We are wards and slaves to the state.
Yes we are all slaves. All forced to work from dawn to dusk without pay, beaten and whipped for the smallest indiscretion by our draconian overlords, living a life of poverty and hunger and having our car GPS data recorded. Oh the humanity...
Now the little people, cryptographers, libertarians and online geeks, have actually managed to build up a decentralized payment infrastructure without government or corporate help. That's a damn impressive achievement,
Is it really? I mean most of this type of stuff is invented by the little people. Edison, Bell.. even Gates and Jobs were all little people when they started out. I'd be more impressed if something like happened with government involvement
The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.