This one might not be the most popular amongst many here, but might need to be said anyways…
It’s nuts to think it’s been over seven years since I first got into crypto. Those were such good days - not just the excitement of discovering this new realm of technology full of innovative possibilities, but the whole philosophy accompanying it. The idealism of all of us seeing potentials for decentralization. The prospect of power shifting from centralized governments & banks into the hands of the people. The rearrangement of societal structures in ways that reduce corruption, level the playing field, etc, etc. Yeah, all the hype over Lambos was fun too… though it was really the sense of belonging to a movement that sparked a sense of passion with its resonance of a shared vision of how much better a world could be co-created with/through the use of all this decentralized technology.
Well… here we are 7+ years later. And in all truthfulness, I’m not exactly sure we’ve really come all that much closer to it.
Perhaps I was seeking fuel for confirmation biases to keep a rebellious, youthful “fuck the man” attitude alive. Perhaps many of us in the crypto world were hoping Bitcoin would be the replacement for an archaic modern financial-slavery system, the bridge from a world where there was a need for the “taxation is theft” slogan to one where the new decentralized systems emerged triumphantly, freeing us of many of the unconsentual legal shackles & injustices of the world we grew up in. Though as much as I’d still love for that to happen, the passage of these 7 years has perhaps taught me there comes a time to let go of one’s idealism in exchange for an objective assessment & acceptance of what is - including that facts that for all the advancement we may have made, it ain’t exactly in the direction of the perfect-world fantasy we hoped for. That there’s a time to release platitudinal toxic positivity & youthful naivety, growing up into the world that is, rather than holding onto dreams of its conformity to our ideals. This is not to say “roll over and surrender” as abandoning our hope, values & ideals, but rather balance our idealism with realism - not “realism” in the cynical sense that kills dreams altogether, but a mature embracing of universal laws and the actual limits we have to work within. The “grant us the serenity to accept what we cannot change” bit. The surrender of R. Kelly’s inspirational “I believe I can fly” rhetoric in exchange for a cold, hard acceptance of the nature of gravity, from which we can work with effectively from there to make our ascent without the fatal crash inevitable if attempting leaps off buildings from belief alone.
But let’s ground this down from larger vague concepts into the tangibility of how this has/does play out in/with crypto…
Like a majority who got into crypto ‘early,’ I was never a particular fan of centralized government & finance… and in particular, their establishment of rules & regulations which would put you in a prison cell should you not like handing over 30% of your earnings to fund their wars, politically-sanctioned mass money-laundering operations, subsidization of corporations destructive to human & planetary health, etc. While the majority of populations might’ve been effectively indoctrinated into happily handing over 1/3 the fruits of their labor for arguably-tyrannical regimes to do whatever they choose with, the decentralist movement has seemed to attract a smaller minority who’ve seen it for what it essentially is: coercion & extortion to fund legally-approved terrorist. IYKYK. Many of us do. And crypto seemed to provide an alternative route forward. A prospect of decentralized systems in which we could conduct our finances, sidestepping legal obligations to conduct business with the old guard, retaining autonomy over what value we created & exchanged outside of the legacy systems intertwined with corrupt governments and their extensive military-industrial-corporate complex.
Yet, as great as that all sounds in theory, one would have sound premise to argue things haven’t really progressed that much towards those ends in the last decade, all things considered.
Certainly, there are some individuals giving the man the metaphorical finger and opting out as much as possible. Who knows where the figure came from or how accurate it is, though a news headline some months ago suggested 99% of crypto holders in the US never paid their due taxes on it. Though, there are also many of us whom, no matter how morally & philosophically opposed we may be towards the whole racket, do not feel the “revolutionary act” of legal disobedience on the matter is worth risk of imprisonment. And for all the talk of decentralized exchanges and means of sidestepping centralized systems altogether, most of us have found it close to impossible to operate according to the idealised visions - still having to maintain one foot in the old systems, working our best to strategically minimize/reduce/avoid taxes legally.
Want to cash out some of that hard-earned Hive to actually pay for rent & groceries? Unless your landlord and neighborhood market accept crypto and you’ve used non-KYC exchanges, you’ve dipped your toes back in the centralized world… and taken on certain legal tax obligations with those transactions. Struck big on some meme coin and bought the Lambo or dream home? Even if you paid for it in directly in crypto, it’s likely you’re still gonna have to go through the legacy systems to insure it… and should you ever get audited by the IRS, there are few valid arguments you’re likely to be able to make standing in the way of repossessing the car in your legal-corporate name when they charge you for tax evasion/fraud for the funds undeclared used to purchase it. Think you’ve been stealth enough to keep off the radar with it all? Maybe. Or maybe you’ve underestimated capabilities of Palantir’s AI technology to meticulously map the digital footprints left behind - clueless to just how fucked you’d be, should there ever be a crackdown on those who’ve attempted evading the obligations of the legal entities you conduct your business through on a daily basis and you’ve not invested enough time in learning the law to strongly defend yourself in a court of law, should it ever come to that.
