– “The forces of global subversion rely very much on this tactic; thus, they attempt in every possible way to cause any higher idea to give in to the tyranny of individual interests… They know perfectly well that this is the best way to destroy every unity and solidarity and to favor a state of affairs in which their overall scheme will be implemented. They know well that there is an objective law of immanent justice and that ‘the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine,’ and thus they act accordingly; they wait for the fruits of these inconsiderable initiatives to mature, and then they intervene.” – Julius Evola
Here I will make the case that a full adoption of Cryptocurrency/Smart-Contracts (the “Crypto movement”) will be a perilous conclusion of “Liberalism”, a historical trend with proximate origins in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when the long-standing Catholic tradition began to break down. It seems increasingly likely that the Crypto movement will undermine the last institutional vestige of that tradition, the Westphalian Nation-State itself, beginning with the fiat central-banking order. This would entail a chaotic geopolitical reorientation, a radical possibility worth considering in a sober light, as there are strong reasons to believe that the Crypto movement will ultimately succeed. We should also evaluate the history, the causality, and the future of this development: what may come and who is likely to gain in the aftermath.
The Crypto movement is a complex ideological phenomenon, rooted deeply in historical momentum. Therefore we should explain its origins, beginning with the widespread upheaval the Protestant heresies brought upon the Western world. After the Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church, and the establishment of the Westphalian Nations in 1648, came the Enlightenment, and the decline of Christian tradition. The divine right of the Kings was dissolved, as was the power of the Clergy and the Lords following the American and French Revolutions. By 1789 the change could not be stopped, and the French royal court was put to death in the name of “Liberty”, with the Napoleonic devastation of Europe soon to follow. This was a pivotal point in history, when the Liberal Jacobin creeds of egalitarianism, progressivism, and electoral democracy began their spread to the ends of the earth. The Liberal ideal had turned into concrete reality by 1848, when democratic upheavals changed the face of the entire European continent. Alongside this democratization, European hegemony began to gradually give way to “global” concerns in the colonies, and those of the New World. The traditional Aristocracies were razed into the age of mass-man, and families became atomized, stripped of their nobility and heritage. Christianity itself became a crude, personal affair, and finally men lost their faith. With God safely dead under our knives the nations of Europe buckled and collapsed into total war, and just like the Jacobins before them, the Bolsheviks destroyed the entire Russian tradition in the name of “Progress”, and Communism spread across most of the globe. This was when the Marxist/Fascist destruction of both European civilization and soul came to pass, which corresponds historically to the establishment of the international financial system during the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, which by 1971 had uncoupled from gold and developed into the fiat system we know today.
So we are thrown into the the Postmodern world: standing in the ruins of all that was lost. Over the course of centuries, nearly every instance of hierarchy and religious order has unraveled in our relentless drive towards the Liberal ideal of global “progress”, a concept in need of serious reconsideration. I think the traditionalists (Guenon, Evola, Burke and others) were correct: recent history is best understood as a degeneration rather than an ascent. Liberal progress consists in the elimination of the most revered traditions that have emerged from our evolutionary history and circumstance. These traditions do not order the physical world, rather they order the world of the spirit, a world of rich, subjective, experienced meaning which is vital to an ordered, organic human society. With each revolutionary wave we further our descent from our traditional past, into the madness of global progressivism, the Liberal creed brought to us by Protestant heretics, bloodthirsty Sans-Cullotes, and the Marxist cult.
Despite this onslaught, we should remember that modern Liberal society still draws its fundamental moral axioms along from a very religious past. This torch has been carried by the philosophers of the Enlightenment through the mists of history, but we must understand the Christian origins of Liberalism, despite atheistic pleas to the contrary. Such a forceful egalitarian moral trend could only have come to ascendance in a Christian society, and even if we have forgotten our history we remain entranced by this ornament of the Christian myth, the foundational myth of the West. As Nietzsche had explained, the Christian spirit of Truth contained it’s own undoing, a focused progression toward the conclusion that Christianity was itself a fiction, just another fallen idol in the heap. Yet even in a world without God the Western progressive spirit lived on, having fallen to earth where it remains to this day. Liberal “progress” is the result, the final stage, a death rattle of the Christian Truth.
While a powerful cultural force, we must understand that Liberalism is based in heresy and revolution, a decaying spirit cut from its roots, and on its altar we will sacrifice everything of value. Nothing can stand outside of this destructive power, and an increasingly brittle wall protects the remnants of Western tradition, once a light unto to the entire world. I believe we should awaken to the reality of our spiritual situation. Modern civilization is in the grips of a totalitarian and subversive ideal, and our world will continue to degenerate as the Liberal march of progress accelerates blindly to its end.
