No matter how much we might disagree, the state will not tolerate anonymous financial transactions (except cash, and only barely). Those who promoted the anonymity value of bitcoin and various “anonymous” marketplaces as advances toward freedom did no one a service.
There are ways to advance the libertarian cause...ways that, in addition, come with the benefit of not painting a bulls-eye on your chest.
Raise your children well. Take every rule the state allows and stretch it – two of the most radical statements for freedom are perfectly legal and relatively easy in the United States: homeschooling and firearms ownership. Both offer opportunities to extend the franchise to the next generation.
“Agorism and its implications, however much they resonate with libertarians, have always been a losing proposition with the general public.”
There is no advancement of freedom without successes in education. In general, we get all the “state” that the public demands (count how many people opt out at the airport line, as one example; watch how many people stand and cheer at the military worship at a sports event as another).
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Bionic Mosquito Stings the Bitcoin Fanboys
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The mosquito's stinger here doesn’t pierce the skin. This counterclaim does not address the well-reasoned arguments among libertarian Bitcoin advocates for how cryptocurrencies do present a potent new weapon.
ReplyDeleteRothbard was right that scattered one-off, small scale illegal actions do not by themselves promote liberty. Like random illegal taxi rides or random illegal apartment shares. However, are the principles and practices of liberty advanced by the existence of sustainable large scale institutions of same like Uber or Air-BnB? What would Rothbard say to an anarchic, authority-defying, power-sapping, large scale, defensible, competing alternative geography for commerce? Would he not admit its very existence would advance awareness, understanding, and familiarity with true liberty, i.e. education? What if this very same realm could exist virtually?
"Raise your children well....homeschooling and firearms ownership. Both offer opportunities to extend the franchise to the next generation....There is no advancement of freedom without successes in education."
These are laudable life choices on par with being a better person. Honesty, productivity, independent thought, peaceful parenting, etc. Indeed, these choices provide fertile soil for liberty and unfertile soil for statistm.
But homeschooling, firearms ownership, and stretching state rules are not techniques of opposition or activism. They do nothing to answer the problem of state power. Educating one’s own children does not increase the percentage of libertarians among the population, as statists are certainly educating their children in statism. And traditional educational outreach efforts like writing blog articles when pitched up against the state’s vastly larger indoctrination resources and infrastructure have proven no match, unable to make relative headway.
Crypto dark markets present a very different animal than Konkin’s vision of agorism Rothbard shot down. Unlike Konkin’s agorism, Crypto dark markets:
- _Do_ admit wage work (globally no less, sans any labor/trade barriers, using a virtual global free-market currency immune to government manipulation)
- _Can_ scale to enormous size and scope while remaining cost-prohibitive for the state to effectively combat due to their fully decentralized, virtual nature
- _Can_ deliver more than marginalia as modern productivity increasingly is shifting to the intellectual product realm, not the physical realm
None of the above was true or possible in Rothbard’s day when his critique was penned. Sorry mosquito, your point of view needs an update.
Honestly, the flip side of 'no anonymity' is the real attraction of Bitcoin.
ReplyDeleteBitcoin may serve as an unimpeachable proof of ownership for real estate, shares of equity, and other things in a future without a state. The entire trail of ownership is there, and is practically incorruptible. That is why thoughtful libertarians and anarchists are fans of Bitcoin, because it provides unimpeachable proof of ownership in a future society without a state.
You are confusing Bitcoin and the blockchain.
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