I think the brain drain idea is fine. Making a goldbug argument is surprisingly regressive. Currency is a socially constructed phenomenon in all times and places, and gold is only special in that at this moment, reverting to it would cause a violent reset to the balance sheet - a temporary, painful fix.
The progressive option would be to deeply question "what lies beyond trade?" and to search for answers beyond the conventional regulated/unregulated spectrum, answers that are compatible in some degree with our starting place but allow broad movement. We know what trade is and does, but the economies it produces are no match for the hivemind efficacy of an ants or beavers. The frameworks of trade are negotiated around maintenance of fiefdoms, and economic activity is regularly blocked because the power structure will push against it and normalize "we can't have that here".
At the same time, we know that power needs checks and balances, and the capitalist mode of power creates some checks on power through its use of trade. That is what has kept it ahead of command economies.
What I find appealing about continuing down a crypto-oriented route is that it's a data structure with a balance sheet as a frontend. The frontend can change - it is a thing that can be experimented with. Valorizing the numbers on the balance sheet as gold-equivalent has always been an adaptive, "this is the only way we know how to do things" kind of social construction. If we can construct a different kind of game to play, the motives can shift.
The progressive option would be to deeply question "what lies beyond trade?" and to search for answers beyond the conventional regulated/unregulated spectrum, answers that are compatible in some degree with our starting place but allow broad movement. We know what trade is and does, but the economies it produces are no match for the hivemind efficacy of an ants or beavers. The frameworks of trade are negotiated around maintenance of fiefdoms, and economic activity is regularly blocked because the power structure will push against it and normalize "we can't have that here".
At the same time, we know that power needs checks and balances, and the capitalist mode of power creates some checks on power through its use of trade. That is what has kept it ahead of command economies.
What I find appealing about continuing down a crypto-oriented route is that it's a data structure with a balance sheet as a frontend. The frontend can change - it is a thing that can be experimented with. Valorizing the numbers on the balance sheet as gold-equivalent has always been an adaptive, "this is the only way we know how to do things" kind of social construction. If we can construct a different kind of game to play, the motives can shift.