Listening to a recent episode of the Solarpunk Presents podcast reminded me the importance of consistently calling out cryptocurrency as a wasteful scam. The podcast hosts fail to do that, and because bad actors will continue to try to push crypto, we must condemn it with equal persistence.
Solarpunks must be skeptical of anyone saying it’s important to buy something, like a Tesla, or buy in, with cryptocurrency. Capitalists want nothing more than to co-opt radical movements, neutralizing them, to sell products.
People shilling crypto will tell you it decentralizes power. So that’s a lie, but solarpunks who believe it may be fooled into investing in this Ponzi scheme that burns more energy than some countries. Crypto will centralize power in billionaires, increasing their wealth and decreasing their accountability. That’s why Space Karen Elon Musk pushes crypto. The freer the market, the faster it devolves to monopoly. Rather than decentralizing anything, crypto would steer us toward a Bladerunner dystopia with its all-powerful Tyrell corporation.
Promoting crypto on a solarpunk podcast would be unforgivable. That’s not quite what happens on S5E1 “Let’s Talk Tech.” The hosts seem to understand crypto has no part in a solarpunk future or its prefigurative present. But they don’t come out and say that, adopting a tone of impartiality. At best, I would call this disingenuous. And it reeks of the both-sides-ism that corporate media used to paralyze climate action discourse for decades.
Crypto is not “appropriate tech,” and discussing it without any clarity is inappropriate.
Update for episode 5.3: In a case of hyper hypocrisy, they caution against accepting superficial solutions—things that appear utopian but really reinforce inequality and accelerate the climate crisis—while doing exactly that by talking up cryptocurrency.
So you mean, it has value because we believe it does. Got it. Inherent to the properties of the universe, nothing has value. Value is assigned by humans. Isn’t that why countries have credit ratings? How much faith the world has in your currency, stability and otherwise? If a government collapses or suffers the country through hyperinflation, is the value of the currency not imaginary? It’s not like you could collect on your Confederate Promissory Notes for any gold or anything of any value after the civil war. The existence of its value was contingent on winning a war. And instantaneously, that value evaporated. Now imagine this in crypto. Oh wait, that happens all the time. Just one little X class solar flair away from nuking the lot of it.
Idk. I agree with a lot of your points. But I think we are just arguing from different existential points of view. I’m not saying that the belief isn’t valuable, that the backed or fiat currency is wrong or superior or whatever. I’m just of the mindset generally that nothing has meaning other than what we choose to give meaning. But that’s just the optimistic nihilist in me.
Also there may have been a misunderstanding at some point about a distinction between value and usefulness. When I say value, I mean intrinsic worth. As opposed to how I would use usefulness which is to serve a purpose or fill a need.