Tech Experts Urge Washington To Resist Crypto Industry's Influence (ft.com) 50
A group of renowned technologists has joined forces to urge US lawmakers to crack down on the burgeoning cryptocurrencies industry, marking the first concerted effort to counter well-financed lobbying by blockchain companies. From a report: Harvard lecturer Bruce Schneier, former Microsoft engineer Miguel de Icaza and principal engineer at Google Cloud Kelsey Hightower, are among 26 leading computer scientists and academics who have signed a letter delivered to US lawmakers heavily criticising crypto investments and blockchain technology. While individuals have made similar warnings about the safety and reliability of digital assets, it marks a more organised effort to challenge the growing influence of crypto advocates who want to resist attempts to regulate the frothy sector. "The claims that the blockchain advocates make are not true," said Schneier. "It's not secure, it's not decentralised. Any system where you forget your password and you lose your life savings is not a safe system," he added. "We're counter-lobbying, that's what this letter is about," said signatory and software developer Stephen Diehl. "The crypto industry has its people, they say what they want to the politicians."
A recent analysis of the US Congressional Lobbying Disclosure database by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, revealed the number of lobbyists representing the crypto industry increased from 115 to 320 between 2018 and 2021, and the money spent on lobbying for the crypto sector quadrupled from $2.2mn to $9mn in the same period. US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase led the effort with 26 lobbyists and $1.5mn spent on lobbying in 2021. Companies with growing interest in the crypto sector, include Meta, Visa and PayPal, have also lobbied for the industry. Meanwhile, leading crypto exchanges such as FTX, Binance and Crypto.com have also spent heavily on endorsement deals with sports stars and entertainment venues to promote their products to the public.
A recent analysis of the US Congressional Lobbying Disclosure database by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, revealed the number of lobbyists representing the crypto industry increased from 115 to 320 between 2018 and 2021, and the money spent on lobbying for the crypto sector quadrupled from $2.2mn to $9mn in the same period. US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase led the effort with 26 lobbyists and $1.5mn spent on lobbying in 2021. Companies with growing interest in the crypto sector, include Meta, Visa and PayPal, have also lobbied for the industry. Meanwhile, leading crypto exchanges such as FTX, Binance and Crypto.com have also spent heavily on endorsement deals with sports stars and entertainment venues to promote their products to the public.
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Crypto is facilitating the free exchange of value between willing participants. In a land of freedom, what permission is needed for that?
You could argue that the stock market also does that and yet we have all manner of regulations to prevent things like market insiders using non-public information to take advantage of other investors for their own profits [slashdot.org]. Just because you slap "crypto" in front of it doesn't mean that the rules should suddenly cease to apply IMHO.
If you want to argue that no kind of economic activity should be regulated that's certainly your right, but that's not a world that I personally want to live in.
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Crypto is facilitating the free exchange of value between willing participants. In a land of freedom, what permission is needed for that?
Like the metric is willing criminals? Hey - the criminals can take their payments in blowjobs is they like. But trying to have real money be dragged down to crypto levels is kinda criminal in itself.
Oh.. Wait.. I get it.
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If crypto is so great, how come bitcoin is down more than the inflation rate. Even if you think the inflation rate is cooked, it's not cooked that much.
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People who drive better cars than you are into crypto. If guys like Soros and champions of liberty like Cruz are saying that crypto is with us for the long haul, you bet they know something you don't, because those people don't play to lose. Bitcoin and other altcoins only have "x" number of units. They are deflationary currencies, where printing money is impossible, and mining is a guarantee of work spent, with conventional proof-of-work algorithms, giving the currency an intrinsic value.
Sorry, but as p
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I did wonder if crypto is the mortage derivatives of the 2020s, but it looks like the total crypto volume is miniscule compared to that of the derivatives back in 2008.
That said, I wasn't too surprised to find out you can find "crypto derivatives" on the market.
Looks like a bubble, just not a very big one.
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People who drive better cars than you are into crypto. If guys like Soros and champions of liberty like Cruz are saying that crypto is with us for the long haul, you bet they know something you don't, because those people don't play to lose.
Nor does organized crime play to lose. And in your people mentioned, it's the same thing.
