[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Letter to Congress re Blockchain and Crypto Hype

[Jerry Harris]

Bob,
I agree the term "blockchain" is almost as generic as "database." In my
talk, I used terms like "Bitcoin Blockchain" to offer more clarity to which
instance of a blockchain I was referring. However, I don't think the letter
was referring to a generic blockchain-based system. I think its context is
for any cryptocurrency-based blockchain, where coins are minted upon block
validation. I think you and the authors of the letter agree that more
regulation is required.

Jerry

On Fri, Jun 3, 2022 at 3:23 PM Robert Primak <bobprimak at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What I think is being called "the blockchain" or "blockchain technology"
> is too narrow a definition. But regulation of crypto transactions, and
> especially of the products and services which use blockchain technology, is
> in my opinion inevitable.
>
> The technology can be misapplied. But it also has more mundane and
> practical use cases which have already been made. As I have said before,
> credit card companies, logistics operations and many other businesses and
> industries, have all been successfully using blockchain technologies and
> validation methods for some time now.
>
> What needs to be the focus of regulation, it seems to me, is the use of
> blockchains and cryptocurrencies, NFTs and Meta goods and services, in the
> FinTech industry.  FinTech and related investment vehicles are not now
> adequately or properly regulated. There is no SEC or CFTC for crypto
> exchanges. And that is sometimes a fatal flaw in the world of crypto based
> investing. It is more of a speculative market than it needs to be. And most
> investors don't even know just how shaky the underpinnings of many crypto
> and NFT blockchains really are. Not to mention the outright scams and
> frauds in this arena.
>
> Concern is warranted. But outright banning of the underlying blockchain
> technology is not only unwise, it is impossible. Blockchain tech. is not
> the problem. The speculative  misuses of blockchains is a huge problem.
>
> Anyway, that's my partially-informed take on this latest outcry against
> crypto and blockchains. I expect a lot of sound and fury, but very little
> action from this Administration, this Congress or the Courts. And even less
> action if the political tides in Washington and in the States turn yet
> again.
>
> -- Bob Primak
>
> On Friday, June 3, 2022 at 01:58:36 PM EDT, Jerry Harris <
> jerryharri at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
> I am sharing this since on the day I gave the Bitcoin / Web3 talk, a group
> of 25 computer scientists, software engineers and technologists drafted a
> letter <http://concerned.tech> to Congress Wednesday criticizing
> blockchain technology. It did not go over well with the crypto community.
> The letter focused most of its attention on blockchain technology, and it
> didn't hold back: “Not all innovation is unqualifiedly good; not everything
> that we can build should be built. The history of technology is full of
> dead ends, false starts, and wrong turns"
>
> A well-known Kubernetes engineer Kelsey Hightower felt a harsh backlash,
> saying that he’d received death threats over Twitter DMs. “Now I gotta go
> figure out how to unsign a thing. This isn't the hill I'm willing to
> literally die on." He didn't remove his signature, and he's not the only
> critic of crypto I've heard receiving death threats, DDOS attacks, and
> other harassment.
>
> "The catastrophes and externalities related to blockchain technologies and
> crypto-asset investments are neither isolated nor are they growing pains of
> a nascent technology. They are the inevitable outcomes of a technology that
> is not built for its purpose and will remain forever unsuitable as a
> foundation for large-scale economic activity.
>
> Given these vast externalities, together with the-at best still-ambiguous,
> and at worst non-existent-uses of blockchain, we recommend that the
> Committee look beyond the hype and bluster of the crypto industry and
> understand not only its inherent flaws and extraordinary defects but also
> the litany of technological fallacies it is built upon."
>
> http://concerned.tech
>
> Jerry
> ===============================================
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