What even is an institution?

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2022/12/30/institutions.html

Not sure I have amazing new insights, other than that this is a complicated muddle, but sometimes recognizing the muddle is the first step to stepping out of it!

funny that I couldn't even find an equivalent notion in Chinese for "institution"

ineffective accelerationism/
backpain negentropy

机构 for more logically centralized things, 制度 for institutions in the more general sense?

good ones. 
机构 sounds very bureaucratic, and 制度 is very much associated with nation-states.