Crypto's Three Body Problem

Crypto protocols resist censorship and also resist the law, which leaves their governance to three forces (software architecture, markets, and social norms) that act without a unifying arbiter. The article argues this creates what it calls crypto's "three-body regulatory problem," where protocol designers' intentions can be undermined and governance policies can contradict one another. It cites Lessig's 1998 model of four regulatory forces (law, markets, norms and architecture) as the framework for this claim. It also points to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, where the state can guarantee deposits, while a hacked protocol leaves users losing their money unless an overwhelming majority forks to restore funds.