Stephen Diehl thinks policymakers should be offered an alternate view to crypto enthusiasts’ dreams of a digital-asset Nirvana.
For some skeptics, the dream of crypto is more like a nightmare.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/BloombergVictoria Vergolina
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If you’ve ever found yourself on Crypto Twitter, you’ll be familiar with the hype machine that keeps the industry’s thousands of projects going. Rallying cries of “WAGMI” — an acronym for We’re All Going To Make It — and “To the Moon!” abound, found in tweets from accounts with colorful, graphic profile pictures and usually a hashtag or two.
But there are two sides to every story, and if you’ve come across a Twitter display name featuring the Tulip emoji, you might find a crypto skeptic instead. A reference to the Dutch tulip mania of the 1600s, these figures – technologists, academics and writers among them – are working to counteract crypto enthusiasts’ bullish zeal with a dose of reality.
Stephen Diehl is a software engineer by trade, a leading crypto skeptic and now co-founder of the recently established Center for Emerging Technology Policy. He joins this episode to examine crypto’s promises of a brighter tomorrow, and uncover the parts that might actually be closer to myth.
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