this simple fact has major consequences for the sort of systems corporations are capable of producing; they necessarily ship their economic ideology, which can be seen reflected in the structure of all contemporary software systems

passionate hobbyists have tried to compete with this mode of organization for years, achieving great feats in the process; open source software, free p2p networks, tools for activists & the oppressed

problem is, most of these efforts were never sustainable; people get burnt out

many passionate ideological technologists like to believe the world can run on hope and good intentions; this is unsustainable. just like you can't add on security as a feature, neither can you add on a business model, which, contrary to the beliefs of many, is all too necessary

cool decentralized system you've got there; what's ur plan for making it self-sustaining ? how will u fund upgrades & fixes, ensure operational continuity? what happens when u get bored or die?

if you can't answer these questions, how do you expect me to stake my business on it?

and therein lies the rub; the grand dream of the FOSS movement was to build a world w/o money, a world where hobbyists donate their time and energy out of the goodness of their heart. money is the great evil, the corrupter; they wanted it nowhere near their crystal castles

it's a beautiful dream in some ways, but it's also, quite frankly, absolutely delusional, like much of the other left-leaning movements of the time; existing in an adversarial resource-constrained does not allow one to ignore reality for very long, lest they don't want to survive

I'm perhaps being a bit uncharitable, but I want to emphasize how fundamentally flawed this entire vision is; u can't compete w/ command capitalism by eschewing money. money is not good or evil, it is merely a tool we use to track power, which exists even if you don't look at it

so if the default mode of capitalistic organization produces extractive digital hellscapes & the hippie mode produces beautiful but unviable dreams, whats left?

a mode of organization which borrows the best from both worlds; digital ledger technology, aka blockchain, aka crypto

DLT takes the organizing principles of libertarian association & integrates them w/ the financial machinery of market capitalism; you get a system which allows for radically new modes of coordination, with the tools needed for self-sufficiency baked in

blockchain solves this

you can't build a sustainable system w/o a scheme for accounting for resource usage, attribution, and compensation

you can't build systems different than those extant by using the same organizing principles which produced them

cryptosystems enable us to trustlessly coordinate

I understand why there's much distaste for crypto, across the board; like any new technology, its being overeagerly applied places it shouldn't be, it's efficiently parting rubes from money, and, let's face it, early adopters tend to be rather... odd, on the whole

but I exhort you, don't let your distaste for the asshole minority sour your outlook on this paradigm-shifting set of technologies; if you've ever wished you could have been there at the beginning of history-defining eras... well, you are. how do you want to remember your part?

in summary

f e w

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RT @jd_pressman
Few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few understand few few few few few few few few few few few few few few few few few

fucking nobody.
https://twitter.com/jd_pressman/status/1460421043512754179

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