Beware Centralized Control of Currency

Imagine if the government were to make it illegal to possess wallets for holding paper and coin currency privately. That’s essentially what some US politicians want to do with cryptocurrency. It’s a massive invasion of privacy. And it merits loud universal opposition.

Giving up decentralized agency in the name of “security” ultimately leads to abuse of power and the reign of tyranny. In our technological age, it also increases risk of authoritarian control by a superintelligent singleton — a single point of failure for the future of humanity.

Centralized power should terrify us. Nothing is more unpredictable over the long run at scale than unchecked supreme power. Nothing is less trustworthy. Nothing is more likely to annihilate human agency, if not human existence. It’s an enemy even greater than death.

In theological terms, the supposed god that would raise itself above all others, declaring itself “god,” is not a god worthy of worship. The only God worthy of worship is the God that would raise each other together. The former worship is groveling. The latter is emulation.

Of course emulation of God entails real risk. And where there’s real risk, there’s real suffering. But, for children of God, there’s no other way. So we must stand in the courage and strength of our birthright as such children, as humanity transcending itself.

Is currency really so important? As money has become increasingly abstract and universal, it has become increasingly representative of power in general. Monetary policy is in a feedback loop with our philosophy of power. So make no mistake. Currency is shaping our future.

Tell your representatives that you oppose centralized control of our wallets, whether physical or digital. Tell them to find other ways to combat crime — ways that don’t indiscriminately compromise agency, ways that don’t generally enslave us. Some will listen. It may be enough.