Re: <nettime> Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com>]

> If Bitcoin's designer(s) had a dozen dozen possible strategies at 
their disposal, did
> they happen to choose one that would mesh neatly with Austrian theory?

I think there is a misunderstanding here. When I said "other (dozens) of 
competing ideas which simply could not get any traction", I didn't mean 
that designers of this particular one (Bitcoin) were randomly choosing 
between options - they might have been thoroughly monomaniacal in Ayn 
Rand sense, with a single evil intent in mind. I was referring to other 
groups/individuals/entities with different proposals, which did *not* 
catch on. There are many reasons for this, including resources, level of 
zealotry of supporters, etc.

The point is that the society at large made a choice, and picked one 
over the others, not being able to make an informed decision. Which goes 
back to my original point - that abdicating from understanding, and 
playing futile blame game (deprived Cypherpunks did not get properly 
influenced by the general morality) goes nowhere.

You seem to be taking the imposition of technology by the dark side as 
inevitable force, taking the ignorance of the unwashed as given and 
permanent. This is the position of superstitious ignorance. Then you 
continue to complain about dark forces being dark, which, as I said, is 
a dead end - they are not going to adopt your morality through some 
magic, ever (I'm curious what would you suggest as a cure for 
libertarian code writers - forced reeducation? off with goolies?)

The technology as a vehicle for ideology works exactly because it's 
complicated and obscures the deeper logic. A more literate society at 
large may have not selected the Bitcoin alternative, just as the less 
literate society will not accept to eat its own shit for breakfast. Only 
the increased general literacy can make a difference.

I'm aware that this is the same position which Zooko described as "and 
then the rest will become like us" fallacy, but it has more chance of 
working than the morality and values bullshit. So far, in human history, 
increasing the literacy never failed. Unlike the other thing. It might 
be interesting to investigate why do so many progressives have acute 
aversion to actual education and literacy that matters.

Great analysis of 90s cpunks, BTW. There is a more complete archive 
(1997-2005) at https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks


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