Yes I agree. They are a powerful tool for limiting defection and promoting cooperation.

There are two ways to limit the fallout from a prisoners dilemma. The first and best way is to make the actors superrational instead of rational. This is very hard as it requires one to fundamentally elevate the nature of the participants as well as introduce verifiable mechanisms for the superrational to identify themselves to each other.

A simpler stopgap solution is to lock rational players into a metagame which alters short term decision making. In the case of the standard prisoners dilemma for example you could introduce the crime lord on the outside who punishes those who squeak.

The stopgap measures work for a time (sometimes a long time) but are vulnerable to being undermined as the fundamental problem (flawed participants) remains. In the case of the prisoners dilemma the crime lord may die or be arrested or a protection program may be offered.

Decentralized ledgers are the second stopgap type of solution. Self interest and greed are leveraged into support for an algorithm that introduces decentralized computational enforced transparency and verification. This limits the ability defect via abuse of seigniorage or debasement or forgery.

Stopgap measures can work but are vulnerable. In the case of a decentralized ledger the weakness is at the developer level where attempts can be made to seize control of the protocol via controlling future changes and updates. This is exactly where the attacks on bitcoin will and are occurring.

The world is not going to become superrational in the timeframe needed to deal with our imploding financial system. Thus stopgap measures are necessary. Fortunately it looks like decentralized ledgers are arriving just in time to provide the needed emergency relief.

The author of the linked article is on the right track this time. He seems to understand at some level the importance of moral progress. He also acknowledges some of the flaws of monarchy. With time and further consideration he may come to realize that monarchy is inferior overall to rule by republic it is moral progress that allows the progression from the former to the latter.

Rule by genuine consensus is superior still but we have not progressed enough to implement this.

Bitcoin is the first true rule by consensus system that has ever existed. It's a new and superior type of governance in addition to everything else it is.