String theory for programmers is close to my take. I always think of the STTNG episode where the Federation comes up with a weapon to kill the Borg by giving th

String theory for programmers is close to my take. I always think of the STTNG episode where the Federation comes up with a weapon to kill the Borg by giving them an impossible but deeply fascinating problem to ponder forever. Cryptocurrency seems like that for endless numbers of tech nerds. It’s even worse than the impossible shape they were going to use on the Borg since it plugs right into humanity’s biggest cognitive vulnerability: gambling. Maybe it’s a weapon sent by aliens to make halt our technological progress. 25 years from now cryptocurrency will have soaked up all surplus capital and locked it into a Ponzi and all our best minds will be churning out increasingly Byzantine coin hacks. Then the hypervelocity impactors start arriving…