We should note that implicit in the Crypto movement’s endless value-creation and abstraction, is what seems to be the “late stage” development of the Western mathematical conception itself. Western mathematics is essentially an expression of Cartesian space, the unbounded and limitless expanse. We take it for granted, but forget how opposed our conception of mathematics is to the wholly practical, indivisible, and form-based conception of the Greek/Roman civilizations (where irrational numbers were unthinkable, and earned you a death sentence!), or the linear conception of the Egyptians, with a world represented in “rows”. As Oswald Spengler has noted, we can see the same Western mathematical conception of “boundlessness” pregnant in the Infinitesimal Calculus of Newton and Leibniz, or the shift from flat Pre-Renaissance painted foregrounds to the vast, expansive backgrounds of the Dutch masters, stretching the eye into the infinite distance of landscape, or even in the violent upward and outward thrust exhibited in the architecture of the Gothic Cathedrals. Western civilization reaches. The philosopher John David Ebert has explained that the West contains an organic, even spiritual mathematical ideal, one that can be traced through earlier periods of mathematics and art into our Postmodern age of dissolution, where this expansive instinct begins to turn on itself, “run out of road”, and crumble. The stirrings of the dissolution of meaning and spatial order that begins in the painting of Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso, reaches its most expressive form in the works of Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Gerard Richter, the music of John Cage (the predecessor of Electronic Music) as well as the structuralist and deconstructivist philosophy of Levi-Strauss, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Basically, culture is a prelude: The artists, musicians, and philosophers “get there first” and I believe the trend has been brought home into the every day world, as can clearly be seen in the Postmodern revolt of the Crypto movement, devoid of a center, increasingly formless and endlessly disivible. This abstract turn our culture has now taken (in the practical economic realm no less) should be seen as yet another instance of Western “progress”, which corresponds in a fascinating way to historical developments in the world of art and music, as well as to our general civilizational decline into abstraction.
As such, the Crypto movement should be appreciated as a conclusion of the Liberal trend. It is thoroughly Postmodern and Postliberal, a declaration of total “Individual Sovereignty” over economic value, contract, and association, completely free from coercion and all National, traditional hierarchy and order. We should not allow the daily news, rent-seeking schemes, and attempts at “regulation”, distract us from the sheer momentum of the Crypto movement and the civilizational trend that underscores it. Even the technology itself is a mere consequence of this greater social and spiritual arc, and now a sweeping disavowal of the traditional Nation-State is waiting to take hold. If adoption occurs on a large scale it will be a world-historical disruption, similar in character yet greater in scope than the French and Marxist revolutions, as well as the bloody Reformation itself, which came accompanied by the technological innovation of the printing press. With this in mind, and given the proliferation of electronic devices in the 21st century, the infallible power of the cryptography in use will make even the poorest parts of the world susceptible to this radical change.
While the optimism of the Crypto movement is convincing on first glance, we should not be so certain. The destruction of traditional order in the past has come at a tremendous cost, and it is not obvious that it will be safe to continue the trend with reckless abandon. “Individual Sovereignty” may be well and good to some, but it cannot be the full story. Completely leveling the economic and political order will amount to a destabilizing reorientation of the entire global conception. While idealists imagine such a transition would be a smooth realization of a functional “liberated” world, we must make clear that the Crypto movement cannot exist on a large scale aside the Westphalian model, which operates on the basis of local political authority and a National banking system. The central-banks the Nations of the world have embraced today are very complex institutions, but we can safely state that they have become the weakest links in the chain. The Crypto movement threatens many other vital institutions that are currently the domain of Nation-States as well, and if State power is weakened in any part of the world, especially during a time of economic and social collapse, there will be significant unrest.
