What’s the true value of crypto? It lays bare the lies of libertarians - NEWS TIMES 9

What’s the true value of crypto? It lays bare the lies of libertarians

The downfall of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange proves how much markets need rules

I’ve laboured hard not to engage with cryptocurrency, to turn the page on its scandals and file its many bin fires under “fools and their money being easily parted”. But this has been a mistake because the story is just getting good.

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said in 2020 that crypto was one of two poles of technological conflict, the other being artificial intelligence. AI could “theoretically make it possible to centrally control an entire economy”, while crypto “holds out the prospect of a decentralized and individualized world”. He concluded that AI is communist and crypto is libertarian; it was unnecessary to add which of those he thought was better.