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Precisely this - "fiat" currencies are controlled by governments and central banks which have a vested interest in maintaining stability of the overall economy and not inflating the value of each unit of currency, because its also the government and central banks which have to fund any recovery from economic collapse.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies are controlled by entities who have a vested interest in inflating the value of each unit of their currency and don't really care if the currency eventually collapse
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Actually, that's a good poin
Do as I say, not as I do (Score:2)
"Washington, you must not give--Holy shit is that a startup that's going to combine AI-generated blockchain NFT LoonadogeCoin merited out as universal basic income based on web analytics of positive social behaviors? Here's my angel investment of $100M! No, take $200M!"
Considering the state of Silicon Valley and the fact that the above sentence isn't really a joke, tech experts might not be the ones to listen to on this.
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Considering the state of Silicon Valley and the fact that the above sentence isn't really a joke, tech experts might not be the ones to listen to on this.
Tech experts are not a single group of people with the same views on every topic. There are tech experts who are cryptocurrency advocates, and those who are skeptics.
Tech experts are absolutely the correct people to listen to, just don't pick a few tech experts and believe they speak for an entire industry. It shouldn't take much effort to know that many tech experts feel cryptocurrency has promise, and many others believe it is snake oil. Then make your own decisions about how risk tolerant you are before
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Then the article is ignoring one set of tech experts and making a judgment call without disclosing it. Because like it or not, the majority of tech experts are losing their shit over NFTs and crypto and bla bla bla off in SV land. You can't walk down the street there without a homeless person giving you an elevator pitch on their latest crypto startup idea--and crypto money is thrown at them like candy.
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I've known a lot of tech experts in my time. Not a one of them ever called themselves that, or been sought after for interviews: they were too busy doing research, or making projects. These are people who spoke at many of the academic/industry conferences. They thought deeply about their ideas, and everything they did had a strong basis in math and computer science.
The "tech bros" who put themselves out there as "experts" aren't. They're guys that have neither the interest nor the ability to make serious te
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I know that the modern world is specialized, but one would think a physicist could write better than that.
Oh, and if it's not obvious, the word you were looking for (and failing to find) was"find"...
Re: Do as I say, not as I do (Score:2)
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So you're saying, do not trust the guys in tech industry who are opposed to cryptocurrency idiocy? Or are you naively thinking that literally everyone in tech is all-in on crypto, and those who argue argue against are secretly buying it anyway?
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I'm saying for every tech expert saying not to, there are five that are doing the opposite right now.
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You've probably got your proportions backwards. We've been quiet for years, but are finally speaking up.
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For every tech expert supporting cryptocurrency, most of them have a financial stake in it being successful. For every one against it there is none, except for possibly for sour grapes, but then why not just buy cryptocurrency. Some, probably most will not say a thing. The proportions are just speculation unless you have an unbiased survey of tech experts.
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There's nothing wrong with having a financial interest in something being successful, and that doesn't make someone a non-expert. And just because someone doesn't have such an interest doesn't mean they're unbiased; you could say they're biased towards it NOT succeeding, because they don't care about what happens to the investments of people that aren't themselves.
If one wants to examine an issue you have to take opinions from proponents and opponents.
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Right. We should get our tech advice from golf experts, instead.
Could you at least read the fucking summary? (Score:5, Interesting)
As for why these experts are lobbying against crypto, it's a paywalled articles so who knows and I can't be bothered just yet to try and find an alternative source. I can tell you that Stephen Diehl has called out nfts is a scam and gotten enough press that the crypto Bros have written a few articles attacking him. So it's no surprise he's lobbying Congress.
For my money I am absolutely terrified that pretend assets are being treated as real assets. If you think the 2008 market crash sucked imagine how much worth it would be if instead of houses it was bits and bites pictures of distressed primates.
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Actually, ransomware has become a huge industry. I would say the main use of crapcoins these days is organized crime.
Beware of FOMO (Score:5, Insightful)
The crypto industry has spread so much crap across the landscape the mere mortals have no idea what any of it means. And they have also gotten people to buy in to the idea that this is obviously the future, and if you don't see that you are a caveman.
