I don't quite put them together clearly: jonstokes.com/p/the-blockcha…

https://twitter.com/adamgurri/status/1451930217921060866

To stub that in here, it goes something like:

- At the heart of every complex civilization everywhere is a system of records. Such ledgers predate even money (the barter => money evolution story is a myth, BTW).

- All ledgers require central custody, & central custody == power.

- Only in the past 20yrs have we had the tech & the math to create a ledger that doesn't require central custody. That's a novum in human history.

- We now have the ability to build forms of civilization on a ledger that no one party custodies.

This could change everything.

Not to go all Derrida, but an archive that no single entity or hierarchy owns -- an archive with no ἀρχή, no connotations of ruling or commanding, or even origins -- is a completely new possibility in human experience. It just is. There has never been anything like this.

What I've said here is basically the mindset & intuitions around why Adam is correct in the QT. The goldbug mentality is a conservative mentality that warns of danger because we've strayed from millennia of human (monetary) tradition.

The crypto mentality is 180 degrees opposite

Obviously, there's no guarantee that we'll make something new or good with this new human possibility. In fact, we'll probably spend a bunch of time re-making old things with it. I may never see anything truly new win within my lifetime. I don't believe in techno-determinism.

In fact, among the first things we've done with this new human capability is build a family of Ponzi schemes! Not an auspicious start. Still, I believe that many of us can & will build something better. THAT's the true sprit of crypto, but not of any kind of maximalism.