[easong]

While the cryptocurrency conversation online is dominated by right-libertarians, I think you'll find that a lot of hard/radical leftwing direct-action types are very much obsessed with cryptocurrency and structures like the DAO. I personally don't look at the cryptocurrency scene/DAO with anything more than bemusement, but I think that community is often presented in a very unpleasant light (look at the weird nerds!).

A more charitable stereotype might be that cryptocurrencies and automated contracts appeal to anyone who thinks that they can design (through their technical expertise) a better world than the current political elites. I'm not saying that they're right or that their line of thought hasn't been historically responsible for atrocities, but I don't think it's fair to paint them as sociopaths.

[danharaj]

Certainly didn't mean to imply that you have to be a sociopath to like cryptocurrency! That would be unfair and ridiculous. I think it's more like an allergy to what one considers politics.

The benefits of cryptocurrency i've seen argued for in left libertarian circles don't propose some narrative where it supplants the current structures of government. I think a lot of leftists would reason (certainly, I reason this way) that cryptocurrency's much touted benefits are in conflict with capitalism and could not support capitalism at all. This is at odds with the right libertarian ambitions for the technology: right libertarians love capitalism and the crypto enthusiasts on that side of the spectrum think it would be great for capitalism! It's a fundamental disagreement. I've heard about bitcoin being used to great effect by left wing insurgencies like Rojava. It is useful in its current form as a subversive means of transmitting resources.

I'm not familiar with the left wing arguments for cryptocurrency as a transformative tool for structuring new societies. It sounds like technocracy and vanguardism and, well, we know how that's played out.