Narrative circa Newsletter 2...
Free Space - The Ever-Receding Frontier
The jurisdiction of governments has always been defined by the land
mass they control by force. Out beyond the "three-mile" limit of their
shores is traditionally viewed as international waters. No government
has sovereignty out there, though many have tried to exert such control.
Their success has been limited to their ability to project power, whether
they have an internationally recognized right to do so or not.
We view the Internet as lying in international waters as well.
Governments and nefarious enterprises try to exert power by exploiting items of value that
must pass through their control or by seducing or coercing service providers that must
themselves remain exposed in the physical world. But what of the etherial constructs of cryptospace?
Ghost ships that don’t show up on any earthy radar and have no ports of call where they
can be interdicted? Ships with crypto-graphical cloaking devices that can carry their cargo
across the digital high seas with impunity, immune while pirates and tyrants huff and puff in
frustration. Many will want to control this new frontier. But unlike the past frontiers of
freedom, this time they will fail.
When Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket strode into the American Old West they were entering the
Free Space frontier of their day. But soon “civilization” began to encroach and their offspring
fled further West. The Eagles once lamented, “there is no more new frontier, we have got to
make it here”. We disagree. In Free Space, freedom can still flourish - by design.
Bitcoin has opened a portal to Free Space - a land of opportunity.
Bitcoin is just a digital currency worth billions. But the technology behind it is beyond the control of
any government on the planet. There is no central point where tyranny can seduce or coerce the people
who have learned to use it. Instead they interact peer to peer, with no corruptible middlemen. Bitcoin
just works. And it has paved our way to digital freedom. A next generation Internet.
In Free Space, no one can read your mail.
In Free Space, no one can track your purchases.
In Free Space, no one can steal your identity.
In Free Space, no one can inflate away your savings.
In Free Space, no one can confiscate your wealth.
In Free Space, your wealth is all in your head.
Anyone able to infringe on even one of these freedoms has too much power.
The tools needed to defend Free Space are emerging, but the arms race will probably never end.