📚Crypto Untangled
Your complete guide to the question, 'uh, what in the world is going on in crypto?'
I spent the first year of Untangled critiquing the social and cultural dynamics of crypto and blockchain technology. Crypto had captured the popular imagination — it was full of promise. Technical decentralization would reduce the power of Big Tech. Pseudonymity would enable real privacy. Smart contracts would obviate the need to trust the person on the other side of a transaction. But this future didn’t play out as promised. Instead, key players in the industry committed fraud and stole customer’s money. Others focused on the most speculative elements of the industry, betting on the future value of a jpeg. Crypto, in short, became synonymous with crimes and casino-like behavior.
Crypto is now back in the news. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begrudgingly approved a Bitcoin spot ETF on January 10th, allowing asset managers like Blackrock to offer their clients exposure to Bitcoin. At the same time, new blockchain-enabled projects are starting to generate modest revenue (e…
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