Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

The problem here, is that this effectively makes the silk road (drumroll...) a traditional bank. With the monetary controls and downsides that the folks trying to speculate on bitcoin claim they don't want. (The can freeze funds, reverse transactions, run away with your coins, etc)

Further, since traditional mining is out of reach for most folks - there's no real way to avoid having to buy through an intermediary. So when you hear folks saying "Not your wallet, not your coins" ask them how they managed to get their coins in the first place, and how they avoided ever trusting an intermediary with their coins during that process (unless they literally mined them themselves, not as a pool, they're bullshitting you - they trusted an intermediary, and fraud was absolutely a possibility)

I think my real point here (admittedly long winded) is that a large reason the modern banking system functions the way it does is that they've essentially been asked to handle fraud and dispute reconciliation in a world where you're not allowed to resort to rote physical violence yourself. Unfortunately, to do that they require all sorts of monetary controls (The same controls coin enthusiasts claim to hate). But those same enthusiasts don't actually have a functional solution for handling reconciliation in instances where a dispute actually occurs, outside of falling back on the legal system of a government.

Some of them seem to have a mental fantasy of hiring assassins or threatening folks with either hacking or some other "dire" threat, but it's mostly bullshit - when fraud happens they run squealing to the government or they eat the loss. These folks are like a strange variation of the "prepper" crowd - they wish the world worked like it did thousands of years ago where blunt force solved problems.

Where is the answer to the problem? Signals are carried in codes, and codes can be more or less efficient at conveying information. How does a sample from a biased population provide any information about the true mean? How would offering only Cheez-its and Gatorade tell you about consumer desires for eggplant?

Many accuse their fellow humans of degeneracy but that narrative only serves to obfuscate the primary role of corporations, for which we can make much stronger accusations of degeneracy.

Dear reader, observe the classically crypto-fascist rhetoric with its complete lack of self-reflection and deflection via essentially empty-headed, debate-bro tactics.

1 - The young people are just annoying and don't know anything 2 - Nothing will ever change 3 - Nothing will ever change

Needless to say, I disagree with you. Life is constantly changing, and in a few years, likely you will be able to buy almost anything with crypto.

In that case, I'd like to manipulate everybody: Save a reasonable percentage of your earnings! Invest a modest percentage of your current consumption in a diversified portfolio of assets with a reasonable expectation of future returns! Be aware that you may become disabled or encounter other serious economic difficulties, and a little frugality today may produce enormous payoffs down the road! Be prudent and don't bet heavily on any single asset class! I'll love you if you do! Your parents would be disappointed if you failed at this!

What other manipulative stratagems can I use to get people to be wiser and more responsible?