The Moment of Temptation is coming to the top names in Crypto: Can they resist the Ring of Power?
We are quickly coming into a period when the success of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be severely tested. This is because success attracts the parasites. In a small way, in my own field, I have personal experience with this. For years, I was talking about the techniques we found in the Project Hindsight translations and asking the established software companies to include these techniques and was almost universally ignored. Then Rob Hand suggested I write it myself with the Borland Delphi IDE. That was 1995.
By 2005, the top names in the field finally realized that I was right, but they were too late. I had the only Windows program that did these techniques and all of a sudden there was a market for it because of Robert Schmidt’s work. At the 2006 PHASE Conclave I was making more than $1,000 / day and it was still very early to where most of the astrological community was unaware of my success. But Astrolabe, Cosmic Pattern’s, and a few other companies were very well aware of what I had done and began the process of catching up, and not always by ethical means.
But astrology is small time, widely regarded as a joke by the world at large. Just as I had come up with the “disruptive app” of the astrology field, Satoshi Nakamoto came up with the disruptive app in the financial sector. But bitcoin is many orders of magnitude more important. Bitcoin is a world changing app. The parasites of the entire financial field of the world have been disrupted. From my own personal experience… next come the job offers, then the flattery, then the laying out of the red carpets and by the time I was buttered up, I started feeling guilty for not signing on the dotted line. I failed to “sell out” and that’s when things got nasty.
The same thing that happened to me is sure to happen to the top names in the field of crypto. State actors will approach them with offers promising them great power and wealth in exchange for control over the protocol. A few might be quite difficult to buy out because they already have enormous wealth, but not everyone working in the crypto field is rich. I suspect that many working at Blockstream started out relatively poor. Is there anything preventing the corrupting power of the state from compromising the code? Fortunately there is, and it’s in the fact that within the code a high bar of consensus has to be passed for the code to change without causing a fork. We saw this last August with the bitcoin cash fork.
But what about attrition? In the work force, it’s commonplace for there to be a certain turnover rate. Some employees will come and stay a long time, but most will move along. At one of my jobs, I got the distinct feeling that some of my supervisors wished I would quit. My incentives weren’t quite aligned with theirs, but they had no objective reason for firing me. In situations like these, managers might promote passive aggressive behaviors hoping to make you miserable enough to quit.
Is this how Blockstream has seemingly achieved relative unity of purpose? I know when you get a bunch of programmers together, it’s often hard to get agreement. They usually have seriously contrasting visions for what they want to do with the software and how to solve problems. The fact that everyone seems to be on the same page I consider to be a warning sign indicating centralization. Those who disagreed left and went on to other projects such as bitcoin cash. I find it troubling that Gavin Andresen and some of the other founders of the original bitcoin are now seemingly shut out. This is how the state operates in effecting change (by a thousand little cuts).
The state likes to noodle their way into control by finding out the weaknesses of their targets, what they want, and one by one they fall into line until the long sought after agenda can be completed. Once enough of the top players are compromised its fairly typical that the rest fall into line. By never arousing the suspicion of an agenda, there’s no opposition. If an agenda can’t be detected, then there’s nothing to oppose and people just think that the changes happening are random and form no sort of collusion.
The reality is that money and power will always attract centralization and attempts at control. What Satoshi Nakamoto did was to put the incentives of technological advancement at cross purposes with attempts at control by making it more profitable to play by the rules of mathematics than try to cheat by asserting control. The protocol is supposed to assure adverse but proper cooperation while cheaters finally find themselves in a situation where they can't win. Authority couldn’t resist the temptation to adopt a trojan horse that had the power to annihilate it, but it seems that authority now understands the problem. The element of surprise is no longer with us and now the race for control as begun.
Decentralized technology has the problem of scaling which is something authority has no problem doing. This means that the speed with which alternative technology can be brought in as a replacement, with all the applicable buzz words to confuse and decentralize the masses against themselves, is a factor that can make the difference between all of us living in a digital panopticon vs achieving decentralized freedom. Authority doesn’t mind us being decentralized, it just don’t want that for itself because decentralization weakens the power of hierarchy.
