I think Hayek was right that stateless doesn't actually work, you need some kind of court system

That said still would be 99% smaller state than today

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It’s not just about courts. You need to be able to take and defend. There’s a reason we have states now … that don’t randomly happen.

I’m here for the discussion. Without some kind of police power and rule of law strong psychopaths become kings but a reduction in the size of that police power is welcomed.

"Why we have States now" is as much a product of historical accident as some inherent law of nature. Yale historian James C. Scott wrote several books about this in the historical context of medieval Southeast Asia.

"Take and defend" reflects a contingent condition in which States have (a) the ability to credibly project coercive authority over some geographic area and (b) populations engaging in legible economic activity from which said States can derive taxation.

Bitcoin, among other technologies, starts to change this. The more economic activity moves into the anonymous, semi-anonymous, and uncensorable realm of crypto/Bitcoin, the less capability States will have to tax and ultimately rule.

Bitcoin is neither anonymous nor uncensorable. There are plenty of blacklisted addresses already. The state doesn’t need to apply technology to censor - just force or the threat of force.

Things aren't absolute. It's orders of magnitude more anonymous and uncensorable than the fiat money system. That's a huge change from the current system if anything like mass adoption occurs.

And "blacklisted addresses" -- I'm sure they exist on Coinbase or whatever, but are you saying those addresses won't have transactions mined? I seriously doubt it...

It would be pretty hard even in a wide adoption scenario to avoid having an address tied to some traceable transaction- ether though a personal interaction or an online order.

It’s common for people to focus on the technical details while ignoring the social ones. Most hacks are not technical and involve social engineering. Bitcoiners fall for this too, focusing on how they will be technical private while ignoring all of the barriers that can be put in place on the legislative / social side. And sometimes just by stoking fear.

imo states are the result of our human instinct/need of belonging to a tribe. Everyone wants to belong to a tribe or group and they always belong to the best tribe, the best country, the best bitcoiners, the best whatever. Yet, their tribe isn't the best. It's just the most popular at that time or the most powerful.

its more than that tho,

if the Chinese can band together and exploit Russian resources or vice versa, there's a survival advantage.

so that makes a convincing imperative to be a member of the "strongest" group

ie the group with the meanest leader and the biggest stick

its a mistake I think that nice people have begun to make more and more in the 20th century,

enlightened leaders would be great,

but politics is about force projection.

as soon as one state breaks the truce theres a race to the bottom to see who can be the most vicious.

it continues in this fashion until individuals themselves change.

Not YET, IMO.

Once we become truly libertarian for a while, it will become more clear how decentralized court systems, etc. could work.

Just like competing rating agencies could replace the FDA once we eliminate the corrupting effect of fiat and biased top-down regulation. Listen to whoever you trust, and let their records compete.

A 'justice provider' would have incentive to keep its clients happy and play nice with other 'justice providers....' But only if we first remove perverted fiat incentives.