Via Axios – PERMISSIONLESS: What It Means, How It Happened, Will it Last: “While the Internet revolution enabled “permissionless” business models in finance, entertainment & politics, such unregulated disruptors are under growing attack. From the tech sector to the White House, many object to the divisions these new actors exacerbate or the externalities they often fail to address. Efforts to reign them in marked 2018 and may define 2019. Permissionlessness may be the ultimate form of capitalism, the free-est of free markets. But as with capitalism itself, there are mounting calls for new guardrails, gatekeepers or even systemic reform.” Mehlman, a partner at one of Washington’s major lobbying firms, produces quarterly reports about the political climate. In a new 35-slide PowerPoint deck, he argues that the world has become more “permissionless” because of the diminished power of traditional gatekeepers, the information technology revolution and the broad dissatisfaction with the pace of change.

• “The tools of the permissionless society are the weapons of choice for both the Too Fast and the Too Slow coalitions,” Mehlman said. “The permissionless world has allowed lots of new solutions that people love. Think about something like Lyft and the good side of social media. So, on one hand, permissionless paths give people a chance to solve problems that weren’t being solved. At the same time, it can also reflect a world where fewer people win, where more people feel excluded and where more people become aware that they’re being excluded.”..