The newly released book, Family. Our Future in Cyberspace, is a full-frontal attack on the idea of decentralization. Skepticism about crypto and its obsession with decentralization is not new. But what’s unique about Family is that, while highly critical of the industry at large, it’s unquestionably pro-crypto and optimistic about its future.
In the popular imagination, crypto and decentralization are nearly synonymous. But as Family argues, not only are they not, decentralization is the least crypto thing about crypto. Distributed ledgers and actual cryptography are what really makes crypto crypto. The book shows, based on historical records, that Satoshi considered decentralization to be a defense mechanism against government overreach. The cost of this regulatory defense mechanism is enormous. Nearly all of crypto’s problems are caused by decentralization. To achieve its full potential, crypto needs to drop decentralization.
Family wants to replace decentralization with sovereignty. It presents a novel design that provides the network/platform with as much regulatory immunity as decentralization does, but under a much more traditional governance structure - the cybercorporation. Totally insulated from outside influences, the cybercorporation, becomes a real sovereign. Users don’t have to fear tyranny. Distributed ledgers and cryptographic signatures limit cybercorporations’ power, as they do in every crypto platform. In fact, decentralized systems produce more potentially tyrannical parties that could go against the users.
Even if decentralization could somehow work on a technical level, Family argues its anarchistic philosophy should be feared as much as tyranny. Laws aren’t a bad thing. Sovereignty shouldn’t be utilized just to overcome decentralization's technical limitation, but also to overcome its anarchistic chaos. Crypto doesn’t have to be a refuge for drug dealers and other morally questionable characters.
Although the book doesn’t touch on these issues directly, it seems Family can solve the free speech vs censorship conundrum. As much as we’re uncomfortable with “censorship”, absolute “free speech” platforms have a long record of producing dysfunctional communities nobody wants to be part of. Decentralizing curation only kicks the can down the road, and arguably produces more “censorship”. A reliable sovereign legal system can do the necessary policing without the usual accusations of “censorship”.
The book is rather noncommittal as to implementation details or policy preferences (probably because the authors are working on a specific implementation of their ideas), a lot is left to the imagination. It’s a playbook of sorts anybody could use to build their own cybercorporation-based system.
Family. Our Future in Cyberspace is a must-read for everybody who wants crypto to deliver on its promise. Family tells us how to get the job done.