Yuval Harari produces the kind of pseudo-intellectual word salad that appeals to young college students and old kleptocrats.

His logic on #Bitcoin is deeply flawed.

You can only build trusted institutions when the base layer (money) can be trusted.

The base layer can only be trusted when it does not require trust in a centralized institution. i.e. you can trust the money because you do not have to trust any one party.

Thus, to build trusted institutions, you need a trust-less base layer as a solid foundation, one that cannot be manipulated by the institutions built on top of it. One that cannot be perverted by a centralized party, thus perverting the incentives.

Yuval is also wrong that Bitcoin is just “algorithms;” Bitcoin is a network, and a network is nothing without people.

Without users, node runners, and miners all acting independently in their own self interest, Bitcoin is nothing.

Bitcoin removes the capacity for corruption at the base layer of society (money) so we can build genuinely trustworthy institutions on top of a solid foundation that is free from centralized perversion.

I would also like to point out that fiat money is the ultimate currency of distrust, because in order for people to actually use fiat money, you have to enforce it at the barrel of a gun.