b'Which is it? Anonymous and untraceable? Or at risk of being perverted into a cryptologically enforced fascism? 16Blockchain technology is hard for most of us to understand, which is a particular drawback when one of the things we need, in an increas-ingly Orwellian world, is clarity and transparency. It seems odd that something celebrated for ushering in a new age of financial trust and peer-to-peer networking would be the progeny of a person or persons whose identity is shrouded in secrecy. 17Extreme financial speculation, on the one hand, and irrationally exuberant techno-utopianism, on the other, plague bitcoin. Which is not entirely unlike the range of responses elicited by the prospect of Mars travel. We dont want the adventure of traveling to Mars to distract us from taking care of one another right here on earth. We dont want the allure of cryptocurrency to distract us from the trust that is ours to build directly and locally. Now that weve demonstrated the sapiens to head to Mars and to invent blockchain, we must also demonstrate the philios to invest our earthly inheritance with new levels of compassion, goodwill and care.16 The White Paper, by Satoshi Nakamoto (Ignota, 2019), pp. xx-xxi17 https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminpirus/2020/05/30/internet-pioneer-argues-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-na-kamoto-is-this-obscure-mathematician/#7937dc682eb5108'