Why Status, Money, and Trust All Run on the Same Code

Trust isn't about being "nice"—it's a game-theoretic mechanism driven by Sunk Cost. We trust people (and systems) when the cost of them betraying us exceeds the gain they’d get from cheating. To become successful and "legible" to the world, you must move away from "Dead Capital" by building a public archive of work that is too expensive, time-consuming, or difficult to fake. Whether it's MrBeast’s $2M videos or a hunter’s ivory bead, status and trust are the social ledgers of demonstrated, irreversible effort.