Talk given at Refactor Camp, May 2018

1. @suitpossum
brettscott@fastmail.com

3. ‘The State’ ‘The Market’
‘Society’ ‘The Internet’

4. The Internet + The Positive Market:
Libertarian Cyber-Utopianism

7. The Internet + The Negative State:
Cypherpunks & Cryptoanarchists

9. The Internet + The Positive Market – The
Negative State: Conservative Libertarian
Cyber-Utopianism

11. Strand 1: The Decentralization Fetish

12. A means for a network of
strangers to keep track of their
positions relative to each other,
without a (clearly identifiable)
central intermediary

17. What does decentralisation actually mean?

18. Decentralisation: Atoms vs. molecules
Network Individualism vs. Federated Network Solidarity

19. Strand 2: The Immutability Fetish

22. ‘Judiciary’ and arbitration? ‘Mathematical law’ thought impossible to break + very
few initial processes for resolving disputes, or no processes

23. Hard-coded protocol maintained by an (uncoordinated) executive, combined with
a lack of clear legislation processes results in the primary political option for users
being ‘exit’: If you don’t like it you can leave

24. Strand 3: The Commodity Money Fetish:
Cyberlibertarianism meets Austrian
Economics

26. Theories of Money
• Money produced prior to the trade
• It is transferred, but never destroyed (perpetual)
• Imagined as a ‘thing’ or ‘object’ with ‘stored value’
that moves around
• The concept of the value-for-value trade – essentially
a kind of ‘barter’

36. The Internet – The Negative Market – The
Negative State: Left-Wing Anarchist
Blockchain

38. Post-Capitalist Blockchain

41. @suitpossum
brettscott@fastmail.com