Ive been reading “Leviathan and it’s Enemies”. The crux is that liberalism (classical type with laisse-fair econ & cosmopolitan culture) gave rise to the managerial state in order to organize the means of mass production. Essentially making a planned economy with priority on the self-interest aimed at consumption to benefit the managerial class. It will be interesting to see how Bitcoin incentives influence mass production, national economies and their respective bureaucratic classes.
Discussion
Interesting. I think we have had one form of central planning or another since agriculture began. The centralization has mostly increased during that time, but without control of the money supply I anticipate the trend to reverse.
Only time will tell. It's up to us to create robust networks which oppose centralization.
A few generations from now there may be less desire to maintain decentralization and the system could falter, but I don't think so. I think the lessons learned from the bitcoin era will continue to echo as long as there is life on this planet.
I do think there is a cycle between centralization and decentralization. (I change my mind almost daily though.) If the lock-step messaging from the political managers and the supply chain jam-ups from Covid taught us anything, it's that centralization of global powers has a terrible potential to subjugate most of humanity. I'm still very skeptical about even the most mudane news events now.
On a positive note, there's never before been a money capable of trustlessly facilitating global trade, but at the same time also facilitating the possibility of decentralized governance. I'm bullish on Fedimints and Cashu for this reason. (Even though I haven't used them yet lol.)
Decentralization is inevitable. Trying to control everything will always lead to entropy and collapse.