It didn't take me too long to find out that individuals aren't ready to take sovereignty over their own affairs as a mainstream approach to society. I guess I must admit that ideological decentralization negates the need for society. Humans are naturally inclined to joining together even as they say they want independence. Most people are wired to prioritize convenience over sovereignty. As such, in order to function within society, because I don't want to leave it (right now), I must consider a more compromised philosophy than the one I have espoused in some of my spicier posts.

Mind you, I won't invest in any project that requires you to KYC to access features that are already in the world of true defi. I'm all about adding to the world of sovereign tech, because I know that anything connected to government will eventually be usurped by it. At the same time, the best place to get your training is from government. Take their resources and use them in your own establishments — that's the game. 

But no; I'm not an ideologue.

Crypto was fully centralized when Nakamoto created bitcoin. In this early stage, he was able to almost immediately decentralize the system because there was no value in the coin. The would-be whales didn't know they were whales and so were trading thousands of bitcoins for pizza. Decentralization is a more difficult process now for two reasons: 1. whales centralize the finances regardless of the infrastructure, and 2. projects want immediate rollouts, not 50 year mining schedules.

Innovation knowledge is also centralized at this point. Outside of international rock star, software development may be the only profession in the world with more jobs available than qualified applicants. The industry is also far too nascent. Even top devs can get their protocols hacked either through technical or financial gamesmanship, and that is something that must be addressed on a fundamental level before we start handing out multisig keys to Slowmo Joe.

There will be a contingent of people with this specialized knowledge who only know how to operate under the umbrella of government. The notion of nationless decentralization is beyond them. If it is philosophically beyond them, they won't be able to create it no matter how smart they are. Therefore, they will naturally flow into the "we need to comply" fold and incorporate KYC/AML yada yada into their stuff from the very beginning. They basically give their power to the other side in the negotiation before the other side even does anything (Obama, anyone?). I could spend all day trying to convince these people out of this position. I'd rather make their technical knowledge my own to ensure people have a legitimate choice as the crypto market matures.

I see advocates of true decentralization, of borderless, KYC-less interface as their own nation-state. It's a nation-state of the future, where trust doesn't need to be given to anyone because the rules are immutable and unchangeable and objective. It is a group of people on the cutting edge who will actually trust the blockchain technology we have to create a cultural revolution rather than just a quicker or less expensive supply chain.

If this nation wants to interface with the other nations of the world, it may. Or it can stay to itself, unbothered by the others. The strength of this arrangement is that it mandates no contact. When no contact is mandated, contact that is made tends to be more friendly. But understand we're not there yet. Traditional government is an arrogant neighbor that thinks it knows best, and it doesn't want to give up power. We must prove our defenses and intelligence as a decentralized nation before they will respect us.

Until you gain the respect of your neighbor, he must be your enemy. Don't go trying to negotiate anything before you've established your power to hurt them. Sometimes this means offense, not just defense. Because they are constantly attacking us with regulation. If it wasn't for their nonsense, bitcoin would have been at $24k by now, easily.

This means you have to remove your intellectual and financial capital away from the enemy and entrust it to your own infrastructure. The intellectual capital is actually the more important. Find a way to go full time crypto. Learn how your current skill set can be helpful in moving forward the idea of decentralized finance and legal structure. There's nothing wrong with buying into XRP or Celsius for quick profits, but there's no way I'm staking those programs.

We've got everything they've got. Jobs on Keep3r, insurance on Cover, banking on Cream, etc. and so forth. Give praise to the developers who are really moving towards decentralization and hold them accountable if they change course.