All Others Pay

Everyone knocks lawyers until they need one.

And sometimes even then.

But that's true with lots of things. 

Haters gonna hate.

Like this rise of "decentralized" things.

No middle men.

No oversight!

No permission!!

PURE FREEDOM!!!

Except, when they lose everything, they want a recourse.

They want justice!

And they are confused that no one can help them.

Why?

Because they didn't bake in the fact that no oversight comes with big downsides. Pure freedom rarely leads to order. Free justice is self-enforced. Often meaning you have no ability to right many wrongs.

One of the legal tenets of truly owning something is that your ownership right is recognized and defended by a mature body and system of law.

Someone wrongs you, you have the ability to fight back with the law.

And I'm seeing so many stories involving crypto scams where the only lesson is a cautionary one.

Hogs slaughtered.

And many are like, "Why isn't anyone helping me?"

Well, this is part of what they signed up for.

No one can help.

All of this is still new, relatively speaking, and more regulation and rules are kinda the antithesis of this movement.

So how do you own things in this decentralized future?

In many ways, it's caveman era stuff.

Protect your own.

Survive.

Brutal.

Me?

I like having a system of accountability.

I like ownership rights.

I don't necessarily trust all authority, but I do trust some, especially those that have my back.

More than I trust someone who says they can get rich quick and they can show me how to do it too.

More than I trust some of these folks who treat this as a religion or as a way to save the world.

It's not either, man. It's just money or something like it.

I knew something was off with this whole decentralized thing when they said the best way to technologically secure and future-proof your stuff was to write it all down on paper. Not on your computer!

Never your computer!

Paper!

Or hammer it on metal!

Or these little devices that do not connect to the internet, promise!

Trust!

Trust no one, they say, except you have to trust those selling you this stuff.

You have to trust them.

"You can trust us in a trust-no-one world."

Trust us so you don't have to trust anyone (else).

And so the irony of a trustless world is you still have to trust those who are hocking its wares and thumping its bible.

You have to trust their trustless stuff.

And that's the hard part.

"Trust no one, except all of us. We are telling the truth. And we wouldn't ever think of stealing your stuff."

Sounds familiar.

But what do I know?

DTA.

Don't trust anybody.

Even me.