The network that was meant to be the foundational difference from fiat was deemed unworkable. A Layer 2 solution was promoted as the only way.
STEP 2: Introduce the Red Herring
In order to hold off on-chain scaling, the Lightning Network was introduced. Just wait 18 more months. It'll be ready and it will be amazing!
STEP 3: Jack Up Fees
Use Ordinals to jack fees high enough that no one can afford to self-custody, let alone use the main layer for anything normal.
STEP 4: Introduce Custodial L2
Liquid hung out in the background while Lightning was promoted. When Lightning broke because of crazy high fees, Liquid was quick to slide in as a solution.
STEP 5: Bridge from Exchanges Straight to L2
Now Banksters use Ordinals to jack fees to force everyone to withdraw directly to the permissioned L2. A host of exchanges can bridge to and from Liquid, and this is promoted as the ultimate solution.
Coinbase conveniently shuts off functionality for most payment coins on its merchant app. This funnels people into "trusted" KYC L2s.
Congratulations, most crypto users are now permanently stuck in a permissioned, custodial system, unable to afford actually controlling and owning their own money on permissionless networks.
Satoshi is rolling in his grave, but the Banksters are happy. What an amazing coincidence!
It's nowhere near as complicated as this. Anarcho-Capitalism inevitably leads to Crony-Capitalism since some people out-compete others and eventually you arrive at a state where its possible to 51% attack any system (e.g. Cantillon Effect). There is only one solution, complete decentralisation in everything so that no-one person can dominate. Bitcoin's main weakness was the lack of privacy (so real life attacks such as censorship, KYC regulations, etc could happen), lack of ASIC resistance (so power centralises), transaction speed so you have to rely on L2s, and the inability to mine your own transactions to push them forward. Monero is far better but it is not free from these issues. Mining should be so light that all wallets do it and the chance of centralisation is near zero.