Decent Infrastructure in an Authoritarian World

/ A1 /End Notes

/ 00 / Preface

  1. 1

    Statista, “The 100 largest companies in the world by market capitalization in 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)”, 2025. statista.com/statistics/263264. IMF, “World Economic Outlook”, 2024. imf.org/en/Publications/WEO.

  2. 2

    Cory Doctorow, “The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok”, Wired, January 2023. wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow.

  3. 3

    Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”, Andreessen Horowitz, 16 October 2023. a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto.

  4. 4

    Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska, The Technological Republic (Crown, 2025).

  5. 5

    “The Authoritarian Stack”, n.d. authoritarian-stack.info.

  6. 6

    Vitalik Buterin, post on X, 3 March 2026. x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2028913738057957433.

/ 01 / The Revolution that Wasn’t

  1. 7

    Loup Durand, Jaguar, English translation of Le Jaguar (1988).

  2. 8

    “Why this is the coldest crypto winter yet”, The Economist, 10 February 2026. economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/02/10/why-this-is-the-coldest-crypto-winter-yet.

  3. 9

    “ICOs have raised more than 20,000 million dollars since 2017”, Crypto Economy, 11 October 2018. crypto-economy.com/icos-raised-20000-million-dollars-since-2017/. Fabric Ventures and TokenData, “$6.3 Billion: 2018 ICO Funding Has Passed 2017’s Total”, 2018. coindesk.com/markets/2018/04/19/63-billion-2018-ico-funding-has-passed-2017s-total

  4. 10

    Satis Group, “Cryptoasset Market Coverage Initiation: Network Creation”, 2018. research.bloomberg.com/pub/res/d28giW28tf6G7T_Wr77aU0gDgFQ.

  5. 11

    TokenData, “Crowdsale Tracking”, 22 February 2018, via Bitcoin.com News. news.bitcoin.com/46-last-years-icos-failed-already/. Webisoft, “ICO Statistics”, 2025. web.archive.org/web/20250810101926/https://webisoft.com/articles/ico-statistics/.

  6. 12

    CoinGecko, “EOS Price and Historical Data”, accessed 2026. coingecko.com/en/coins/eos. CoinMarketCap, “EOS”, accessed 2026. coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eos.

  7. 13

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Telegram to Return $1.2 Billion to Investors and Pay $18.5 Million Penalty to Settle SEC Charges”, Press Release 2020-146, 26 June 2020. www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020-146.

  8. 14

    BlackRock, “iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT)”, accessed 2026. blackrock.com/us/financial-professionals/products/333011/ishares-bitcoin-trust.

  9. 15

    U.S. Congress, “GENIUS Act (S.1582), 119th Congress”, 2025. congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1582/text.

  10. 16

    McKinsey & Company, “Asset Management 2025: The Great Convergence”, 2025. mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/asset-management-2025-the-great-convergence. CoinGecko, “Global Cryptocurrency Market Cap”, accessed 2026. coingecko.com/en/charts.

  11. 17

    Bank of America, “Global Fund Manager Survey”, August 2025, via BeInCrypto. beincrypto.com/bank-of-america-survey-crypto.

  12. 18

    Charles Hoskinson, quoted in “Why this is the coldest crypto winter yet”, The Economist, 10 February 2026 (see note 8).

  13. 19

    Uniswap Labs, “Unsupported Token List”, accessed 2026. support.uniswap.org/hc/en-us/articles/18783818770701-Unsupported-Token-List. “Uniswap Labs front-end remains blocked in Ukraine, frustrating builders”, Blockworks, 13 October 2025. blockworks.co/news/uniswap-labs-blocked-ukraine.

  14. 20

    CoinGecko, “Filecoin Price and Historical Data”, accessed 2026. coingecko.com/en/coins/filecoin. CoinGecko, “Internet Computer Price and Historical Data”, accessed 2026. coingecko.com/en/coins/internet-computer.

