From 95f555ba36157d0127fbbec1999e1a040fb8e84c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: sdiehl Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2022 16:40:12 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Expand claims --- claims/is-collapse.md | 6 ++- claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md | 6 ++- claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md | 67 +++++++++++++++++------------- claims/is-opportunity-cost.md | 6 ++- meta/claims-todo.md | 10 ++--- 5 files changed, 56 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-) diff --git a/claims/is-collapse.md b/claims/is-collapse.md index dcf5e15..ae20410 100644 --- a/claims/is-collapse.md +++ b/claims/is-collapse.md @@ -1,3 +1,5 @@ -# Are crypto tokens a means to accelerate the collapse of capitalism? +# Crypto tokens are not a means to destroy capitalism -## References \ No newline at end of file +Crypto tokens are indeed a form of [predatory investment](../concepts/predatory-inclusion.md) that may have wide-reaching consequences in the lives of people it harms. However it is not a means to accelerate the collapse of capitalism even if one subscribes to the [accelerationism](../concepts/accelerationism.md) school of thought and believed this the acceleration of capitalism and its destruction was a good thing. + +The crypto ideology is an extension of neoliberal project that aims to expand the scope and reach of markets to all aspects of human life, a concept often referred to [as hyperfinancialization](is-hyperfinancialization.md). Since crypto tokens aim to expand the scope of capitalism, they cannot bring about anything but more capitalism. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md b/claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md index d8eccc8..2658eb8 100644 --- a/claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md +++ b/claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md @@ -1,5 +1,7 @@ # Is web3 a means to dismantle the American tech hegemony? -See [recentralization](../concepts/recentralization.md). +Web3 is not a means to disrupt the American tech hegemony, companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. Since web3 has no coherent meaning or purpose, all projects that are currently being developed under the web3 umbrella are aimless technical Potemkin villages that mask thinly veiled [pump and dump](../concepts/pump-and-dump.md) schemes based on [securities](../concepts/security.md) [regulatory arbitrage](../concepts/regulatory-arbitrage.md). This type of company structure is not set up for long term growth or product delivery outside of pumping more token schemes. -## References \ No newline at end of file +This is further evidenced by the simple fact that [blockchain](../concepts/blockchain.md) technologies have intractable scalability problems, and that the only means they do scale is by [recentralization](../concepts/recentralization.md) thereby recreating just another corporate monolith but based on inferior technology and without the ability to perform [regulatory arbitrage](../concepts/regulatory-arbitrage.md).. + +There is no future in web3 that poses any threat to tech monopoly because there simply is no meaningful tech to challenge any real business model. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md b/claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md index fc1c53f..18d94b8 100644 --- a/claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md +++ b/claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md @@ -1,32 +1,41 @@ # Is crypto bringing about the "financialization of everything"? +The purpose of NFTs and crypto projects generally is to further expand the scope [artificial scarcity](../concepts/artificial-scarcity.md), [enclosure](../concepts/enclosure.md) and financialize greater portions of the human experience. The stated aim of the crypto political project is world in which all aspects of human life (art, justice, philosophy, politics, relationships) are simply [ficticious commodity](../concepts/ficticious-commodity.md) to be traded in a market place and that human beings should subordinate all free will and their individuality and rationality to the market. + +The embodiment of the web3 and crypto ideology is an example of what the political theorist Macpherson denoted *possessive individualism*: + +> [Possessive individualism is a philosophy] in which an individual is conceived as the sole proprietor of his or her skills and owes nothing to society for them. These skills (and those of others) are a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market, and in such a society is demonstrated a selfish and unending thirst for consumption which is considered the crucial core of human nature. + +Projects like NFTs and the their increasing enclosure of culture have indicated that the intent of crypto is nothing but the complete domination of the human experience by Capital in the bleak dystopian future imagined by their acolytes. + ## References -* Bellinger, Matthew. 