free software, free society
Discussion
Virtually all software these days represent the formation of abstract power hierarchies. These computer generated abstract power hierarchies are the largest in history. As people rely more and more on their computers for so many different aspects of their lives, this gives the people at the apex of these abstract power hierarchies more control over people than at any other time in history, Pharaoh god-kings would blush at this level of abstract power over people's lives.
So what's the solution to this problem? Well, if software is computer generated abstract power, we are going to need computer generated physical power if we want to dismantle, decentralize, and physically constrain people who would otherwise exploit and abuse their privileged control authority over people's software.
Satoshi understood these dynamics at a very fundamental, first principles level. Enter Bitcoin, a decentralized permissionless protocol that converts large amounts of physical power into machine readable bits of information. Computer generated physical power. Satoshis protocol is creating the largest physical-power-based hierarchy humanity has ever witnessed.
Physical power is zero-trust, permissionless, and egalitarian.
Abstract power is trust-based, permission-based, and inegalitarian.
In theory, it should be possible to use the Bitcoin protocol and it's physically costly machine readable bits of information to create a kind of electro-cyber defense dome for any given computer network in order to increase the cost of attacking or exploiting other networks by imposing a severe physically prohibitive cost on would be attackers the same way there is a severe physically prohibitive cost on attacking the Bitcoin network itself.
Free software is a wonderful idea, but nothing is stopping a bad actor who understands how to exploit your softwares logical constraints from doing so. To truly achieve freedom in cyberspace we need a way to impose a severe physical constraint on attackers through cyberspace itself. This is what Satoshi has gifted humanity with.