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# Summary
## Claim Steel-Manned
## Claim steel-manned
### Subclaim 1: A state-resistant transnational payment rail is desirable
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---
# Full Analysis
# Full analysis
## Steel-Man
## Claims steel-manned
* Not everyone lives in a stable liberal democracy. Sometimes it’s necessary to violate laws, when laws are unjust or regimes are corrupt. In such circumstances, Bitcoin can be used as a safe haven for one’s investments or a shield against government tyranny.
* Nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience have some very notable success stories and are an important part of the arc of “moral universe bending towards justice”:
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[^1]: More examples in e.g. here https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1529084598268968962 though note connection with crypto-advocate Alex Gladstein.
## Analysis
#### 2 preliminary principles to be noted:
## 2 preliminary principles to be noted:
* Any tool has to be evaluated on its actual and potential benefit and harm.
* Asbestos (bury it), DDT (some uses), Internet (good clearly outweighs harms)
* You can’t solve people problems with technology solutions, especially problems related to (state) power (at best, they help a bit, at worst they distract us from the real work that needs doing).
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* Cryptography does not “solve” oppressive regime problem. At best, crypto helps you during a period of resistance and effort to change the overall regime. The vision of (old-school) crypto-libertarians is mistaken – we still need a “good” state.
* See: [The Best Defense Against Rubber-Hose Cryptanalysis](https://onezero.medium.com/rubber-hoses-fd685385dcd4) ; https://xkcd.com/538/
#### Evaluation:
## Evaluation:
* **For every one Alexandra Elbakyan or Edward Snowden there are a thousand arms dealers, cartels, and warlords who would also use crypto for far less benign purposes.**
* Even if you have an optimistic view of the human condition, we live in a world of scarcity with vast Malthusian struggle that pushes people into mind states of violence and crime out of desperation (North Korea, etc).
* **Cross-border Illicit financing enables many undesirable things in this world.**