From the Cypherpunks mailing list (cypherpunks@cyberpass.net), December 7, 1998:
Subject: Re: Wei Dei’s “b-money” protocol
Wei Dai replied to Adam Back’s critique of the b-money protocol, addressing concerns about computational resource waste and the practical scope of the proposal:
On the state’s monopoly on force, Dai had shifted ground:
Quote from: Wei Dai on December 08, 1998, 12:12:21 AM UTC
“I now tend to think that the government monopoly of force is a net benefit.”
On b-money’s likely scope, he was modest:
“b-money will at most be a niche currency/contract enforcement mechanism, serving those who don’t want to or can’t use government sponsored ones.”
Dai raised questions about what would be needed for broader adoption, including price stability, business cycles, and optimal inflation rates.
These 1998 reservations — that b-money would remain a niche mechanism, and Dai’s growing distance from crypto-anarchy — are the contemporaneous trace of a doubt he would only name explicitly years later, in his 2014 LessWrong retrospective on why he never carried b-money to implementation.