> A lot of the blockchain enthusiasts are anarchists or libertarians. They assume society is already failing or on the verge of collapse.
You don't need to assume that to see obvious benefits of a blockchain. As long as there're stupid or evil people in society central authority systems like banks can fail, rob you or be hacked. Blockchain on the other hand is more reliable.
> central authority systems like banks can fail, rob you or be hacked. Blockchain on the other hand is more reliable.
The body of evidence to date suggests that you're much more likely to be robbed of your cryptocurrency through fraud or incompetence than you are to lose your traditional currency from a bank.
Furthermore, we've already seen examples of the "authorities" behind cryptocurrency executing a rollback to modify transactions they didn't like: https://www.coindesk.com/hard-fork-ethereum-dao/
I strongly dispute the notion that blockchain is more reliable. Maybe in some ideal universe where blockchain technology is not implemented and maintained by humans.
> The body of evidence to date suggests that you're much more likely to be robbed of your cryptocurrency through fraud or incompetence
Because the technology (right now? maybe we'll see cryptocurrencies built in hardware/os eventually) is for competent geeks, not that greedy people that store their bitcoins on exchange wallets (or use any central server). One has to ask oneself if the blockchain is more reliable for him, just as he does with other things like choosing doctors etc.
You don't need to assume that to see obvious benefits of a blockchain. As long as there're stupid or evil people in society central authority systems like banks can fail, rob you or be hacked. Blockchain on the other hand is more reliable.