Of course this will catch a lot of people off guard. Some combination of DACs, distributed contracts, software, non-BTC asset transfers and higher protocol layers will render more trusted third-party intermediaries of the paleoeconomy (and their handlers) irrelevant. Large portions of the economy invested in centralized stock and bond exchanges, asset and derivatives markets, and even legal provision could become redundant sooner than many know. Should these ventures succeed, the Bitcoin community will face another round of public scrutiny and pressures to justify or amend their existence. Someday, they might be able to just ignore them. The implications are unclear but uncomfortable.

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