Assuming a total adoption of the Crypto movement (I take this possibility seriously and assume quantum-computational defeaters, security and local regulatory obstacles can be overcome via innovative effort): This will represent the end of the sovereign Nation-States as defined by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and their free-floating fiat financial systems. As mentioned earlier, in 1944 following the defeat of the Nazi Reich the Bretton Woods Conference established the “reserve currency” standing of the U.S. Dollar, with the gold requirement discarded in the 1973 Smithsonian Agreement. Since then the IMF and G-12 nations have led the way for the fiat central banking order, now adopted by Nations worldwide. As stated earlier, this order will not survive the Crypto movement. Traditional National Governments will be ground to a halt in their administration of finance/taxation and their ability to issue debt, in their monopolies of contract/association, and finally after a period of dysfunction, these Nation-States will be stripped of their residual cultural and moral authority. The new Cryptography will become the force to be reckoned with. At this point Liberalism will have run its course: a realization of the “Sovereign Individual”, the erasure of all traditional structures and hierarchies that have held Traditional National societies together, and with them the rest of the world. In such a situation, a new order will emerge by necessity.
Many are so caught up in the day to day reality of their banking system that they miss the bigger picture, a picture well worth considering. Although the Cryptocurrency system is certainly a superior “store of value” compared to a fiat central-banking system, offering tamper-proof issuance, execution, clearance and settlement, it is not merely some sort of soulless technicality. It is based in ideology, perhaps one of the most potent ideologies in recent history. It consists in a deeply meaningful experience shared by its participants, which has already inspired remarkable mass action. Far from a “speculative bubble”, or even a rival currency, the Crypto movement represents a rival global reality, saturated with a sort of spiritual character, tying together and orienting a “liberated” mankind. It is a breathtaking collective vision, one which can best be compared to a religious ideal. Early in our history gold and bronze coins were issued by temples, and these coins resemble the Suns disc because humans worshiped the Sun for tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. The adoption of a currency must be recognized for what it is: an act of worship, leaving the Postmodern world uniquely prone to debased ideological possession. We would be wise to observe the fanatical Liberal belief in the power of technology and the internet, a crude surrogate for the sacred, yet a world unto itself, one of dewey-eyed promise, progress, and opportunity. We must also note the overwhelming, ominous feeling of the technology that is slowly closing in around us, the blinding mystery of what is to come. Such a psychological transference creates extremely fertile ground, and it has enabled the rise of the Crypto movement. It is no mere fluke that a the list of Cryptocurrencies reads like a frantic pornography of signifiers, defunct gods, idols, alchemical symbols and Jungian imagery. This is not merely about economics or technology. It is a march of ideology, of exuberant belief in technology and Liberal “progress”, and now a sizable movement backed by credible cryptography is growing.
The magnitude of this potential upheaval cannot be overstated. In its spirited zeal, Cryptocurrency may simply “drink” the fiat value of entire countries right off of the map. Currency controls will assuredly be implemented, but the technology will always remain steps ahead in terms of ensuring anonymity, and the Crypto movement need only break through State power in a few parts of the world to change the course of history. Cryptocurrency use requires little more than a cell phone and access to electricity, and it is quite likely governments will be unable to stem the tide. It seems to me that only swift right-wing revolutions can stop this process in its tracks, nothing short of isolationist martial law, political purges and permanently shuttering the economy/internet/power grid. Given present political trends this is a distinct possibility, however I believe an isolated nation will not prove resilient over the long term, and it will not survive conflict with the Internationalist powers that will assuredly back the Crypto movement. The global situation will quickly become polarized, and in a time of collapse the incentives to adopt Cryptocurrency will become more and more apparent and robust, being a far safer alternative to the local crumbling National bank of old. What’s more, since 2008, central banks worldwide have simultaneously set funds rates to near 0%, causing an unprecedented rise in real estate and asset prices. This system is headed for a terrifying end all on its own, and with the rise of the Crypto movement alongside the upcoming crisis, people will feel an even greater pressure to transfer their wealth.
There is a messianic element in the Crypto movement that cannot be denied. Financial systems have indeed become corrupt, and the true suffering and poverty of the world must be acknowledged in the final analysis. Despair will bring the world to its feet, especially as further breakdowns in the order occur. In this light the similarities between the Crypto movement and the Marxist revolutions become eerily clear: Both appeal to the masses, both are progressive and simplistic conceptions of society, both seek to dissolve the Nation-State and tradition, both seek “Equality”by any means (as defined by Hegel? Or as defined by Locke?), and both are polarizing accelerations that strike the world at its metaphysical foundations. To be sure, there are significant abstract differences between the Crypto movement and Marxism. Yet from the perspective of Tradition, the Crypto movement, the Marxist revolution, the Jacobin upheaval, and even the Reformation itself are all subversive degenerations of the spiritual order. I believe the Crypo movement will cause a far greater upheaval, and it seems that even the most fanatical in the ranks of the Crypto movement cannot ignore such a comparison: it is an ideology grown in the same progressive Utopian soil, in uncompromising opposition to the order of the traditional world.
