Although crypto money and quantum computing do not represent the principal interest of The Order of Freedom, they sneaked in almost by chance. They emerged as they represented an essential part of my-self and were pushed forward by my will.

Decentralization was the last one, focusing on the most critical value related to individual freedoms: freedom does not come free of charge.

Then, I wrote about an option that crypto-currencies develop into, not money, but a kind of jewelry. Such an extreme position forces us to think about values, and most importantly, the not-yet-clearly-understood reality of the crypto-world. So it should not come as a surprise that I do not only connect von Mises to the issue of values but also to life itself.

On the other side of the title of this post is the most mysterious concept of contemporary physics: quantum. I deliberately used »mysterious«because it opens the science to ancient teachings of Buddhism, Plato, mysticism, and occultism, as touched on in the post that tried to connect various physical dimensions.

Quantum Money and Bitcoin

After Google announced its first proper quantum computer and knowing of enormous intellectual and financial capital invested in quantum computing by Amazon and other competitors, it became inevitable to reflect on the marriage between crypto-currencies and quantum computing. But at the moment when I started to conceptualize this severe issue for myself, being neither a computer nor a crypto expert, I stumbled upon the article that relieved me from the pain. Quantum Money and Bitcoin article rationally explains what is going on within the most crucial domain of every decentralized system: security. The message of this article is that safety is never a final stage of any system but something that has to be balanced all the time. Even more critical is that security always happens in a decentralized way.

Quantum Safety

The notion that there has to be a centralized authority, the state and state institutions, that provide safety for citizens/individuals/private entities is revealed as the most malignant feature of contemporary political science and folk psychology. Such a notion confuses the value system with security. Value systems represented through myths (collective and personal), and laws are the foundation of safety but not safety itself. Safety is always individualized in real-time and concrete space. While myths are decentralized and lows are, by definition, centrally/collectively organized, security comes as a result of particular actions of particular agents determined by the time-space paradigm.

Quantum Money and Bitcoin, though not explicitly, shows us how time-space vibrates, thus forcing us to balance actions and counter-actions. Quantum computing, with its enormous computing power, threatens to break down the encryptions of Bitcoin on one side but opens up new encoding options that will make decentralized systems even more resilient and robust. And all this is happening entirely outside the state’s control (1). It might happen sometime in the future that we will not need the state even for internal and external safety anymore. (2)

No Central Safety Authority Needed

But does this not mean that large corporations like Google are slowly taking the place of the state? Do not even worse agents than the state replace those that will safeguard us?

No. The catch lies not in blockchain but in quantum computing.  The quantum world transcends any centrally governed ability. Centrality in the quantum world is impossible in principle. Google and other agents will develop quantum computing powers but cannot govern them centrally. This is the crucial difference to standard computers and blockchains, which are still only machines in the almost total control of particular agents.

But does this mean that a kind of artificial intelligence will take such central authority and rule over humanity?

No, as proved in the post Did AI of Tai really fail, as well as many others on this blog.

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(1) I wrote this post in 2019. By the end of 2024, with the unprecedented growth of crony capitalism or a better rate of interventionism worldwide, we are clearly heading into Orwellian dystopia. It is not a question of whether the state will take over digital money but how and with what consequences. I’m sure the period of decentralized digital money is over. What I’m not sure about is how state-controlled digital money complies with blockchain technology. 

(2) Wishful thinking, yet theoretically possible.