<
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/opinion/blockchains-what-are-they-good-for.html>
"A year ago Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were selling at record prices,
with a combined market value of around $3 trillion; glossy ads featuring
celebrities — most infamously Matt Damon’s “Fortune Favors the Brave” — filled
the airwaves. Politicians, including, alas, the mayor of New York, raced to
align themselves with what seemed to be the coming thing. Skeptics like yours
truly were told that we just didn’t get it.
Since then the prices of crypto assets have plunged, while a growing number of
crypto institutions have collapsed amid allegations of scandal. The implosion
of FTX, which appears to have used depositors’ money in an attempt to prop up a
related trading firm, has made the most headlines, but it’s only one entry on a
growing list.
We are, many people say, going through a “crypto winter.” But that may
understate the case. This is looking more and more like Fimbulwinter, the
endless winter that, in Norse mythology, precedes the end of the world — in
this case the crypto world, not just cryptocurrencies but the whole idea of
organizing economic life around the famous “blockchain.”
And the real question, it seems to me, is why so many people — not just naïve
small investors, but also major financial and business players — bought into
the belief that this bad idea was the wave of the future."
Via Dewayne Hendricks and Dave Farber.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
