This Freakonomics episode changed my mind. And that’s not something I say often about Freakonomics.

I think actually what it did is lower my expectations. BitCoin, or something like it, seems like it’ll live on — or at least *should* live on — because it removes the credit-card intermediaries. The show brings up a really good example: immigrant communities who send remittances back to their families every month are often paying extortionate fees to do so, and they’re the last people who can afford such fees. Removing the intermediaries, so that I can send you money without any transaction overhead, is a good thing. And the euthanasia of the rentier is something strongly to be desired.

Note what this *isn’t* saying — note what *isn’t* relevant here. BitCoins *as a currency* are not the important thing, necessarily. You can divorce BitCoins from the libertarian fever dreams of a Federal Reserve-free world.

You can also abstract away from BitCoin itself. Whether BitCoin survives is irrelevant; what you should want is for decentralized transaction-processing services to persist.

Go listen to the podcast. It’s a good one.