/ 02 / The World Has Changed

  1. 21

    CyberArk, “2025 Identity Security Landscape”, 23 April 2025, via BusinessWire. www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250423817886/en/Machine-Identities-Outnumber-Humans-by-More-Than-80-to-1-New-Report-Exposes-the-Exponential-Threats-of-Fragmented-Identity-Security. Palo Alto Networks, “2026 Cybersecurity Predictions”, 2025. paloaltonetworks.com/cybersecurity-perspectives/2026-cyber-predictions.

  2. 22

    Jillian Mascelli and Megan Rodden, “‘Harvest Now Decrypt Later’: Examining Post-Quantum Cryptography and the Data Privacy Risks for Distributed Ledger Networks”, Federal Reserve FEDS Working Paper 2025-093, September 2025. federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2025093pap.pdf.

  3. 23

    European Union, “Artificial Intelligence Act, Article 99 (Penalties)”, 2024. artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/99. European Parliament and Council, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026 (Digital Omnibus on AI), Official Journal L, 24 July 2026. eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj/eng.

  4. 24

    European Securities and Markets Authority, “Statement on the end of transitional periods under MiCA”, April 2026. esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2026-04/ESMA75-113276571-1679_Statement_on_the_end_of_transitional_periods_under_MiCA.pdf.

  5. 25

    “Crypto Clarity Act flames out in failed U.S. Senate vote”, CoinDesk, 15 September 2026. www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/15/crypto-clarity-act-flames-out-in-failed-u-s-senate-vote.

  6. 26

    “France Orders All Government Ministries to Ditch Windows for Linux in Digital Sovereignty Push”, The Next Web, April 2026. thenextweb.com/news/france-linux-windows-migration-digital-sovereignty. “French State Ditches US Tech Over Data-Grab Fears”, Brussels Signal, April 2026. brusselssignal.eu/2026/04/french-state-ditches-us-tech-over-data-grab-fears.

  7. 27

    “Hurray! This German State Decides to Save €15 Million Each Year By Kicking Out Microsoft for Open Source”, It’s FOSS, 2025. itsfoss.com/news/german-state-ditch-microsoft.

  8. 28

    The Document Foundation, “Austria’s Military Switches from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice”, 30 September 2025. blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/09/30/austrias-military-switches-from-microsoft-office-to-libreoffice.

  9. 29

    European Commission, “Commission Proposes Tech Sovereignty Package to Strengthen Europe’s Digital Autonomy and Resilience”, 3 June 2026. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-proposes-tech-sovereignty-package-strengthen-europes-digital-autonomy-and-resilience.

  10. 30

    epicenter.works, “Five Problems the Commission Must Fix in the EU Wallet”, accessed 2026. epicenter.works/en/content/five-problems-the-commission-must-fix-in-the-eu-wallet. European Digital Rights (EDRi), “The eID Wallet Still Doesn’t Deserve Your Full Trust”, accessed 2026. edri.org/our-work/the-eid-wallet-still-doesnt-deserve-your-full-trust.

  11. 31

    “ANTS Hack: 19 Million Records Exposed in French ID Agency Breach”, Cybernews, April 2026. cybernews.com/security/ants-hack-france-19-million-records-id-agency-breach. “France Confirms Data Breach at Government Agency That Manages Citizens’ IDs”, TechCrunch, 22 April 2026. techcrunch.com/2026/04/22/france-confirms-data-breach-at-government-agency-that-manages-citizens-ids.

  12. 32

    Statista, “Artificial Intelligence — Worldwide Market Forecast”, 2025. statista.com/outlook/tmo/artificial-intelligence/worldwide.

  13. 33

    Confidencial, “2025’s Defining Moments: Why Data Security Stopped Being About the Perimeter”, December 2025. confidencial.io/post/2025-data-security-rethinking-perimeter-control.

