Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, reads the title of a book published last year. From currency speculation through to verifying the provenance of food, blockchain technology is eking out space in a vast range of fields.
For most people, blockchain technologies are inseparable from bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has been particularly visible in the news thanks to its hyper-volatility.
Crypto-entrepreneurs have made and lost millions, and many people have parlayed their trading into a full-time job.
However, blockchain technology, which allows for immutable records of activities stored on a ledger that is held not just in one place, but massively distributed, has applications in every conceivable area in commerce and beyond.
Soon, there will be blockchains everywhere that transactions happen.
While the focus has so far been on currencies such as bitcoin, what is less well-known is the large and growing community of blockchain developers and evangelists, many of whom believe that the technology could herald radical changes in the ways economies and societies are structured.
However, there is a big question at the heart of that community: What might a world built with the help of blockchain technology look like?
Unchain, a large bitcoin and blockchain convention based in Hamburg, seems to have a potential answer.
Along with speakers from blockchain start-ups, cryptocurrency exchanges and a company that purports to offer “privately managed cities as a business,” the conference program also featured Alice Weidel, listed on the its Web site as an “economist and bitcoin entrepreneur.”
Weidel is the co-leader of far-right Alternative fur Deutschland, which in September last year became the third-largest party in Germany’s Bundestag. The rise of the party has caused deep soul-searching in Germany.
However, outside of the country’s borders, Weidel’s invitation to the Unchain summit also poses questions for the nascent blockchain community.
On one side are those who believe that crypto-technologies should be used to divert power away from states and into the hands of a righteous vanguard of right-wing libertarian hackers.
Some of these people are in positions of significant power: White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is a staunch bitcoin advocate and his appointment was warmly received by some crypto-news publications.
Mulvaney has previously addressed the John Birch Society, an extreme right-wing pressure group that was formed to root out communists during the Cold War, but that now specializes in US Federal Reserve conspiracy theories — a popular theme on some bitcoin forums.
However, there is another tendency: One that believes blockchain tech should be used as part of a liberatory political project, one that can redistribute wealth, and help to fund and safely connect participants in radical left activities.
There is already significant overlap between the crypto-community and those active in “platform cooperatives” — that is, organizations that are attempting to build alternatives to platform companies, such as Uber Technologies Inc and Deliveroo, with power and ownership in the hands of the workforce.
Similarly, The New Inquiry magazine recently launched Bail Bloc, a system that leverages participants’ unused computing power to mine cryptocurrency to pay bail bonds in New York.
In their book, Blockchain Revolution, Don and Alex Tapscott write that blockchains could revolutionize everything from business to government.
However, we are at a dangerous point for the adoption of crypto-technologies.
Blockchain technology has the potential to help us build a better world, but we need to take action to ensure that it does not lead us down the path preferred by Weidel and her companions.
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