Have consumers had any really good or inspiring options yet that put privacy first?
Most of the pundits of Bitcoin and similar - an evolution of the finance industrial complex - seem to claim that the reason there isn't wider adoption is that the "first killer app" hasn't been developed yet. I'd argue it's because its adoption is motivated by profit-greed, which requires a wealth transfer from new adopters to the ones passing off hodling the bag.
Many of the core-fundamental values put forward, what many hope Bitcoin et al would solve, are virtuous and attempting-hoping to solve complex problems - but Bitcoin from a holistic systems perspective, where all consequences are integrated, doesn't fit the bill for what will become the next stable evolution of how society functions with technology. I'd argue similarly to privacy concerns, the solutions that Bitcoin hodlers are aiming for - if they care about such things other than profit from buying low-selling high during pumps and dumps - simply haven't had a viable non-hype and non-greed-driven solution made available yet.
This current wave as a result of industrial complexes forming to maximize their ROI at all costs, first-to-market and maximizing profits allows them to dominate - but for how long? Maybe a decade ago now I wrote a blog post on Facebook's governance, pointing out FB's attempt to maximize profit now will certainly increase annual revenues/profits in the short-term - but would you rather have lower profits for 20+ years or higher profits for 5+ years?
Mark not being an idea person, not a creative - where everyone in tech should know his story involving the ConnectU twins who had hired him - and so he wasn't able to navigate to design and evolve a system to fully harness the potential of having what's essentially a free marketing platform for him as the controller - instead mostly depending on network effect defense strategies including buying up feature sets like WhatsApp, Instagram, etc - who gained a critical mass that could begin to become a competitor with FB, so no real innovation.
The VC industrial complex has been a driver in selecting for all of this, and where acquisitions also suck up and eliminate any up and coming competition that gained enough market share and momentum to be a threat; the incumbent dating and food-delivery platforms-apps are the most obvious for this; the captured MSM is another less obvious version of this, where conglomeration from consolidation has put the power of information control in the hands of fewer and fewer people - why big pharma has been so successful suppressing the majority of negative sentiment about them, as one of multiple parties who are toeing the line and attempting to maintain control with what I call the censorship-suppression-narrative control apparatus; Elon buying Twitter-X created a #ZeroIsASpecialNumber problem in terms of no longer being able to as easily put their hand on the scale of free speech - a blow to their authoritarian-totalitarian and industrial complex dreams, that combination forming fascism.
Another example, I think the advertising industrial complex will collapse within the next decade.
Ads are probably tied at first with downvoting mechanisms for how detrimental of an effect they have on society - where I don't have time to dive into detailing reasons for either right now; they are not mimicking natural patterns for how information-attention was distributed prior to digital.
Business is war, and there are $ trillions at stake - and so who knows what all the various parties, millions to billions of people who most likely mostly blindly follow the status quo system because they believe that they will do better off - those who struggled to get where they are in the manufactured rat race, and holding on for dear life due to fear, when in fact tyranny and scarcity mindset is very expensive - and where the universe provides all the abundance we need, and we can all thrive with proper organization.
“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thanks for the convo! Please continue if you're motivated or inspired to!
P.S. I had 2 neck surgeries last week, so my pain level is down a lot - and so words are flowing out of me a bit easier, and apparently you inspired me to say far more than I was expecting, so thank you again.