Most of us here in the cryptosphere view blockchain and distributed ledger technology as an extremely revolutionary solution to fix the world and promote freedom all around the globe. It makes sense, right? Decentralize these stagnant corrupt power structures. Create permissionless borderless systems that can't be regulated except by the underlying network itself. Create a new cooperative economy in which the participants have a stake in the means of production. Upgrade money for the first time since credit cards and checking accounts. Force these dinosaurs to compete or die!
Sure, that's all well and good, but let's drop the idealism for a second. What is actually going to happen? This isn't sunshine and rainbows and unicorns. The struggle is constant, and so are the mad dashes for power as disruption comes to quake the very foundation of one of the oldest institutions ever conceived. It's not going to be pretty.
At the heart of cryptocurrency lies community. Theoretically, communities would not willingly accept their own enslavement. Theoretically, people are going to do their own research and find the best deal they can get. Theoretically, the legacy economy should melt away in the face of these superior options. Ah, well, I have news for you, Buttercup, things don't usually work out like we planned them. That's just the way it is.
Because crypto is built on flat architecture, the raw potential for it to scale to orders of magnitude higher than anything we've ever seen has never been more possible. It stands to reason that, combined with current techniques of imperialism, crypto could be the missing link when it comes to controlling millions upon millions of people in a very effective way.
And this isn't really to say that control in this context is necessarily a bad thing. It's just as easy to incentivize people to stop polluting the Earth and have respect for one another than it is to wage war and commit heinous atrocities. Luckily, crypto makes it a bit more difficult for one person or a small group to be pulling the strings.
But that just brings up another problem. Democracy and herd mentality are not some perfect solution like many seem to espouse. Okay cool, we've decentralized power across the globe. Now what? People are still greedy savage tribalist apes more than willing to fuck over their fellow man for their own gain. That's not going to change, and no one is even trying to change it. In fact, we seem to be leaning into it as these networks expand.
We've already seen rampant tribalism materialize within crypto pretty much everywhere. Bitcoin maximalists, Link Marines, XRP army, Hive Swarm, Doge whatevers. We hunker down on our favorite crypto currencies like they are sports teams or even akin to patriotic nationalism, which was the exact opposite point Satoshi Nakamoto was trying to make.
People are people
Yes, certainly, there will be many networks out there that empower the disenfranchised and generate massive amounts of value & sustainable growth. But I feel like we are blindly ignoring the fact that many toxic communities can and will also be born from this neutral technology.
When a couple of Tweets can catapult Shiba Inu into the top 30 I think it becomes more clear just how absolutely chaotic this is all going to get. Decentralized networks have a lot of trouble with leadership and direction, and that vacuum is going to get filled by those looking to wield power, just like they did in the legacy economy.
And again, this is not a bearish post. This is just reality. If we lived in a world where this couldn't happen, perhaps crypto would have been snuffed out years ago by the powers that be (or at least stomped on exponentially more). People are greedy, and they want to know what crypto can do for them. The answer is: quite a bit. It's a neutral technology. It's not good or evil, just extremely powerful. The world is starting to wake up to that fact as it embraces this potential.
Layer Zero
A smart contract can be hacked, but things get a whole lot trickier when an entire community comes together and just decides they aren't going to let something happen. We saw this with the Ethereum DAO and subsequent fork, and we saw it right here in our own community as well. A strong layer zero makes for a near impervious network. However, something tells that not all communities will be so strong, and some will cave to manipulation and control from foreign authoritarian powers, paralyzed by fear. As far as capitalism is concerned, this is all business as usual.
Conclusion
While we tend to think of crypto as some magical tech that will usher in some kind of utopia, reality has a way of subverting theory. By definition of flat architecture, crypto will be the ultimate way to control and nudge the herd in certain directions. Again, good and evil have nothing to do with this, technology is neutral. Great and terrible things will be accomplished over the next few decades.
We've already seen how easy it is for the masses to be led astray. All we can do is stay the course while educating ourselves and others in regard to this emergent cooperative economy. Many of the "bad" networks can and do raise dozens of red flags that can be pointed out and avoided.
We can't change human nature, but we can create rivers of liquidity that flow into the desired directions we wish to explore. Just remember: just because a lot of people think something is a good idea, doesn't actually mean it's a good idea. People are easily influenced by bad actors, and mob mentality comes to the wrong conclusions just as often as they do the right ones. Sometimes we must navigate by our own morale compass rather than allowing others to show us the way.