Alix, I don’t disagree with the value these types of projects can bring. However, I think you’re downplaying the ramifications of these so-called “dumb nodes” and totally missing the big picture. The protocols we use to connect hosts on a network were also comparatively simple, and yet we’ve built the entire internet on that simple foundation. Likewise for all the other web standards we take for granted. Nowhere did we start with the idea of a massively distributed resilient network, it emerged spontaneously as a consequence of simple addition. You seem to ignore the fact we’re already perfectly capable of making intelligent and even superintelligent use of new technologies.

What we didn't have prior to Ethereum was a way of organizing our existing tools into an ecosystem of decentralized consensus-making applications with real economic power behind it. All we had before was BitTorrent and cryptocurrencies; file-sharing and monetary value outside the control of governments and big business. The game is changing now. This is the first time in generations we actually have the tools to destabilize existing powers, completely and without violence, but only if we’re awake enough to seize the opportunity. So yeah, I’m fairly persuaded and morally invested in the possibility that Ethereum (or something very much like it) IS this opportunity. To my knowledge, nothing in the Ethereum code will give anyone exclusive control over the technology, as it’s entirely open-ended and democratic.  

America and its imitators were merely the first Great Experiment in contractual statecraft, one dominated by a plutocratic and increasingly self-destructive elite. We can’t physically oppose these people, they have a monopoly on force, they've taken our weapons, turned us into indolent docile consumers, and left us completely despondent over the fate of the planet. It’s time to snap out of the trance they've put us under and recognize the tables have turned. If the Occupy movement taught us anything it’s that aimless protesting in the streets and faux-democracy aren't going to save us. I know this probably sounds surreal and kooky, but we need to stage a bloodless revolution. It’s our turn to re-imagine the world as we believe it should be, not as they say it must be. The future is now and we can literally do this if we all work together.