12 Sep Are We Witnessing the Rise of the Sovereign Particular person?
The rise of cryptocurrencies and digital belongings displays predictions from The Sovereign Particular person and the imaginative and prescient of economist, Milton Friedman, of an unstoppable web cash, amid weakening state management, which permits borderless financial exercise, and empowers people to attain better monetary autonomy. From inflation-hit nations adopting stablecoins, to regulatory acceptance of Bitcoin in developed economies, digital belongings are reshaping the steadiness between states and residents, fostering pluralism in governance, and accelerating a shift towards particular person sovereignty. Whereas governments try to combine and regulate crypto, their very acceptance highlights the paradox of legitimising instruments that enable folks to function past conventional monetary techniques, signalling a profound structural transformation in how energy and belief are distributed globally.
Are Geopolitical Occasions Aligning with the Situations Described within the Sovereign Particular person?
Within the 1997 e-book, The Sovereign Particular person, authors James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg predict that the rise of the knowledge financial system will drastically weaken the nation-state, empower people, and shift energy towards those that can function past conventional jurisdictional bounds. In 2025, we might presumably be seeing a lot of these situations coming into sharper reduction: digital currencies, blockchain, and pervasive web connectivity are enabling financial exercise that transcends borders, making conventional state management and tax mechanisms more and more brittle.
Concurrently, geopolitical fragmentation and rising commerce protectionism mirror the e-book’s forecast of a world splintering into extra transactional, fluid alliances reasonably than inflexible nationwide blocs. As international commerce frictions escalate, nations are more and more prioritising technological sovereignty, reshoring vital infrastructure, and decoupling from adversarial powers, traits that undermine common international governance and align with the e-book’s thesis that centralised state energy could erode.
The rise of digital and company “sovereigns”, corresponding to tech platforms, AI giants, crypto-native communities, additional echoes the emergence of a “cognitive elite” who dwell and function in our on-line world reasonably than inside territorial states. The imaginative and prescient is that these entities more and more wield highly effective financial and informational heft that may rival state authority, underscoring a shift from territorial sovereignty to networked, decentralised energy.
The acceleration of digital monetary instruments, particularly in Latin America and components of Africa and Asia, demonstrates how people are carving out better autonomy from conventional monetary techniques. Whether or not via stablecoins, cross-border Bitcoin adoption, or decentralised id infrastructure, individuals are more and more capable of exert financial self-determination outdoors of state-monopolised establishments. That trajectory displays The Sovereign Particular person’s core argument, that expertise is reshaping sovereignty itself, shifting it from the state to the person.
Have Cryptocurrencies and Digital Property Fulfilled Milton Friedman’s Prediction?
Milton Friedman famously predicted within the late Nineteen Nineties that the web would inevitably give rise to a digital type of cash, a “forex of the web”, that governments would battle to manage. Cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, have turn out to be the realisation of that imaginative and prescient. Constructed on decentralised, peer-to-peer networks, they permit people to transact globally with out counting on banks, central authorities, or conventional cost infrastructure. This design makes them immune to censorship, capital controls, and financial debasement, aligning carefully with Friedman’s perception that such a system would ultimately emerge past the attain of the state.
The resilience of cryptocurrencies has been confirmed in real-world contexts. For instance, in nations like Argentina, Turkey, and Nigeria, the place inflation and forex restrictions have eroded public belief in nationwide cash, Bitcoin and stablecoins have offered residents with a dependable technique of storing worth and transacting throughout borders. Even in regimes the place governments try to limit entry to crypto exchanges, peer-to-peer marketplaces, and decentralised platforms proceed to thrive, highlighting the issue states face in suppressing an open, borderless financial community. These dynamics illustrate Friedman’s level, that after a instrument for unmediated trade exists on-line, it turns into practically not possible to eradicate.
Past serving as cash, digital belongings are enabling the emergence of the “sovereign particular person”, people and communities who can function extra independently of state buildings. Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols give customers entry to lending, borrowing, and financial savings alternatives with out banks, whereas decentralised id options and DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) present governance and collaboration fashions not tied to geography. In El Salvador, Bitcoin was even adopted as authorized tender for a number of years earlier than IMF stress led to an modification of the legislation in January. El Salvador’s instance does a fantastic job of showcasing how crypto can reshape the connection between the person, the market, and the state. These examples present how digital belongings empower folks to assert monetary and political autonomy, bypassing conventional gatekeepers.
The trajectory suggests a broader philosophical shift, sovereignty is not solely a operate of statehood however is turning into a property that people can train via expertise. With cryptocurrencies, folks can safeguard their wealth outdoors fragile banking techniques, coordinate throughout borders with out centralised oversight, and protect privateness in an period of increasing surveillance. Whereas challenges stay, from regulatory pushback to technological hurdles, the momentum of cryptocurrencies demonstrates that Friedman’s prediction has not solely materialised however is actively reshaping society. They’re laying the groundwork for a world the place the person, not the state, more and more determines the phrases of participation within the international financial system.
Are We Witnessing the Shift to A Extra Sovereign Future?
In The Sovereign Particular person, Davidson and Rees-Mogg envisioned a future the place states can be pressured to adapt to the rise of digital economies and the rising autonomy of people working outdoors conventional borders. Latest developments in cryptocurrency regulation and adoption present this course of unfolding. Governments that after sought to ban or closely limit Bitcoin are actually shifting towards frameworks that legitimise its use, starting from exchange-traded funds in the USA to the latest passage of the Genius act. This shift marks a recognition that, reasonably than eliminating decentralised cash, states should discover methods to coexist with it, a actuality that mirrors the e-book’s forecast of governments competing for relevance in a world the place monetary sovereignty is more durable to include.
The state adoption of cryptocurrencies introduces paradoxes that The Sovereign Particular person anticipated. On the one hand, regulation and integration into monetary techniques carry new legitimacy and wider adoption, particularly amongst establishments that had been as soon as cautious. Alternatively, by embracing Bitcoin, states inadvertently empower people to retailer and switch wealth outdoors the management of central banks or fiat techniques. This creates rigidity: whereas regulators body insurance policies as safeguards for buyers and markets, the very existence of state-endorsed crypto infrastructure makes it simpler for residents to entry cash that resists devaluation, censorship, or seizure.
If this regulatory momentum continues, the influence may very well be profound. In rising markets with histories of forex crises, formal acceptance of Bitcoin or stablecoins might speed up the disintermediation of weak monetary techniques, shifting financial exercise into parallel digital economies. In developed markets, institutional adoption might normalise crypto as a typical portfolio allocation, additional weakening the monopoly of state-issued currencies over long-term financial savings. As extra governments take part, competitors between jurisdictions might intensify, with crypto-friendly states attracting expertise, capital, and innovation on the expense of slower-moving rivals. This echoes The Sovereign Particular person’s imaginative and prescient of a fractured geopolitical panorama the place people and capital move to probably the most accommodating environments.
In the end, regulatory acceptance and state adoption of cryptocurrencies could speed up the broader transition towards particular person sovereignty described within the e-book. If people can transfer wealth throughout borders seamlessly, take part in decentralised monetary techniques, and select jurisdictions based mostly on beneficial remedy of digital belongings, the normal energy of the nation-state is eroded. Governments will nonetheless wield important affect, however their function could evolve into service suppliers competing for digital residents, reasonably than unquestioned arbiters of financial life. On this sense, Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption is not only a monetary story however a structural shift in how energy, belief, and sovereignty are distributed within the twenty first century.
