Olivier Jutel on Blockchain Imperialism
"For all the rhetoric of blockchain being a stateless technology, we have one government – that of the United States – actively pouring money into Tech Camps and other initiatives, all in order to turn the blockchain into the arch-solution to developmental problems. "
Thinking about crypto and web3, I’m constantly reminded about the ideological battles fought over the big digital platforms and Web 2.0. A decade ago, some of us easily saw through the hype promoted by the likes of Eric Schmidt or Mark Zuckerberg. But the reason why the ideological premises of Web 2.0 were so hard to dismantle was because for every Eric Schmidt, with his commitment to US-led global domination of the planet, there were five Stanford undergraduates who wanted to build an app to feed the hungry children of Africa or teach Syrian refugees how to code or stop violence against women.
Related Stats:
During 2021 Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total, which is comparable to the electrical energy consumed by a country like Argentina. Related CO2 emissions were ~64 Mt; enough to negate the entire global net savings from deploying EVs.