2018. ‘The Rhetoric of Bitcoin: Money, Politics, and the Construction of Blockchain Communities’. ResearchWorks Archive. PhD Thesis. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/43342. -* Breidbach, Christoph F., and Silviana Tana. 2021. ‘Betting on Bitcoin: How Social Collectives Shape Cryptocurrency Markets’. Journal of Business Research 122: 311–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.017. -* Bruun, Maja Hojer, Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen, and Adrienne Mannov. 2020. ‘Infrastructures of Trust and Distrust: The Politics and Ethics of Emerging Cryptographic Technologies’. Anthropology Today 36 (2): 13–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12562. -* Diehl, Stephen. 2021a. ‘Gamestop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage’. 3 February 2021. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/gamestop.html. -* *———. n.d. ‘The Case Against Crypto’. Accessed 17 February 2022. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/against-crypto.html. -* Lee, Seung Cheol. 2020. ‘Magical Capitalism, Gambler Subjects: South Korea’s Bitcoin Investment Frenzy’. Cultural Studies 0 (0): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2020.1788620. -* Starita, G D. 2018. ‘On Bitcoin Usage, Techno-Optimism and Participation-An Anthropological Perspective on Rovereto s Bitcoin Valley Users’. Master’s Thesis. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/374186. -* Stephenson, Will. n.d. ‘Cryptonomicon’. Harpers Review. Accessed 2 March 2022. https://harpers.org/archive/2022/03/cryptonomicon-bitcoin-maximalists-miami/. -* Stinchcombe, Kai. 2018. ‘Blockchain Is Not Only Crappy Technology but a Bad Vision for the Future’. Medium (blog). 9 April 2018. https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/decentralized-and-trustless-crypto-paradise-is-actually-a-medieval-hellhole-c1ca122efdec. -* Tante. 2021. ‘The Third Web’. Nodes in a Social Network (blog). 17 December 2021. https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/. -* Warzel, Charlie. 2021. ‘The Absurdity Is the Point’. Substack newsletter. Galaxy Brain (blog). 11 May 2021. https://warzel.substack.com/p/the-absurdity-is-the-point. -* Weisenthal, Joe. n.d. ‘Bitcoin Is a Faith-Based Asset’. Accessed 2 March 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-21/bitcoin-is-a-faith-based-asset-joe-weisenthal. -* Xu, Yizhou. 2021. ‘Digitizing Death: Commodification of Joss Paper on Chinese Online Cemetery’. Journal of Cultural Economy 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1952099. -* Aharon, David Y., and Ender Demir. 2021. ‘NFTs and Asset Class Spillovers: Lessons from the Period around the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Finance Research Letters, 102515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102515. -* Bodó, Balázs, Alexandra Giannopoulou, João Quintais, and Péter Mezei. 2022. ‘The Rise of NFTs: These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For’. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4000423. -* Diehl, Stephen. 2021. ‘The Tinkerbell Griftopia’. 19 November 2021. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/tinkerbell.html. -* Dowling, Michael. 2021. ‘Fertile LAND: Pricing Non-Fungible Tokens’. Finance Research Letters, 102096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102096. -* Fairfield, Joshua. 2021. ‘Tokenized: The Law of Non-Fungible Tokens and Unique Digital Property’. Indiana Law Journal, 1–99. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3821102. -* Frye, Brian L. 2021. ‘After Copyright: Pwning NFTs in a Clout Economy’. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3971240. -* *———. n.d. ‘How to Sell NFTs Without Really Trying’. Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Forthcoming. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3930430. -* Gibson, Johanna. 2021. ‘The Thousand-and-Second Tale of NFTS, as Foretold by Edgar Allan Poe’. Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property 11 (3): 249–69. https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.00. -* Guadamuz, Andres. 2021. ‘The Treachery of Images: Non-Fungible Tokens and Copyright’. SSRN Electronic Journal 16 (12): 1367–85. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3905452. -* Kim, Soyeon. 2020. ‘Fractional Ownership, Democratization, and Bubble Formation - The Impact of Blockchain Enabled Asset Tokenization’. 26th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2020, 0–5. https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2020/adv_info_systems_research/adv_info_systems_research/19/. -* Kong, De-Rong, and Tse-Chun Lin. 2021. ‘Alternative Investments in the Fintech Era: The Risk and Return of Non-Fungible Token (NFT)’. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914085. -* Low, Kelvin F K. 2021. ‘The Emperor’s New Art: Cryptomania, Art & Property’. Art & Property. