The Future of Money
Cryptocurrency, central bank digital currencies, and the limits of technical solutions to political problems
Digital money has attracted extraordinary enthusiasm and extraordinary investment. It has also, in its decade and a half of existence, generated financial bubbles, massive fraud, and a reproduction of the concentrated power dynamics it was designed to escape. Understanding what digital money can and cannot accomplish requires understanding what money is -- which brings us back to the beginning.
Bitcoin and 2008
Bitcoin was born as a response to the 2008 crisis -- a technical solution to what its creators understood as an institutional problem.
How Blockchain Works
The technical architecture of distributed ledgers, proof of work, and why trustless systems require enormous energy.
The Crypto Ecosystem
From stablecoins to DeFi to NFTs: the institutions that cryptocurrency built, and the ways they reproduced the problems they were meant to solve.
Central Bank Digital Currencies
Governments are designing digital versions of national currencies. The implications for privacy, monetary policy, and financial inclusion are significant.
De-Dollarization
China, Russia, and others are attempting to reduce dependence on the dollar system. How far has this progressed, and what would it mean?
What Digital Money Cannot Fix
Technology can change the medium of exchange. It cannot change the political relationships that determine who benefits from monetary arrangements.