In 2013, Vitalik Buterin released the Ethereum Whitepaper, describing a “Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform” that was also termed a “world computer.” A year later, US$18.4 million was raised by Buterin in an ICO, and by January 2018 the market cap of Ethereum climbed to a staggering $100 billion. This meteoric rise has as much to do with philosophy as it does with technology. Ethereum has captured the imagination of an emerging class of crypto-natives, looking to redistribute power away from centralized organizations. The platform became the driving…