"Widening applications of teleprocessing have given rise to a need for new types of cryptographic systems, which minimize the need for secure key distribution channels and supply the equivalent of a written signature. " - Whitfield Diffie, 1976

Digital signatures (I'm not literate in the math behind elliptic curves, only in RSA) are an unprecedented tool for social coordination, nothing like it has been possible before. If a single mathematical formula, as a singular middle-man, can oversee billions of people, all interacting as sovereign beings entirely peer-to-peer (in the sense key-to-key), within a permissionless state that anyone can use for any rules they want as long as they are computable by the state, that seems like it would transform society in ways that are almost unimaginable, the law set free.

Note on social consensus mechanisms

With proof-of-power, the global population can oversee that the state follows its protocol, based on the same game theory as proof-of-stake, but "powering" validators with people-vote instead of stake. Proof-of-power as a social consensus mechanism lets the entire human species signal what state to coordinate around, as a swarm or a self-organizing collective, with maximal oversight of the state, and broadest possible social consensus as well as distributing reward incentives in the broadest way possible.

Synapses

Diffie, W., & Hellman, M. (1976). New directions in cryptography. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 22(6), 644–654. https://doi.org/10.1109/tit.1976.1055638

Nygren, J. (2017). Proof-of-power, using a swarm to select miners through majority consensus. GitHub. https://gist.github.com/resilience-me/493b83a8f0bce4b73cea7cee19f72efd