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What I find interesting in crypto isn't really crypto itself. I've never bought or sold any and don't think it's accomplished much as a technology. It does however embody and evangelize a worldview about relationships and values that I find fascinating and troubling.
Crypto — and more generally the world of digital high tech — is strongly motivated by the idea that we can optimize and perfect things with technology. This both idealizes code and algorithms and discounts the complexity of human life.
Crypto folks are entirely right to be suspicious and cynical of governments and institutions. But the alternative they offer actually seems worse in almost every way, because it's credulous about technology and seemingly ignorant of politics, history, and sociology.
Crypto-positive resources
Bitcoin white paper: https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper
Tapscott and Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution: https://dontapscott.com/books/blockchain-revolution/
Etherium: https://ethereum.org
Crypto-sceptic resources
Amy Castor: https://amycastor.com/blog/
David Gerrard, Attack of the 50-Foot Blockchain: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/book/
Dan Olson, “Line Goes Up” (YouTube): https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g?si=WWnTkL2Ed23F_0xg
Cas Piancy, Bennett Tomlin, Crypto Critics Corner podcast: https://cryptocriticscorner.com
Molly White: https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchain/ and https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com
Books mentioned
Brett Scott, Cloudmoney: https://alteredstatesof.money/brett-scott-books/
Ellen Ullman, Close to the Machine: https://pushkinpress.com/book/close-to-the-machine-2/
Credits
Written, recorded, and produced by Steve McCullough.
The music is “Dirt Rhodes" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 4.0.
The cover art features “Concentric squares forming a geometric maze pattern” by Cansu Sarp.
