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@ Globe99
2025-05-14 03:19:09Since World War II, America has doubled down on the Car and the Jetplane as the primary mode of short- and long-range transportation respectively. The construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950's was ostensibly for civil and economic purposes, however the military applications of being able to move large numbers of soldiers and war material across the vast distance of the US mainland were not lost on the planners of the system. The development of civilian air travel industry followed a similar rationale, to promote a viable industrial base of aerospace manufacturers who could be easily re-tasked for war should the need arise.
Now in the 21st century we frequently forget these facts and provide convenient ex-post-facto justifications for why we drive and fly everywhere. "It's just more convenient... It must be that the market naturally arrived at this solution!"
Not quite. As a vast array of literature from academics like the late Donald Shoup has shown in works like The High Cost of Free Parking, American cities and suburbs were designed (in many cases, top-down, by fiat) around cars. And in turn, most Americans have designed their lives around cars, in such a way that they couldn't imagine living without their own personal 2-ton transportation machine in their garage.
But here I wanted to ask: What form of transportation actually aligns with the core values expressed in Bitcoin? What is most anonymous, permission-less, and decentralized form of mobility technology?
Breakdown of Mobility Modes
Here I will argue, perhaps counter-intuitively, that it's not the car. The following table is an entirely subjective, but I believe nonetheless reasonable, breakdown of 7 of the most commonly used modes of mobility in the developed world across three core values that I believe are expressed in Bitcoin culture:
| Mode | Range | Scheduled? | Anonymous? | Permission Level | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Walking | ~1 mi | No ✅| Yes ✅| None ✅| | Cycling | ~5 mi | No ✅| Yes ✅| None ✅| | E-Mobility | ~15 mi | No ✅| Yes ✅| None ✅| | Local Transit | ~25 mi | Maybe 🚧| Yes ✅| Low 🚧| | Driving | ~300 mi | No ✅| No 🛑| High 🛑| | Intercity Rail | ~1000 mi | Yes 🛑| Yes ✅| Low 🚧| | Passenger Jet | ~8000 mi | Yes 🛑| No 🛑| High 🛑|
My explanations for each category are below:
Scheduling: Go Anytime
To many, this is a core component of what they think of as "freedom" in mobility. This is the attraction to many of the car: go anytime.
However, it's important to note that this attribute is shared with walking, biking, and e-mobility. And, it should be mentioned, better public transit systems that have low headways (i.e. time between trains and buses) approach "go anytime" methods of travel. If you're only waiting ~5-10 minutes for the next bus or train, this becomes functionally equivalent to the "go anytime" convenience of cars, especially if one factors in traffic, parking, & etc.
Longer-distance travel, planes and trains, will obviously require some aspect of scheduling in advance.
Anonymity
What forms of transportation allow you to travel anonymously? Well, we can clearly strike cars and planes off that list. Car travel requires both you and your vehicle to be registered with the state. You literally carry a visible ID (license plate) with you every time you leave the house. Can you imagine having to strap a number to your back every time you walk out of the house? And things only get more stringent when stepping on a plane, especially with the implementation of RealID nationwide.
In contrast, police overreach notwithstanding, nobody is asking for your ID for simply walking on the sidewalk, biking or e-mobility. Neither do bikes or e-scooter devices generally need to be registered (although it's a good idea to use private registries for your bike in case it gets stolen).
Even intra- and inter-city rail systems generally allow for payments in cash, thus allowing for anonymous travel using these means. They certainly aren't checking ID's by default.
So we see that on anonymity, any means of transport other than cars or planes are superior.
Permissioned vs Permissionless Movement
Here again, Cars and Planes are clearly inferior to all other forms described. As we're all told in high school Driver's Ed, "driving is a privilege, not a right." The nature of car and plane travel is inherently subsidized, regulated, monitored, and most importantly permissioned by the State.
It's almost sad from a libertarian perspective to see how much "faux-individuality" is expressed by American car culture. We deck out our cars with custom decals, detail the interiors, and see them as some expression of our individuality and personal freedom. Meanwhile, practically every aspect of car travel, from the size and shape of the vehicles, the size and markings of roads, the guarantee (or at least reasonable expectation) that there will be available parking at both points of your journey... it's all a product of decades of subsidies, regulation, and Technocracy.
But I digress. No permission is needed to walk or ride a bike. And, assuming you pay your fare and are not violating the code of conduct, your permission to use public transit is assumed by default, rather than you needing to prove it, as is the case for both driving and flying.
Conclusion
Here I'm attempting to take stock of values that are important to many bitcoiners, as I perceive them (us?) as a group: Freedom, anonymity, and permissionless action. I've argued here that, applying these values to the mobility space, bitcoiners should focus on a combination of walking, biking, e-mobility, public transit, and trains over cars and air travel, as the former methods maximize these values over the latter.
I expect (if anyone's even reading this) there to be some cultural shock; the "modal" bitcoiner as I perceive them, much like the average libertarian, skews to the Right culturally (if not politically). And that might mean you're thinking "you'll pry my cold dead fingers off my F-150's steering wheel!" Or, maybe you're making (entirely reasonable) complaints: "But (bus system in my area) is non-existent or underfunded! But (street network in my area) doesn't even have sidewalks!"
All I'm saying is: convenience comes with a cost. You know what's convenient? The fiat system. Paying with your credit card. Driving everywhere. Freedom, like Bitcoin (heck like Nostr) is, at least for now, inconvenient. It takes effort to unlearn what you've learned, as Yoda put it. But the reward is a more free life.