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

[Robert Primak]

 Yes, I agree that sensible regulations for cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges would be wise.
The authors of the letter did not specify cryptocurrency blockchains. In fact, they cited some non-crypto examples as "proof" that there is no legitimate use case for blockchain technology.
-- Bob Primak
    On Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 09:41:37 AM EDT, Jerry Harris <jerryharri at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 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 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===============================================
::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::
Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.
Send to the list: LCTG at lists.toku.us      Message archives: http://lists.toku.us/private.cgi/lctg-toku.us
To subscribe: email lctg-subscribe at toku.us  To unsubscribe: email lctg-unsubscribe at toku.us
Future and Past meeting information: http://LCTG.toku.us
List information: http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us
This message was sent to bobprimak at yahoo.com.
Set your list options: http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/bobprimak@yahoo.com  
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/attachments/20220608/fc6f78d0/attachment.html>