In this particular case, Roubini resorted to an ad-hominem attack, too, but Buterin had a quick (and calm) rebuttal ready. Even as the founder of the second biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, he’s not a paper billionaire, getting wealthy off the crypto hype, and, thanks to the blockchain, his transactions are relatively transparent.
This, however, isn’t important. In our increasingly tech-dominated world, what matters is the philosophical difference. Do we want to stick with technology sufficient to run the world as we know it, just a bit more efficiently; or are we OK with technology that tries to change the nature of our interactions? That’s a question we need to ask more and more often — about gene editing, self-driving vehicles, communication and commerce without privacy and, yes, potential applications of the blockchain.
’m with the retrogrades on most of this, but I also understand and respect the engineers’ refusal to recognize existing boundaries as red lines.
Even if the crypto market implodes, as some predict, the engineers will keep working on the technology. A second coming should not be ruled out; there are plenty of precedents: electric cars, tablet computers, virtual reality. The smart money isn’t on the hype, it’s on the research and development.
Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics and business. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.