Cryptocurrency emerged from a simple principle: transparency through verifiability. But that design choice was never about being sustainable—it was just what the architecture enabled. Now reality is testing the limits. Financial pressure, censorship threats, and the rise of autonomous AI systems are all pushing against radical openness. By 2026, the entire premise faces a reckoning. Privacy stops being optional and becomes existential. The original vision of crypto prioritized being auditable. What it didn't account for was whether the world could actually function that way. Turns out, it can't—not under the weight of actual adoption, hostile actors, and systems that need to operate beyond human visibility. The next chapter isn't about abandoning transparency. It's about recognizing when opacity becomes necessary.