Cyberpunk theorists back in the 80s of the last century predicted a super-technological, but completely decadent world, where there is a constant war of corporations. We still successfully arrived at technological decadence, but corporations (although they have become global) are still extremely vulnerable to the actions of individual officials or commissions. Billionaires with billions of customers go to give humiliating testimony to meaningless and unknown congressmen. Deputies invent laws that bring down the shares of the most advanced companies, even overseas. Institutional investors are under house arrest. In general, cyberpunk, but not that one.
And literally in the last two weeks we have witnessed the crusade of the American state machine (led, I recall, by the 73-year-old builder) against the alternative payment systems launched by the Facebook and Telegram networks. Zuckerberg’s project has consistently left PayPal, Visa, MasterCard and eBay. And the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through a court prohibited Telegram from attracting investments through the sale of tokens. And tokens recognized already sold in the amount of $ 1.7 billion were placed illegally.
You are truly expecting that I will now explain to you what tokens, cryptocurrencies and network payment systems are. In vain. I will not explain this to you, because it does not have any meaning for understanding the moment. The only thing that matters is that an alternative to the existing order of things is proposed.
It has already been stated many times that the state machine is always in a state of catching up, that discourse is determined by visionaries who are first followed by a population (or, as Yekaterina Mikhailovna Shulman says, a voter), and then, after a while, the state suddenly sees itself in a completely different reality . And he begins to feverishly come up with the rules governing and fixing this reality.
Of course, sooner or later, even such slow-thinking people, like officials and parliamentarians, compare causes and effects and come to the conclusion that it would be nice to preempt, so to speak. And instead of once again finding yourself in a situation where the reality around you has changed a long time ago, it would be advisable to simply prevent this reality from changing. Very few of these government people understand what cryptocurrency is. And it is precisely this misunderstanding that burns them from within. It is it that terrifies them. And in fear it makes sticks of sticks into the wheels of a technological chariot that rides over their heads and does not even notice the crunch of well-groomed skulls.
After all, what does this simultaneous and reinforced concrete resistance to the Facebook and Telegram payment systems tell us? It only tells us that these unknown jackets, until the very end, were waiting for everything to somehow form itself. That one day they will wake up in the morning and suddenly understand what Bitcoin, a “smart” contract, mining and all that is. And also why all this is needed and where does all this come from liquidity and cost.
But, alas, one morning the officials woke up and suddenly realized that there was no time. And that the future is coming, and that it will come tomorrow.
And the mysterious Pavel Durov will spin in one place the US Federal Reserve. Well, maybe it won’t, but all of a sudden? Yes, and this Zuckerberg is an extremely suspicious person. Fake news, interference with elections, this artificial intelligence at every turn, Like button! Is it possible to trust the person who invented the Like button to create an international payment system? No way!
Do you understand? There is no plan.
They have no plan. Nothing. No understanding, no expertise, no discussion with the defendants. There is nothing. There is only a sledgehammer. What about those across the ocean. What these have here. There is a sledgehammer, but there is nothing besides a sledgehammer. And when you have nothing but a sledgehammer, and you have to do it - well, that means you take a sledgehammer and hammer it with all the dope for all the most high-tech inventions. To the dust. To dust. So that everything remains as before. So that nothing changes. Because if something changes around, then you too should change. But I don’t want to change. Old you already to change.
And I absolutely have no questions for all these respected people who are deeply seated on all possible sides of the ocean. No, I have a question on behalf of cyberpunk theorists: hey transnational high-tech corporations, are you afraid of something? Intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads? So DARPA engineers came up with the Internet just so that it continued to work even after the impact of such missiles. So there’s nothing to be afraid of. And there is no reason to pay attention to those who are still far behind. And who, I repeat, has no plan at all.
However, I, too, have long been a young man. And my life experience tells me that we will not see any rebellion of the new world order against the old. None of the pioneers of the new world will sail in neutral waters on a yacht so that from there - outside all jurisdictions - to manage supranational transactions that bypass the eyes of regulators.
No, everything will remain the same as it was.
Because no one actually has a plan.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.