/ 03 / What Money Is For

  1. 34

    Bernard Lietaer, The Future of Money (Random House, 2001).

  2. 35

    E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (Blond & Briggs, 1973).

  3. 36

    Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, 1990).

  4. 37

    Arthur Brock, “Metacurrency” and the “Levels of Wealth” / Deep Wealth model. artbrock.com/metacurrency.

  5. 38

    James Stodder, “Complementary Credit Networks and Macroeconomic Stability: Switzerland’s Wirtschaftsring”, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 72, no. 1 (2009): 79–95.

  6. 39

    Ralph Borsodi and Robert Swann, Inflation and the Coming Keynesian Catastrophe: The Story of the Exeter Experiments with Constants (Schumacher Center for a New Economics).

  7. 40

    Schumacher Center for a New Economics (founded 1980 by Robert Swann as the E.F. Schumacher Society). centerforneweconomics.org. BerkShares, the local currency circulating in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, since 2006. berkshares.org.

  8. 41

    John Maynard Keynes, “Proposals for an International Clearing Union” (1942–44).

/ 05 / The Stack

  1. 42

    Arthur Brock, “Blockchain Blind Spots”, Medium, 31 March 2018. medium.com/@artbrock/blockchain-blind-spots-1904d490218d.

  2. 43

    Open Source Initiative, “Cryptographic Autonomy License v1.0 (CAL-1.0)”, n.d. opensource.org/license/cal-1-0.

  3. 44

    Least Authority, “Audit of Holochain Lair Keystore”, 15 December 2022. leastauthority.com/blog/audits/audit-of-holochain-lair-keystore. Least Authority, “Audit of Holochain Deterministic Integrity”, 26 January 2023. leastauthority.com/blog/audit-of-holochain-deterministic-integrity-crate/.

  4. 45

    Akash Network, “The Rise of Decentralized Compute”, n.d. akash.network/blog/the-rise-of-decentralized-compute.

  5. 46

    “Decentralized GPU Cost Arbitrage: AWS at $514 vs Akash at $84 Weekly”, Coinposters, 17 February 2026. coinposters.com/news/decentralized-gpu-cost-arbitrage-aws-at-514-vs-akash-at-84-weekly.

  6. 47

    “Cloud Pricing Wars 2025: AWS, Azure, GCP Cost Comparison”, ByteIota, 2025. byteiota.com/cloud-pricing-wars-2025-aws-azure-gcp-cost-comparison. Gartner, “Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Total $723 Billion in 2025”, 19 November 2024. www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-11-19-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-total-723-billion-dollars-in-2025.

  7. 48

    Unyt, “Unveiling Unyt Smart Agreements”, 2025. unyt.co/blog/unveiling-unyt-smart-agreements.

  8. 49

    Unyt blog posts, accessed 2026. unyt.co/blog.

/ 08 / HOT and the Bridge

  1. 50

    Polygon Developer Documentation, “POL”, accessed 2026. docs.polygon.technology/pos/concepts/tokens/pol.

  2. 51

    Polygon Labs, “MATIC to POL Migration Is 99% Complete: What You Need to Know”, 3 September 2025. polygon.technology/blog/matic-to-pol-migration-is-99-complete-everything-you-need-to-know.

/ 09 / Structured Against Capture

  1. 52

    OpenAI, “Evolving OpenAI’s Structure”, 5 May 2025. openai.com/index/evolving-our-structure. “OpenAI just cut a deal with California. Critics say it’s full of holes”, CalMatters, 30 October 2025. calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/10/openai-restructuring-deal-full-of-holes-critics-say.

/ 10 / Our Collective Promise

  1. 53

    James Madison, “Speech on the Judicial Powers of the National Government”, Virginia Ratifying Convention, 20 June 1788, Founders Online, National Archives. founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-11-02-0101.

  2. 54

    Cory Doctorow, Walkaway (Tor Books, 2017).

Technical documentation and resources