> There is a much deeper contradiction between cryptocurrency and the free software movement of which LWN is an outpost. i agree. but for many in this communit

> There is a much deeper contradiction between cryptocurrency and the free software movement of which LWN is an outpost. i agree. but for many in this community there’s also a contradiction to physical enforcement of some external value system onto someone operating in this open space. if the surface of FOSS is something like “freedom to use, inspect, and modify the code you interact with”, then below that iceberg is many different thoughts on how that’s preserved. at the very least, there’s a camp that thinks freedom of association underpins this. “FOSS as a community and ideology can exist because its members are free to pursue that own goal of theirs. cryptocurrency isn’t contradictory to the underpinnings of FOSS, because the people who freely participate in FOSS for ideological reasons will freely choose to not embrace cryptocurrencies.” — is one possible voicing from under that iceberg. here on the net we’ve enjoyed quite a few years of being able to build whatever we want, largely free from the forces felt in whatever physical society we come from. yes, there’s been things like the arms control of RSA, the DVD decryption key being made illegal to spread, and so on. those also came with plenty of meta-discussions like this one, and since then we’ve enjoyed a good decade where most of us really do feel free to build. FOSS exists, among many other communities, because we’re operating within a larger sphere which doesn’t impose any one universal set of values. my worry is that we see an external value system be imposed on this underlying fabric. what are the odds this system will share my values? or be compatible with the values from which FOSS may emerge, for that matter? where then will i go but back underground?