Pandora's box has been opened. Bitcoin has proven that decentralized tech can be used to push back against oppressive regimes. But that's not just important to monetary policy. In the next several years or decades, it is likely that more and more projects spring up that are decentralized and open source, a combination that is the dystopian leader's nightmare. Bitcoin's relative success as a project can be pointed to as inspiration to anyone wishing to build software that can be used to empower individuals and take back control of their human right's. Gun advocates have always had a strong history in this, but the advances in 3D printing are accelerating their efforts. The ability to teach others to 3D print with code and tools enabled by code is making home gun manufacturing easier, cheaper and faster. This is an important advancement in the ability to defend oneself in a way that cannot be stopped or censured by the policy idealogues of the day. As 3D gun printing projects gain steam and become more successful in reversing the infringement on the right's of the individual, other projects will begin experimenting with other ways to accomplish this goal focused on other essential human right's. Obviously, there are tons of experiments with tech focused on protection of Freedom of Speech, but the "successful" use cases of this are typically chat applications with end to end encryption and other privacy enhancing features. Eventually, I suspect we will see platforms aimed at replacing the large social platforms that exist today, which have had numerous issues with censorship. Open source and decentralized tech, where anyone can participate in the project without permission, are only going to grow stronger, faster and more relevant in the future. Many of these may find ways to build on top of Bitcoin or adjacent to it. As more and more people opt-out of the old financial system, they'll begin looking for ways to increase their personal autonomy and freedom. That will naturally lead to new, interesting projects that will help others do the same. The point is this - as humans become more skilled at cooperating with one another and continuously reducing the friction involved in participating in projects, humans will gain more rights that are far less likely to be infringed, because the code behind their efforts will be decentralized, open source and unstoppable. That's what Bitcoin is at it's core and you should expect this trend to continue. Why is this important? Because cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent, defending against them more difficult and nation states are realizing they are unable to defend effectively. Ransomware is becoming more targeted and tailored to their victims, which are typically local governments or small businesses. Because effective defense is so hard, many governments are using these attacks as opportunity to infringe on rights even more. The encryption backdoor debate is back in full swing again and politicians are using fear, manipulation and a lack of understanding of privacy from private citizens to push for these policies. If they are successful in this effort, it will undermine the security and privacy of all. It's rare that governments will admit mistakes or take responsibility for them, so when the encryption backdoors backfire, they will find more reason to reduce privacy and security further, in the name of "National Security". This will only be fuel to the fire for Freedom Tech. The need for that tech will increase rapidly and see fast adoption. Individual's rights have been slowly trickled away over a many decades and Bitcoin is only the beginning of what will become a massive shift in how we build, use and deploy tech in the future. Bitcoin is proof that these methods can be used effectively to give back the rights to the individual.
