A recent Bankless podcast discussed the potential advantages of authoritarian regimes in the 21st century. Economist Noah Smith and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin elaborated on the potential of blockchain to enhance democratic resilience through secure, anonymous communication and verifiable voting. Vitalik Buterin emphasized that comparing the information environment to Thomas Hobbes' concept of war of "all against all," monopoly control narratives may become the only stable equilibrium. This metaphor highlights the potential of authoritarian regimes to use the Internet for data aggregation, turning a tool designed to empower freedom into one that strengthens central control.