Molly White Discusses Blockchains, Digital Ethics at Northeastern

Molly White, a noted critic of the blockchain industry, threw the question out to a room full of computer science students at the Cabral Center on Northeastern’s Boston campus.

“Does anyone here think they’re going into the blockchain industry?” White, a 2016 Northeastern graduate, asked Tuesday afternoon.

No one raised their hand.

In a way, it is a testament to White’s criticism of how the multibillion-dollar industry operates. As a result, students question whether it is a field worth entering after graduation.

“It’s really interesting to see how it’s changed over the last year,” White said.

The Washington Post profiled White as “the cryptocurrency world’s biggest critic.” In addition, she was named on Forbes 30 under 30 in 2023 for her work criticizing the crypto craze, which helped shape the US government’s approach to fintech policy.

On her website, Web3 is Going Just Great, White investigates and exposes fraud and questionable practices in the opaque and unregulated industry.

White is now a fellow at the Library Innovation Lab in Cambridge, where she continues her research and work around the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries along with online governance, digital identity and the future of the web.

A blockchain is a decentralized system in which a record of transactions, especially those made in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, is maintained across computers connected in a peer-to-peer network.

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 after the financial crisis in the United States, with its creators wanting to create a system outside of the traditional banking system. CoinMarketCap now reports nearly 23,000 cryptocurrencies, with a total market capitalization of $1.1 trillion.

The market rallied after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, White said. However, following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX last year, the market has not been able to deliver the same returns.

“I think the volatility is sometimes underestimated by the average consumer who looks at bitcoin as an asset class like the stock market,” White said. “They are not used to 1000%, 10000% swing. So there is this danger where people will start investing in cryptocurrencies, not realizing that there is a huge amount of risk.”

White noted that users who kept their digital currencies in FTX are still waiting to see if they will get anything back after it filed for bankruptcy. This is because there are almost no regulations or safe custody, as you see in normal banking.

The ambiguity allowed in the use of cryptocurrencies can lead to fraud, theft and other criminal activities that are difficult to track or prosecute, White said.

However, tracking of pseudonyms used for the open ledger transactions is improving. Once they’re connected to a person, it’s easy to track all of their transactions, White said. She said this can be positive for tracking criminals, but not so much if you’re a regular person.

A Northeastern computer science major, White said her time at the university continues to help her today as she questions the ethics of developing software.

“(Developing software) is not a neutral act,” White said. “You really have to consider whether the things you’re doing have negative externalities or not. You have to consider whether it will have a good impact on the world.”

Although she doesn’t currently do much computer science, as she is focused on writing about the subject, White advises students to continue learning about the technology at play.