Tuesday, May 10, 2016

We Need to Know Who Satoshi Nakamoto Is - The New Yorker

Final paragraph from a timely bitcoin reality check

"It is no surprise that bitcoin has found many backers in Silicon Valley; the founders of today’s billion-dollar tech companies often espouse a milder form of the Cypherpunks’ techno-libertarianism. It is most evident in the Silicon Valley fetish for “disruption,” the buzzword that celebrates technological innovation as an end in itself, with little regard for the costs to existing social relations. This ideology has motivated the development of amazing new technologies in the face of legal and economic hurdles, but it is also at the root of Silicon Valley’s widely criticized arrogance. It leads to missteps like Facebook’s ham-fisted, neocolonial “free basics” disaster, and the blinkered view that many tech elites have toward the lack of diversity in their field. Turning away from the question of Nakamoto’s identity is a way to deny the fact that bitcoin, like all technology, is ultimately, imperfectly, human. The world could use this reminder now more than ever."
We Need to Know Who Satoshi Nakamoto Is - The New Yorker

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