Even though he sees the media as half of “The Cathedral”—the term he uses for what he believes is the repressive ideological power of journalists and academics that secretly runs Western society—he agrees to meet with me in Berkeley, California. We take a short walk while Yarvin, who looks like an aging punk rocker, speaks in long, winding stories that reference esoteric texts and periods of history to make his points.

In our conversation, he describes his concept of “Patchwork,” in which traditional nation-states are replaced by a global network of sovereign mini-countries owned by shareholders and competing for citizens like a company competes for customers. He believes that blockchain can be used to create this world and that the result would be “corporate monarchies” ruled by “CEO kings.” These corporate monarchs would be accountable to a hidden board of shareholders, who could potentially even control the military and police through something he called a “crypto dingus” that would allow them to essentially disable all weapons.

Many of these tech billionaires see Trump and his office as obsolete, something that will eventually be replaced by their superior technology. As I got to know tech billionaires, I increasingly got the sense that they saw themselves as the real holders of power.

The cryptocurrency lobby has now surpassed the fossil fuel industry to become the most powerful lobby in the US, having contributed $238 million in the most recent election cycle, according to a Fox Business analysis., external. Yarvin, Sun, Draper and Liberland give a glimpse of the future some of them envision for us.

From Justin Sun to Liberland to Tim Draper, everyone told me how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies can free us (and our money) from government control. But who would we hand over control to? Every example I’ve seen ends in wealth and power flowing to whoever controls the technology.