Thread by @davetroy

1/Folks need to understand that the biggest danger posed by cryptocurrencies are NOT criminal activity, ransomware, or money-laundering, though important.

By far, the biggest concern is social radicalization and the potential for financial and societal instability caused by it.

2/It constitutes an attack against our society that organizes people into cultish social structures, and draws substantially from vulnerable communities of people. When they are rug-pulled, they will be even more radicalized into something beyond libertarianism.

3/Like Gamergate, it's just one more Bannon-esque pathway for political and ideological radicalization. All the hand-waving and web3 and decentralization nonsense is cover for herding people into "communities" of social reinforcement. One observation of the Parler community...

4/found in research I'm familiar with was that the messaging was "affirming" and "positive," — lots of radicalized people patting each other on the back. This is what crypto is. The crypto "community," with all its 'positivity' is Parler for financial radicalization.

5/It's another vector for the same kind of process. What will be its January 6th... its 'boom' moment? Let's not find out. Let's shut it down before we get there. Every minute someone screws around is crypto is time they could spend doing a real job and contributing to GDP.

6/How much national IQ is being frittered away on apes and pyramid schemes? Plenty, and our adversaries know this and will help drive it anyway they can. Time to cut it off at the knees. This is a hybrid war, we need to take wartime actions.

Again, Robert Jay Lifton...

7/identified criteria of thought reform in cultish groups, and the social engineering and targeting of groups with high "social uncertainty" is quite obvious once you see it. Observe all these properties in the so-called "crypto community."

8/It's time we move past accommodating this instrument of societal hybrid warfare in the name of being "tech forward." It's nonsense, it's an attack, it needs to stop, and it needs to stop before further societal radicalization occurs.

Have a good weekend.