Folks here are helping me narrow down what I don’t like about crypto. I see the argument that it is a way to freely move currency even in the face of authoritarian governments. 

I guess on the one hand, I just don’t believe that governments can’t find a way to crack down on it. All the crying from crypto folks about the tyrannical SEC suggests governments still do matter. 

But more importantly, I think it’s a much better use of time and energy to organize and fight to stop those authoritarian governments from existing in the first place. I see so many brilliant people spending so much time on this thing that is literally separate from reality (it’s right there in the name crypto) when that energy could be put to more fruitful use. Anyway, no final conclusions, just some evolving thoughts.

This is kind of where I am at. I am a very anti-systemic and even quasi libertarian person and the idea of moving funds without government or banking intermediaries is very attractive to me. I’m also open to ideas for how to improve the internet and make it a more well-rounded social experience including by potentially adding a seamless economic component.

The thing that is aggravating me as I have written at length before is the “crypto industry.” SBF, Millei, TrumpCoin and a million other terrible things just strike me as completely sinister and corrupt and that stuff seems to far outweigh the good stuff at present and I don’t see this situation being ameliorated. Crypto needed to become useful before it became evil but the chronology has been reversed.

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To shill for my employer for a moment: This is more or less what Coinbase's northstar is. Making crypto easy to use, and useful for the world to increase economic freedom. If you look at the legislation we've lobbied for, it's all been about sensible regulation that serves consumers and builders alike imo.

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The first part of your post and things like @vocdoni are the reason I stay in this space

same. but like all tech its both a tool and a weapon. we should encourage good actors to wield tech instead of moralizing against it, otherwise those without morals will always have the upper hand

Do you distinguish between crypto and blockchain in this thinking process?

Every new tech is first used to kill people, mostly, then to do more good things.

Counterpoint: the genie (magical internet money that exists without financial intermediaries or government decree, but through broad social consent) is firmly out of the bottle now