I hope you're right. The obvious counterpoint is that off-the-shelf crypto has been available for 20 years, and effectively nobody uses it. Also, the government has a significant ace in the hole: they get to send in men with guns to tap corporate pipelines and issue gag orders. More home computing power isn't going to fix that.
I'm still optimistic in the long term. It's just a shame we've forgotten the lessons of history, and won't take action until there's real abuse, instead of being a smart enough culture to nip the problem in the bud.
> The obvious counterpoint is that off-the-shelf crypto has been available for 20 years, and effectively nobody uses it.
Sorry for the delay, I just saw your comment and wanted to respond to this:
The point isn't that /everyone/ can use it; it's that /anyone/ can use it.
Similarly, at the point that drones become easy to construct at home, it doesn't matter that it won't be everyone that has home-operated drones monitoring government actions - just that people who want to can.
I'm still optimistic in the long term. It's just a shame we've forgotten the lessons of history, and won't take action until there's real abuse, instead of being a smart enough culture to nip the problem in the bud.