A common blockchain criticism is "why can't we just do this but without speculation?"

Is there a good layman explainer we can link to on why blockchains require a native token with financial value?

A doodler and computerer. I like permissive/permissionless open source, smart contracts, p2p systems, room-scale VR, and NixOS.

shazow.net

Currently: WhatsABI

my answer is why does it matter that there are speculators?

https://github.com/o-az
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https://x.com/awkroot

some people believe that financialization is inherently bad, especially when it doesn't need to be (this is the crux)

understandable but ultimately existence of bad players != thing itself is bad

existence of drug gangs != drugs are blanket bad.

I know you probably agree, just saying what I would say

Yea I totally agree, I just don't know that this is a convincing argument for people like... say, Cory Doctorow.

I wonder if convincing them that there are some desirable properties that aren't achievable any other way is a better avenue.