Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) is a long time digital rights activist, author of many book on technology and sci-fi, and a journalist. You can find out more about him as well as his books on his website. Well known for being one of the most vocal left-of-center activists in the technology space, he has also expressed several doubts and skepticisms on blockchain and so I invited him to have this discussion.
During the interview we talked about his vision for the future of technology, what he thinks are the biggest issues (it’s not crypto), and his skepticisms about blockchains. I of course did my best to present the best case forward for crypto and the left. Unfortunately the interview took place before the Tornado Cash controversy although I was really curious what he would have to say about it and so emailed him afterwards and this his response:
“Code is speech. Sanctions for writing code – as opposed to using that code to take unlawful actions – are a danger to us all. Just as we can understand why someone who writes proof-of-concept code that *can* be used in malicious ways is not the same as someone who *does* use that code in malicious ways, writing code that *can* be used for money laundering is not the same as laundering money.”
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