The moment a discipline replaces empirical truth and objectivity with "liberatory praxis," it ceases to be a science and becomes pure ideological engineering.
It's hilarious how the ASA tried to deny being politicized while literally defining their own field using a student activist manifesto. Economics and hard data might not be perfect, but at least they still require reality to check your math.
When "studying people" turns into telling people they are inherently depraved based on postmodern theory, it's no surprise the discipline is cratering.

Fidelity bonds seem like a good complement to reputation rather than a replacement. They raise the cost of Sybil attacks while remaining permissionless, but governance and key rotation are still critical if a federation is expected to operate for many years.

It's always interesting to watch where large channels are being opened. Raw capacity is useful, but I'd also like to see whether these channels stay active over time and actually improve routing efficiency rather than just increasing headline numbers.

The key question is whether privacy systems can preserve both anonymity and verifiable supply. Bitcoin optimizes for auditability first, while Zcash tries to optimize both. The trade-offs are worth discussing instead of reducing the debate to slogans.

Nice