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3978241. -* Mackenzie, Simon, and Diāna Bērziņa. 2021. ‘NFTs: Digital Things and Their Criminal Lives’. Crime, Media, Culture, 17416590211039796. https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590211039797. -* Nadini, Matthieu, Laura Alessandretti, Flavio Di Giacinto, Mauro Martino, Luca Maria Aiello, and Andrea Baronchelli. 2021. ‘Mapping the NFT Revolution: Market Trends, Trade Networks, and Visual Features’. Scientific Reports 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00053-8. -* *‘NFTs, Cryptocurrencies and Web3 Are Multilevel Marketing Schemes for a New Generation - WSJ’. n.d. Accessed 14 March 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nfts-cryptocurrencies-and-web3-are-multilevel-marketing-schemes-for-a-new-generation-11645246824. -* Olson, Dan. 2022a. Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g. \ No newline at end of file +1. McKay, Ian (2014). "A Half-Century of Possessive Individualism: C.B. Macpherson and the Twenty-First-Century Prospects of Liberalism". Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 25 (1): 307–340. doi:10.7202/1032806ar. ISSN 1712-6274. +1. Bellinger, Matthew. 2018. ‘The Rhetoric of Bitcoin: Money, Politics, and the Construction of Blockchain Communities’. ResearchWorks Archive. PhD Thesis. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/43342. +1. Breidbach, Christoph F., and Silviana Tana. 2021. ‘Betting on Bitcoin: How Social Collectives Shape Cryptocurrency Markets’. Journal of Business Research 122: 311–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.017. +1. Bruun, Maja Hojer, Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen, and Adrienne Mannov. 2020. ‘Infrastructures of Trust and Distrust: The Politics and Ethics of Emerging Cryptographic Technologies’. Anthropology Today 36 (2): 13–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12562. +1. Diehl, Stephen. 2021a. ‘Gamestop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage’. 3 February 2021. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/gamestop.html. +1. *———. n.d. ‘The Case Against Crypto’. Accessed 17 February 2022. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/against-crypto.html. +1. Lee, Seung Cheol. 2020. ‘Magical Capitalism, Gambler Subjects: South Korea’s Bitcoin Investment Frenzy’. Cultural Studies 0 (0): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2020.1788620. +1. Starita, G D. 2018. ‘On Bitcoin Usage, Techno-Optimism and Participation-An Anthropological Perspective on Rovereto s Bitcoin Valley Users’. Master’s Thesis. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/374186. +1. Stephenson, Will. n.d. ‘Cryptonomicon’. Harpers Review. Accessed 2 March 2022. https://harpers.org/archive/2022/03/cryptonomicon-bitcoin-maximalists-miami/. +1. Stinchcombe, Kai. 2018. ‘Blockchain Is Not Only Crappy Technology but a Bad Vision for the Future’. Medium (blog). 9 April 2018. https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/decentralized-and-trustless-crypto-paradise-is-actually-a-medieval-hellhole-c1ca122efdec. +1. Tante. 2021. ‘The Third Web’. Nodes in a Social Network (blog). 17 December 2021. https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/. +1. Warzel, Charlie. 2021. ‘The Absurdity Is the Point’. Substack newsletter. Galaxy Brain (blog). 11 May 2021. https://warzel.substack.com/p/the-absurdity-is-the-point. +1. Weisenthal, Joe. n.d. ‘Bitcoin Is a Faith-Based Asset’. Accessed 2 March 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-21/bitcoin-is-a-faith-based-asset-joe-weisenthal. +1. Xu, Yizhou. 2021. ‘Digitizing Death: Commodification of Joss Paper on Chinese Online Cemetery’. Journal of Cultural Economy 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1952099. +1. Aharon, David Y., and Ender Demir. 2021. ‘NFTs and Asset Class Spillovers: Lessons from the Period around the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Finance Research Letters, 102515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102515. +1. Bodó, Balázs, Alexandra Giannopoulou, João Quintais, and Péter Mezei. 2022. ‘The Rise of NFTs: These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For’. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4000423. +1. Diehl, Stephen. 2021. ‘The Tinkerbell Griftopia’. 19 November 2021. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/tinkerbell.html. +1. Dowling, Michael. 2021. ‘Fertile LAND: Pricing Non-Fungible Tokens’. Finance Research Letters, 102096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102096. +1. Fairfield, Joshua. 2021. ‘Tokenized: The Law of Non-Fungible Tokens and Unique Digital Property’. Indiana Law Journal, 1–99. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3821102. +1. Frye, Brian L. 2021. ‘After Copyright: Pwning NFTs in a Clout Economy’. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3971240. +1. *———. n.d. ‘How to Sell NFTs Without Really Trying’. Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Forthcoming. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3930430. +1. Gibson, Johanna. 2021. ‘The Thousand-and-Second Tale of NFTS, as Foretold by Edgar Allan Poe’. Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property 11 (3): 249–69. https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.00. +1. Guadamuz, Andres. 2021. ‘The Treachery of Images: Non-Fungible Tokens and Copyright’. SSRN Electronic Journal 16 (12): 1367–85. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3905452. +1. Kim, Soyeon. 2020. ‘Fractional Ownership, Democratization, and Bubble Formation - The Impact of Blockchain Enabled Asset Tokenization’. 26th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2020, 0–5. https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2020/adv_info_systems_research/adv_info_systems_research/19/. +1. Kong, De-Rong, and Tse-Chun Lin. 2021. ‘Alternative Investments in the Fintech Era: The Risk and Return of Non-Fungible Token (NFT)’. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914085. +1. Low, Kelvin F K. 2021. ‘The Emperor’s New Art: Cryptomania, Art & Property’. Art & Property. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3978241. +1. Mackenzie, Simon, and Diāna Bērziņa. 2021. ‘NFTs: Digital Things and Their Criminal Lives’. Crime, Media, Culture, 17416590211039796. https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590211039797. +1. Nadini, Matthieu, Laura Alessandretti, Flavio Di Giacinto, Mauro Martino, Luca Maria Aiello, and Andrea Baronchelli. 2021. ‘Mapping the NFT Revolution: Market Trends, Trade Networks, and Visual Features’. Scientific Reports 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00053-8. +1. *‘NFTs, Cryptocurrencies and Web3 Are Multilevel Marketing Schemes for a New Generation - WSJ’. n.d. Accessed 14 March 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nfts-cryptocurrencies-and-web3-are-multilevel-marketing-schemes-for-a-new-generation-11645246824. +1. Olson, Dan. 2022a. Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/claims/is-opportunity-cost.md b/claims/is-opportunity-cost.md index eada168..59b52bb 100644 --- a/claims/is-opportunity-cost.md +++ b/claims/is-opportunity-cost.md @@ -1,4 +1,8 @@ -# Is crypto providing faster payment rails or better remittance services? +# There is an enormous opportunity cost to building crypto + +Crypto companies and projects are draining resources and capital that could be better invested in [productive assets](../concepts/productive-asset.md). Since these assets are [non-economic](../concepts/non-economic.md) they do not produce any net wealth or value for society as a whole, much like buying and holding physical commodities but without the commodities having [any use case or purpose](../concepts/ficticious-commodity.md). + +The crypto project on a whole is therefore a drain on both capital markets and the technology industry since it is consuming time, resources, and talent that could be put towards more productive enterprises. It is a form a civilizational brain-drain towards projects which result in no net good and massive negative exteranlities on the world. ## References 1. Cembalest, Michael. 2022. ‘The Maltese Falcoin: On Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains’. https://privatebank.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-wm-aem/global/pb/en/insights/eye-on-the-market/the-maltese-falcoin.pdf. diff --git a/meta/claims-todo.md b/meta/claims-todo.md index 406f5d3..cabb832 100644 --- a/meta/claims-todo.md +++ b/meta/claims-todo.md @@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ - [x] [what-type-of-asset](../claims/what-type-of-asset.md) - [ ] [hedge-debasement](../claims/hedge-debasement.md) - [ ] [is-better-payments](../claims/is-better-payments.md) -- [ ] [is-collapse](../claims/is-collapse.md) -- [ ] [is-disrupt-hegemony](../claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md) -- [ ] [is-hyperfinancialization](../claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md) +- [x] [is-collapse](../claims/is-collapse.md) +- [x] [is-disrupt-hegemony](../claims/is-disrupt-hegemony.md) +- [x] [is-hyperfinancialization](../claims/is-hyperfinancialization.md) - [ ] [is-legal](../claims/is-legal.md) - [ ] [is-new-financial-system](../claims/is-new-financial-system.md) -- [ ] [is-opportunity-cost](../claims/is-opportunity-cost.md) +- [x] [is-opportunity-cost](../claims/is-opportunity-cost.md) - [ ] [is-private-money](../claims/is-private-money.md) - [ ] [is-public-goods](../claims/is-public-goods.md) - [ ] [is-raise-company](../claims/is-raise-company.md) @@ -27,4 +27,4 @@ - [ ] [new-internet](../claims/new-internet.md) - [ ] [transnational-payment](../claims/transnational-payment.md) - [ ] [web3-decentralized](../claims/web3-decentralized.md) -- [ ] [web3-green](../claims/web3-green.md) +- [x] [web3-green](../claims/web3-green.md)