Tech experts urge Washington to resist crypto industry’s influence

Today the global community of technologists sent a letter to Congress urging them to resist the crypto industry’s lobbying influence. The letter was signed by some of the most respected scholars and technologists in our field. And now we need your help.

Crypto fraud is spiraling out of control. So-called "web3" is not going great. Regulators are paralyzed and people are getting hurt left and right. It's on us as citizens and responsible engineers to help fix the problem we created by our inaction.

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/

Crypto lobby is spending millions to tell leaders that crypto-assets are "innovation" and all fintech innovation is unqualifiedly good, no matter the human cost. Today we set the record straight on what computer scientists really think about blockchain.

https://twitter.com/JorgeStolfi/status/1522011168604409856

"The claims that the blockchain advocates make are not true," said Bruce 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.

"The computational power is equivalent to what you could do in a centralised way with a $100 computer," said Miguel de Icaza. "We’re essentially wasting millions of dollars’ worth of equipment because we’ve decided that we don’t trust the banking system."

The externalities related to crypto investments are neither isolated nor are they growing pains of a nascent tech. They are the inevitable outcomes of a technology that is not built for purpose and will remain forever unsuitable as a foundation for large-scale economic activity.

Our call to action is simple. If you are a computer scientist or developer concerned about this issue, we're opening the letter to the wider tech community to sign and tell our policymakers that enough is enough, the status quo has to change.

Read the letter and sign at https://concerned.tech/

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

The existing, centralized electronic payment systems are a disaster for financial privacy, and it'll only get worse with CBDCs.

If you try to make something private, then you're helping money launderers, criminals and pedophiles.

Therefore, the message from the incumbents:

Shut up and embrace the unfolding panopticon, otherwise you're a bad person.

Also, we reserve the right to dictate what you spend your money on and if you want to donate to causes (e.g. Wikileaks or truckers) that we don't approve of, we'll block your bank account and cut you off from the system.

Lastly, we reserve the right to manipulate the money supply. It's enough for you to know that we are experts and have your best interests in mind. You don't need to concern yourself with how much money there is, how its supply is managed or the potential negative effects of our manipulation, you wouldn't understand the implications anyway.

I’m working in a legal-but-taboo industry, where mastercard and visa don’t want to deal with us, which is a huge pain in the ass - but every time I’ve looked at crypto, it seems to fix one or two problems and introduce 10 more...