Some might be looking at me as a party-pooper by this point. But the older one gets, the wiser (hopefully). And with more years of hard work one puts in, (hopefully) comes more to lose. These may not be sexy, fun, inspiring, or exciting conversations - especially when one is operating from a set of belief systems such as decentralist idealism that’d prefer an easy route to the end of corrupt governments & tax systems. But with adulthood, comes certain responsibilities of facing reality head-on, so as to deal with less-recklessly than we once did in our rebellious youth.
While there may be a growing movement within the US of people changing their legal status from that of citizens to nationals and thus opting out of certain obligations such as that of participation in the tax system legally, this is a route not available to people in (most) other countries. Meanwhile, for all the “sovereign citizen” information being propagated in circles sharing the disdain for corrupt governments and seeking a way out… it’d be wise to take much of that with a heaping tablespoon of salt. As grateful as we can be for the internet having provided us access to abundant information on all these matters, the legal world is more complex than made out to be by self-proclaimed experts selling dreams of easy exits from the matrix. And for all the digging I’ve done in these realms (ADHD hyperfocus does have its upsides at times), the more conclusive it’s become that the smart approach is not one of rebellious non-compliance. I would love to be proven wrong here, given a simple step-by-step solution that doesn’t entail risk of imprisonment. Though the more details I’ve learned of, the more it seems to not exist - with the possible exception of the status-change option for Americans.
Some clinging to anarcho-capitalist, libertarist, decentralist philosophies and ‘us vs. them’ rhetoric might call me a “sell out.” But let’s face it: not everyone wants to completely opt-out of society and go live totally off-grid, nor hold so firm to philosophical convictions that participating in society comes with the risk of being thrown in a jail cell. Some of us have worked damn hard for a good life for ourselves & our families and aren’t willing to risk throwing it away for idealistic fantasies that have not and will likely not materialize. Some might want the Lambo and dream home, along with the peace of mind to enjoy them without any risk of them getting taken away because we didn’t wanna play by society’s rules, no matter how unjust they might be. Some of us have families to take care of and people to serve through businesss structures that require participation in the legacy systems, no matter how appealing the ideals of a new world sustained by totally decentralized alternatives may be.
And should we truly desire to make a change/difference, there may come points we require the maturity to acknowledge it might not come by the extreme of walking away from the old to build the new, but working from the inside out - that not everything in life takes a direct, linear path; that the differences we might actually be here to make entail one foot in the old while we bridge to the new.
So here we are. This is human life on planet earth in 2023.
Whether evolution continues pushing us towards societies with greater degrees of decentralization in our institutional structures or not, perhaps only time shall tell. Despite all the motivational rhetoric and cheerleading that “we can change the world,” sometimes there really is only so much we can do. And of course, life requires us to do things we don’t really want to, as well.
I dunno if I’m the only one slightly disillusioned as all the hopes & dreams of a better decentralized world haven’t come to pass, or how many people are just giving no fucks anyways and living their own versions of it. Maybe I’m impatient, with change requiring much more time yet - and/or still to stubborn in naive, youthful rebelliousness… while becoming increasingly aware of the cost my resistance to what is is having on peace of mind, heart & soul. Maybe I’m “growing up” as slowly surrendering to what’s beyond our capacity to control, getting slightly smarter as figuring out to just make the best of what is and do what little I can. Maybe this is all any of us can really do (spare the few rare souls destined to be actual revolutionary leaders of some sort).
Maybe this battle between decentralist idealism & growing up could be said the same of any “ism,” ideological movement. The polarity of Jupiter’s over-expansive fundamentalism or fanaticism, and the Saturnian laws of time & bounding structure that require maturity at some point if we aim to actually harness the forces at our disposal effectively to create/see results.
Yada, yada, yada.
“Do what thou wilt…” whether you take that as it’s been frequently twisted to imply some hedonistic self-interest-driven free will, or what Crowley actually intended: alignment with one’s higher path of what we’re here to actually do, egoic preferences aside.
Perhaps we’re all just dancing between the three poles of blindly figuring it out, co-creating it as we go along, or flimsily being tossed about by the winds of fate as watching the grand movie/play of life unfold… 🤷♂️🙏💫