Great Protocol Politics

4. Bits are finally reshaping atoms: A government that doesn’t understand the digital may not be able to control the physical. Less capable states will attempt to maintain control by making futile, reactionary attempts to regulate emerging physical technologies back into the garage from whence they came while more capable jurisdictions will embrace... See more

6. Property rights have become encryption. The state’s conception as the legitimate guardian of private property extends back to at least philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. But cryptocurrencies challenge this view as they establish a full-fledged theory of digital property rights outside the state.

7. International rule of law is becoming rule of code

9. Companies, cities, currencies, communities, and countries are all becoming networks: We should start thinking of collections of people—whether communities, cities, companies, or countries—as cohesive agents unto themselves, less constrained by territoriality and with different layers aligned with one another in shifting combinations.

3. The remote economy has created a talent market for citizens: Walt asserts that because proponents of stateless digital techno-utopias still need to live somewhere, a state ultimately has control over them. But in a competitive marketplace of jurisdictions where somewhere can be anywhere, no single government has as much authority as people think... See more

2. National currencies will face digital monetary competition: We are about to enter an age of global monetary competition, where national currencies must earn their place in someone’s wallet portfolio every hour of every day, even among citizens of their own countries. The digital version of the Japanese yen will be plunged into head-to-head globa... See more

1. Network proximity is now on par with physical geography: Within this cloud continent, the unit of distance between two people is not the travel time between their positions on the globe but rather the degrees of separation in their social networks.

Bottom line: Network proximity is now on par with physical geography, and basic geopolitical assumptions about citizenship, migration, power projection, and the use of force need to be rethought for the digital world.

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was set up to regulate Merck and Pfizer, not 1 million biohackers; the Federal Aviation Administration was built for Boeing and Airbus, not 1 million drone hobbyists; and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was created to go after Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, not 1 million Web3 developers.