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It’s interesting that I guess I’m so used to reading takes on fintech touting ‘independence’ and ‘decentralization’ coming solely from a libertarian perspective

It’s interesting that I guess I’m so used to reading takes on fintech touting ‘independence’ and ‘decentralization’ coming solely from a libertarian perspective which would assume that ‘government’ involvement was inherently centralized, it didn’t occur to me to consider that OP might actually believe in society, and consider law enforcement around check fraud and regulations on banks as something that enables individual freedom. Good reminder that sometimes it’s possible to read more into what someone’s saying than is there in the words.

mindslight 4y ago
Well I can't speak for OP, but there are aspects of checks that are decentralized regardless of how brashly libertarian your perspective is. Like the idea that you yourself are effectively creating your own quasi-currency note by writing on a piece of paper, regardless of the machinery making it so that can work is more centralized. In general, there is much libertarian thinking that shortsightedly focuses on the unilateral "exit" without thinking about what comes next. It's a reaction to how complex and overbearing our institutions have become, spurred on by capital looking to digest the proceeds. I'm a libertarian, but I recognize that it's ultimately a yin-yang - if there is a "completely free" power vacuum, some other power will often fill it, creating a de facto government by another name - one that generally won't have any mechanisms of accountability. The approach of defining rights axiomatically simply does not work, due to the contradictions created by layered complexity. An example of how this plays out after the first step is the current web 2.0 catastrophe. The first amendment definition of free speech may be necessary, but it is not sufficient - unaccountable companies have consumed the power vacuum at scale, digested it, and spit it back out in terms of heavily editorialized spaces that we still try to use as if they're public venues. (And just to be clear on my immediate practical stance, I think the current "free speech" marketing campaign of Twitter et al is utterly specious. The problem is the amassing of such power in the first place, due to the centralizing technologies webapps are built on. Changing the flavor of the Kool-Aid doesn't fix the fundamental problem.)

mindslight 4y ago

Well I can't speak for OP, but there are aspects of checks that are decentralized regardless of how brashly libertarian your perspective is. Like the idea that you yourself are effectively creating your own quasi-currency note by writing on a piece of paper, regardless of the machinery making it so that can work is more centralized. In general, there is much libertarian thinking that shortsightedly focuses on the unilateral "exit" without thinking about what comes next. It's a reaction to how complex and overbearing our institutions have become, spurred on by capital looking to digest the proceeds. I'm a libertarian, but I recognize that it's ultimately a yin-yang - if there is a "completely free" power vacuum, some other power will often fill it, creating a de facto government by another name - one that generally won't have any mechanisms of accountability. The approach of defining rights axiomatically simply does not work, due to the contradictions created by layered complexity. An example of how this plays out after the first step is the current web 2.0 catastrophe. The first amendment definition of free speech may be necessary, but it is not sufficient - unaccountable companies have consumed the power vacuum at scale, digested it, and spit it back out in terms of heavily editorialized spaces that we still try to use as if they're public venues. (And just to be clear on my immediate practical stance, I think the current "free speech" marketing campaign of Twitter et al is utterly specious. The problem is the amassing of such power in the first place, due to the centralizing technologies webapps are built on. Changing the flavor of the Kool-Aid doesn't fix the fundamental problem.)