The Crypto movement is worth taking very seriously. These developments can no longer be hushed up without extreme and coordinated coercive action. Once the Crypto movement starts accelerating, it will be unstoppable, and weakened States will dissolve into its power one by one, or violently resist adoption. In conjunction with the extreme political , racial, and religious factionalism of our age, we should not rule out the very real possibility of planetary-scale warfare. It is likely we are entering a very dangerous age, corresponding to Spengler’s age of Caesarism and conquest. New power structures will form in collaboration with surviving elements of the old (Military and the Security Services etc.), and these international organizations, Caesars of the Postmodern West, will try for control not only over the Crypto/financial infrastructure, but production and resources as well, and at the same time they will be able to exert political and even military power to prey on the weakened Traditional Nationalists. Such a winner-take-all situation is likely to provoke violent conflict, although for the reasons mentioned earlier, I do not believe such resistance will be successful. It is much more likely that Traditional Nations cease to be sovereign, and an International world-power takes the stage.
At the risk of offense, the organized Jewish community should be mentioned. Historically there has been a Jewish tendency to exploit Western societies and the Liberal trend, and given their overwhelming role in politics and world finance, it is clear Jews will play a central role in the Crypto movement. They have already been heavily involved, a few prominent examples include Charles Hoskinson’s Ethereum and Cardano projects, Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, the colorful career of Charlie Shrem, and the Bancor Protocol headquartered in Tel Aviv. Ethnic Jews (Friedman, Rand, Caplan, Huemer, Rothbard) have authored the core Anarcho-Capitalist texts which have provided the inspiration for the Crypto movement, predominantly Jewish venture capital firms have backed countless projects and exchanges, and Blockstream itself is partially owned by AXA – whose CEO chairs the Bilderberg group. While it would be a stretch to claim that Crypto is a “Jewish” movement, it is absolutely crucial to understand the power of the organized Jewish community in modern finance. It is not “anti-semetic” to say that without this ethnic community and its influence, the Crypto movement would not be possible. Financiers from all over the world comprise international banking system, yet this small group of people within the greater Jewish community enjoys a special predominance worth taking seriously if only for historical reasons. Their movements should be taken as market signals of disproportionate strength.
At any rate, the powers that be in finance and in government will not sit idly, and it is a considerable task to predict the geopolitical order that will follow the collapse of the Westphalian Nations. As it stands, it seems likely that the order will be essentially Western, but much more globalized spatially. It is also likely that the groups currently in control of finance and the central banking order have planned for this eventuality, and have possibly even encouraged the progression. It cannot be seen as mere coincidence that the Crypto movement has become a darling of the mainstream media and intelligentsia. While we can only speculate, a one-world currency would be the perfect instrument of international finance as well as the ultimate bulwark against Nationalism. Even if the Crypto movement began as a coincident technological development, should disruption occur on a large scale it cannot remain so for long.
A great deal of the world is on the brink of economic, demographic, and moral collapse. Over time the modern Western ideal has been dissolved into a ghoulish Liberal fantasy: the realization of the “Sovereign Individual”, who is a dead man walking for one simple reason: without a traditional Nation-Statist order, flawed as it has become, a society of lone individuals is an easy target for domination and subversion by those seeking power. While decentralized currencies, contracts, and organizations themselves will cause conflict and massive wealth disparities, the greater threat comes in familiar form: Unrest and revolution in Nations which experience a degradation of their States. Such a vacuum of power will be ripe for exploitation, which will undoubtedly be seized upon in the aftermath. It must be said that there is something inherently sinister about tearing down the State, and there is no guarantee that this “liberation” will bring about a superior existence for global society. In fact, it is quite unclear as to how that would be the case, and rather clear how a more unequal scenario of conflict and/or elite subjugation might occur instead.
Calls to regulation ring hollow, as the technology is far too adaptive, and the cryptography too secure. There are tremendous incentives in favor of adoption, and powerful, motivated actors who will pursue those incentives. I have taken efforts here to explain the flawed concept of “Progress”, and the spiritual trends of Liberalism and Postmodernism, which are of paramount importance in this development. The world can only hold out for so long, and it is increasingly likely that we have passed the point of no return. It is wise to react accordingly and not attempt to stave off a tidal wave: by simply being prepared for the eventual end of traditional National sovereignty, fiat financial systems, and the upheaval toward a new geopolitical order.
Anathematic 