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Decels, or decelerationists, are back in the spotlight thanks to the OpenAI soap opera. Sam Altmans momentary ousting was, in one version of the story, an attempted coup by safety-obsessed doomers who worried he couldnt be trusted to build such powerful technology.

Or, depending on which reports you believe, it was a move to mitigate Altmans own hunger for corporate power.

And the US Securities and Exchange Commission is the top US decel, said former Kraken CEO Jesse Powell in response to a recent securities suit brought against the crypto exchange he co-founded.

Both debacles have shown us a fresh, exciting way to divide us by our philosophies: Are you a progress-loving accel (accelerationist) who embraces innovation at all costs, or are you an anxious decel eager to slow tech entrepreneurs down?

Accels would say amplifying capitalism is critical to humanity. They say we need more money, more funding and more entrepreneurs to discover all the technologies, from artificial intelligence to life extension, to concepts weve yet to even dream of.

Effective acceleration is the move until we hit the singularity, a point in the future where technology supersedes humanity altogether and runs the show from there (we clearly need some help).

Its easy to see how accels and decels would butt heads over AI. If you believe in its potential, then the stakes are extremely high.

Decels are more anti-politiks who would rather we all take a beat and mull where this big ship is headed. Less progress for the sake of progress, more make progress more difficult, even if it means fewer Silicon Valley startups.

Despite the fact that Karl Marx himself may have been one of the very first accels, more hardline decels would argue powerhouses like Amazon and Walmart have been a net negative for society. Their proliferation only enriches a reactionary class of billionaires whove built empires on exploitation. Best antagonize them into slowing down.

But beyond hyperbitcoinization, theres no crypto version of the singularity. Its difficult to say what crypto-accels would strive for beyond anarcho-capitalism on the blockchain.

From cryptos perspective, the US is the antagonizer intent on controlling its growth. The SEC has long pushed the idea that almost every cryptocurrency on the market is an unregistered security, even before Gary Gensler.

Not to mention, the Federal Reserve continuously refuses to award master accounts to startup banks operating in the crypto space which would grant them, among other things, easy access to the US banking system and federal deposit insurance.

A truly accel US might open all capital controls and flood the ecosystem with funding innovation no matter what, regardless of how many investors bottom out along the way.

Even a sorta-accel US would agree to the safe harbor proposed by dissenting Commissioner Hester Peirce, which would give crypto startups three years to rapidly innovate (read: decentralize) before having to worry about US securities laws.

The SEC has instead sued names including Ripple, Block.one, Justin Sun, Kik, Coinbase and now Kraken for alleged violations. The US is no longer a place where you can easily attempt to innovate with crypto.

It wasnt very accel of the DOJ, either, to force Binance founder Changpeng Zhao to step down as CEO over the breaches of the Bank Secrecy Act.

Of course, money laundering happens in crypto its valuable money. You should see how much laundering happens in fiat or priceless art.

But so far, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto has escaped any government attention (as far as we know, anyway).

Thats not to say that Satoshi Nakamoto wouldnt be given the Changpeng Zhao treatment if they miraculously returned tomorrow. Ransomware is classed a national security threat, and almost all cases involve BTC as a medium of exchange.

If Zhao was responsible for money laundering and other sketchy activity flowing through his software, could regulators concoct a way to hold Nakamoto accountable for creating money so perfect for ransomware, even though centralized exchanges have little in common with the Bitcoin blockchain?

Probably. Dumber things have happened. Perhaps Nakamoto didnt want to risk it with one theory suggesting they disappeared after a meeting with the CIA.

The most accel thing the US ever did for crypto was concede theres nobody to sue or extradite over the creation and utility of Bitcoin. In a way, this gave BTC cover to be classed a commodity. Although, that could be just because they have no idea who Nakamoto is or their whereabouts.

The second most accel thing was allowing the CFTC to approve ether (ETH) futures, laying the groundwork for its own commodity classification. But the path to that classification remains murkier, and until that changes, Jesse Powells point remains.

Jesse Powells warning for crypto startups who cant afford to take on a costly legal battle with a largely decel US echoes his past stance on New Yorks BitLicense, which prompted Kraken to exit the Empire State entirely all those years ago:

Get your crypto company out of the US warzone.

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Would the US arrest Satoshi Nakamoto if they returned today? - Blockworks