My challenge to policy makers: if you can't understand it, there's probably a good reason, and it's not because you are stupid. It's because the whole thing is a pile of cr*p. Trust in yourself, and call BS when you see it. And the minute you get some crypto-bro up in front of congress, and you ask plain-English questions, and the crypto-bro can't give plain-English answers, that is a sure sign it's worthless. Don't let them get away with it.
BUT, there is a segment of policy makers that think the US (or whatever country you are in) will be a financial backwater if we don't get on-board. As if we went back 30 years and decided commercializing the internet wasn't a good idea. It's not the same. The utility in widespread adoption of the internet was as plain as day (warts and all). Crypto? Not so much. The best that can be said of it is that it's a solution looking for a problem. The worst that can be said about it? Where do i begin?
Trust your gut, have courage, and just say no.
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I have to ask a dumb question: When one buys into a currency, what is one looking at, other than hoping that for some random reason, the currency gains steam, or some bigwig is able to manipulate the currency in their favor, so you can sell before other forces cause it to fall? Why even bother with cryptocurrencies?
If I buy a lot of stocks and "hodl" them, I get dividends, even if their value goes down, so if I do nothing, I get cash. If I have real estate, I can use it for farming, lease it out, put a s
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I have to ask a dumb question: When one buys into a currency, what is one looking at, other than hoping that for some random reason, the currency gains steam, or some bigwig is able to manipulate the currency in their favor, so you can sell before other forces cause it to fall?
Well... European people might want to buy USD now as FED is able to rise interests, where EKP seems to be unable to do it. It is expected that inflation will rise there, and lead to devaluation of euro.
Why even bother with cryptocurrencies?
If you don't want to wait so long. There is more volatility. That is what makes living for all the stock brokers too.
If I buy a lot of stocks and "hodl" them, I get dividends, even if their value goes down, so if I do nothing, I get cash.
All companies don't pay dividends (they might need all the money for the growth e.g. Tesla, or they are going bad e.g. uber)
You can also get interest rate for the crypto's if you like.
If I have real estate, I can use it for farming, lease it out, put a shop on the property, or rent it out, where I make money. What does cryptocurrency give me? Not stability. I gain zero by keeping it around, and it has no intrinsic value and represents nothing... it is just a number, that isn't even tied to a currency backed by a country.
Yep, cryp
"DeFi" = "Deregulated Finance" (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember kids, "DeFi" really means "Deregulated Finance".
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DeFi isn't even real finance, at best it's an automated exchange at worst it's sandcastles disguising outright ponzis like Terra.
Some on chain algorithm can't offer a real loan, it has no recourse. Crypto collateral for crypto "loans" are just the above mentioned sandcastles.
The grand master plan of crypto (Score:2, Informative)
The plan for all cryptocurrencies isn't what they want to make you think it is. It's more sinister than the egalitarian image the crypto boys portray for it.
After the 2008 financial meltdown, cryptocurrencies were born out of it, declared to be the means by which people could be freed from banks/governments, and promised to avoid any such future meltdowns from happening ever again.
But the crypto boys watched closely the result of that meltdown, and formulated their plan: create a new form of currency, and
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The plan for all cryptocurrencies isn't what they want to make you think it is. It's more sinister than the egalitarian image the crypto boys portray for it.
Lol crypto boys no crypto girls? Why?
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Priceless... "this song is for the hackers, all the misfits and smart fuckers" Slashdoters?
https://razzlekhan.com/ [razzlekhan.com]
the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone (Score:2)
Deaf Ears (Score:2)
Pfff! (Score:2)
Urging a whore to resist a paying customer (Score:2)
Good luck with that.
Blind leading the blind... (Score:1)
I think it's important to make a distinction between Bitcoin and Blockchain. Bitcoin is the revolutionary money, blockchain is the pile on by con artists that inevitably follows. I won't defend the sh!tcoins but it's too easy to poke holes in the luminaries argument.
"It's not secure"
Elliptic Curve/SHA are generally accepted as secure.
"it's not decentralised"
Distributed systems concept and design are well defined and multiple competing miners, validating nodes and wallet software that all operate using a p