Skip to main content

Crypto’s Legacy Is Finally Clear An anti-establishment technology for an anti-establishment age

 

For years, crypto skeptics have asked, What is this for? And for years, boosters have struggled to offer up a satisfactory answer. They argue that the blockchain—the technology upon which cryptocurrencies and other such applications are built—is itself a genius technological invention, an elegant mechanism for documenting ownership online and fostering digital community. Or they say that it is a foundation on which to build and fund a third, hyperfinancialized iteration of the internet where you don’t need human intermediaries to buy a cartoon image of an ape for $3.4 million.

Then there are the currencies themselves: bitcoin and ether and the endless series of memecoins and start-up tokens. These are largely volatile, speculative assets that some people trade, shitpost about, use to store value, and, sometimes, get incredibly rich or go bankrupt from. They are also infamously used to launder money, fund start-ups, and concoct elaborate financial fraud. Crypto has its use cases. But the knock has long been that the technology is overly complicated and offers nothing that the modern financial system can’t already do—that crypto is a technological solution in search of a problem (at least for people who don’t want to use it to commit crimes).

I tend to agree. I’ve spent time reporting on NFTs and crypto-token-based decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs (like the one that tried to buy an original printing of the Constitution in 2021). I’ve read opaque white papers for Web3 printing start-ups and decentralized finance protocols that use smart contracts to enable financial-service transactions without major banks, but I’ve never found a killer app.

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Syrian security forces accused of executing dozens of Alawites

  Syrian security forces are alleged to have executed 52 people belonging to the Alawite minority in the coastal province of Latakia, according to one war monitoring group. Footage seen by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows dozens of bodies in civilian clothing piled up in the garden of a house in Latakia. An interior ministry source told the country's official news agency Sana said that "individual violations" had occurred on the coast and pledged to put a stop to them. BBC News has not been able to verify claims that the killings were committed by the forces of Syria's new rulers. This followed clashes   between government forces and fighters loyal to the deposed President Bashar al-Assad , which left more than 70 dead. A curfew has been imposed in the cities of Homs, Latakia and Tartous, where the fighting has broken out. Earlier, BBC Verify confirmed two videos that showed a body being dragged behind a car in Latakia. The United Nation...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wike not right for unity, Atiku defends Okowa’s choice

  The 2023 Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar has clarified that he rejected former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike as his running mate in the election because Wike was not suitable for a ticket intended to promote unity rather than division. In a statement released by his media office on Saturday, Atiku explained that he chose former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate in 2023 due to a combination of intellect, composure, and statesmanship. Atiku in a recent interview stated that he did not regret rejecting Wike as his running mate in the 2023 presidential election. The former Vice President revealed that a committee had presented him with three potential candidates: former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Wike, and ex-Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel. He announced that Okowa was selected as the running mate because he scored the highest. In response, Wike, through his media aide Lere Olayinka, dismissed Atiku’s comments,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Save me from the burden that isn’t mine” – Jumoke Odetola cries out to God

  Actress and producer Jumoke Odetola has lamented over the current state of social media, criticizing the prevalence of “clout chasing” and a lack of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and common sense among users. In an Instagram post, Odetola described how interacting with people who lack these qualities can be mentally draining.  She also expressed her exhaustion with feeling secondhand embarrassment from individuals she neither knows nor engages with. Turning to faith, she prayed for strength to ignore negativity, remain unbothered, and avoid wasting time on issues that do not concern her. She wrote: “In this age and time where clout chasing is the new currency and lots of people do not even know where and when to draw the line. “If you still have common sense, emotional intelligence, social awareness, and self-awareness. I bet you don’t realize how blessed you are. The irony is it’s a blessing wrapped in thorns, those who lack these basic qualities can be incredibly...
Post a Comment
Read more