Because decentralized autonomous organizations are illegible, meaning they resist a particular type of definition: they cannot be easily categorized or labeled in a way that makes them easy to administer and control. Bureaucrats cannot do their job unless they make the subjects of their administration legible. They must reduce economic activity into “income” or “investment” so they can tax it, people into “citizen” or “alien” so they can distribute (or revoke) privileges, organizations into “corporation” or “partnership” so they can assign duties and responsibilities, and so on.