There are countless examples of decentralization working across human societies. Neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, countries. In America for example forks are individually managed and not shared, and we eat very well without a central utensil management agency.

It might surprise you to know that in fact kitchen utensils and what they're made out of is regulated in the USA - and I assume most other industrialized countries.

https://www.compliancegate.com/plastic-kitchen-products-regu...

The issue is decentralization != no regulation, and lots of crypto folks seem to think that they should build systems that cannot be regulated and expect that to be compatible with modern society.

In a way, crypto is a sophisticated way to enforce (self)regulation. Rules are set to enforce certain behavior (no token can be spent twice, tokens can only be minted in specific circumstances and amounts, etc.) and give everyone easy ways to validate that the rules are enforced.

Some think that all rules you ever need can be encoded in the network, removing the need for "external" regulation. Of course that's not entirely realistic.

The definition of a fork is centrally regulated, yes, but using forks is decentralized. There is no central authority saying "We will make N forks this month" or "You will use a fork at 2pm for exactly 10 bites".

Cash is similarly decentralized in that its definition and creation is centrally regulated, but nobody says (or even can say) how and when you can use it. Cash transactions between people happen without any central authority. There's not even a central authority definiting the price/value of goods! You can just agree on a number with some rando, exchange cash for things/services, and nobody will ever know it even happened, let alone be able to tell you how and when to do it.

> Neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, countries.

How are those examples decentralized? You just listed a literal hierarchy with oodles of centralized laws and regulations at every tier.

And mentioning forks doesn't make any sense. Decentralization refers to organizational entities, not objects.

> decentralization does not work in human society

The American payment system is decentralised. It’s just lazily evaluated, e.g. when a transaction occurs or audit is done. Crypto’s pitch is that it’s centralised on an eagerly-evaluated blockchain. Every account’s state is known by all, all the time, full stop.

Of course it doesn't, that's why I have to send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Widget Commission to request the resources to have widgets manufactured.

Imagine the alternative!