Regulation vs Personal Responsibility
People like James Altucher have said that “regulation is a good thing for crypto” because that means that the field is “maturing”. Did you snag on that word “maturing”? What the hell does that have to do with anything? Why is maturing a good thing? Maybe it’s not such a good thing. It’s like saying, “when you grow up, I’ll be so proud of you”. Who says that? Parents. Authority models these types of statements to manipulate you into remembering warm feelings then using that power of association to take control. You want mature? Here’s what mature brings…
What they neglected to mention is that you can’t have it both ways. Regulation is code for “surrender your authority and put us in charge”. It is the same as saying “trust us”. How quickly people forget the bail ins of Cyprus, the near financial collapse of Greece and many others just like it a few years ago. If you become a dependent, then you not only don’t have any control for yourself, you’ve also given power to authority to expand the model of dependency and control over others.
I’ve given you a small taste of how they operate. Are you sure that you will recognize the bait and switch in crypto when it happens?
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Well said. I cringe every time I see one of these so-called financial professionals telling the crypto industry it needs to be regulated to go mainstream. LOL
It's so interesting that you wrote this post. I've always thought of the blockchain as a platform for finding incorruptible citizens.
Well this is only true for 99.99% of the population. If that arbitrary number is correct, there are still 700,000 people on the planet you could put in charge that would never ever fuck anybody over except for the cheaters and mobsters.
Many blockchains will fall to corruption, but this is all part of the process. From the ashes the incorruptible will arise, more battle hardened than ever.
You say that the establishment can mobilize against the blockchain faster than the blockchain can respond. Strong disagree. Bitcoin is lost. Bitcoin is a pawn on the front lines, and they still haven't defeated it yet. When it goes down, there are over a thousand of other options.
It really is death by 1000 cuts. They'll manipulate the price with the futures market and pegged assets like Cloud. They'll make their own centralized shit coins. They'll bribe their way in and do whatever else it takes to gain as much control as possible.
But this control is fleeting. It's like watching a cop try to arrest 20 people who all ran in a different direction. Let the bulls run.
This post is a warning to not underestimate the power of the state. We stand on the precipice of freedom or a digital panopticon for about a generation. I've written about this in previous posts. If we underestimate the state, then we could have 20 years of pain that could have been avoided before the old system collapses.
Sad but true. Victory is never guaranteed. Especially against such a vicious opponent.
Honestly I was expecting to meet heavier resistance by now. I guess we are still at the "buttering up" phase before the real shit goes down.
Whoa, have you always had that last graphic? Because it's really awesome. I can't stop watching it. Hahaha.
Anyway, this is interesting. Since first hearing about crypto, this has been a concern of mine. While I think digital currency is great, I am seriously concerned about moving all forms of transaction online. In some ways I think that's what the government wants.
I think you are right that things could go two ways. If people cave to the goodies that the powers that be may offer, we are pretty screwed. I personally like cash. I like a hard form of currency. A lot of transactions can still take place under the radar and I like that.
I shop used for most of our stuff, I go to yard sales, I pay with cash, I budget with cash. I feel like I have more control with cash.
That being said, I also like the idea of transactions that the government has little to no control over, but I can see how easily that can change, though I think it will be more surreptitious than we can imagine.
Personally, I am keeping my eye on Google and Amazon. They are both deeply connected to the government, and with how interconnected everyone is to the two, I imagine that's how the government will begin its infiltration. I have seen that Microsoft is already implementing a "digital rewards program" for doing things like checking email and searching the web. While lame, I think this is what other companies will do including Google and Amazon.
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out. The future could definitely go either way. Kinda scary.
See this post.
This is an interesting topic.
I am sure that mankind is going to win in the end vs the psychopaths.
Every step forward in cryptos will be two steps against the ruling elite.
Open source is one pillar of our freedom
Blockchain is the other.
Yes, bitcoin got hijacked. Through control of reddit, and affecting a group of the core developers who believe in a particular close ended path.
But to this, bitcoin was forked.
Even before this, bitcoin was copied.
And also a complete rewrite of bitcoin.
Because of the mutability of software, we can continue upgrading. Making each blockchain better as we think up new ideas. Also, blockchain code is actually quite small. A good coder could check the entire thing by themselves.
Our biggest advantage is that the elite do not understand what they are dealing with. Their methods of control will not work. They want centralized power, in a field where things get more and more decentralized.
You might think of it as crushing ants... but its worse for the elite, for every ant they crush, two more will spring into existence and will go about two different plans.
Yes, bitcoin was taken over, however, it seems that was also a good thing as it focusses their attention. So they win the battle, and lose the war.
You're right. Every person wants to manage their own money. And if taxes are 60% (80%) - then how can a person live on this money? I also want the crypto currency to develop faster.
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