I see this and bitcoin as attempts at Balkanization, due to the failures of US conservative & neo-liberal economic policy since the early 70's onward. I see bitcoin as a Chinese state scam, a structured, self-funding via hardware manufacturing, attack on NATO policy that outgrew its britches and now serves as a global-warming-causing lunar-magic-gold reserve. Since there aren't any cheap new frontiers, you see things like "Time Credits." This means that undeserved communities are inventing their own tribal states because the larger state isn't meeting their needs. These generally aren't good things because more cohesive societies tend to exist longer.