As crypto-thinkers, technical veterans question Blockchain’s promise of economic salvation

Crypto-masters say that digital assets can bring excluded societies into the financial system and help marginalized investors grow prosperity. But some critics question whether the new tools are a real possibility or a threat.

“Prey inclusion” is the term increased access to products or services – only on exploitative or dangerous terms that actually undermine the potential benefits. The term has been used for housing and education loans aimed at minorities. Increasingly, there are also discussions about crypto, said veteran technology journalist and New York Times Opinion podcaster Kara Swisher at a working group on the future of money at DealBook DC’s policy forum last week.

“There’s been a really growing anti-crypto movement among a lot of really old-fashioned internet people,” Swisher said. She noticed that the crypto room is full of scams, and added that the predator inclusion “is actually real.”

But Cleve Mesidor, a black woman who leads the non-profit organization Blockchain Foundation, challenged the notion “that we are now being deceived in some way.” She says she believes the concerns about predators are based on a false assumption.

“The reality is that Black and Latino innovators and investors are leading adoption in space. We’ve been doing that for the last five to eight years, and we’ve done that by educating our communities,” Mesidor said. my contemporaries, has been traditional finance. “

That predatory history cannot be ignored, said Alondra Nelson, who heads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.. But Mrs. Nelson, a black woman, suggested that crypto might not have been any different. She has the same concerns about conflicts of interest and misadjusted incentives in crypto that apply in traditional finance, but there are fewer regulations to limit the players in the new industry.

“It will benefit those who can least afford the losses or take that risk,” she said.

Many crypto companies operate in regulatory gray areas, where investors have little of the protection available for other financial products. And crypto is volatile – Bitcoin has fallen from a peak of around $ 68,000 in November to around $ 20,000 this week, and the total market value of all cryptocurrencies fell below $ 1 trillion from a high of about three times as much last year .

The uncertainty and price fluctuations suggest to Cornell University economics professor Eswar Prasad, author of the 2021 book “The Future of Money”, that cryptocurrencies are purely speculative assets and probably not a path to total global economic salvation.

Prasad says he sees “the real promise of blockchain technology”, which provides more access and transparency, but fears that the new industry will actually repeat old patterns. “At the moment we have this wonderful technology, which can lead us to a more glorious world. But there is a great risk of subversion.. “

Participants: Caroline Crenshaw, Commissioner, US Securities and Exchange Commission; Alondra Nelson, Deputy Assistant to the President, Head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; Kara Calvert, Head of US Policy, Coinbase; Kristin Smith, CEO, Blockchain Association; Jonathan Levin, co-founder, Chainalysis; Eswar Prasad, Professor of Economics, Cornell University; Michele Korver, head of regulatory, crypto, Andreessen Horowitz; Cleve Mesidor, CEO, Blockchain Foundation; and Lindsey Parker, Chief Technology Officer, Washington, DC