A Crypto True Believer Makes His Case
Welcome to Galaxy Brain -- a newsletter from Charlie Warzel about technology and culture and big ideas. You can read what this is all about here. If you like what you see, consider forwarding it to a friend or two. We're still figuring things out in our new home so let me know what you think: galaxybrain@theatlantic.com
I'm toying with a Galaxy Brain series I want to call "Money Isn't Real." This is my first (earnest) attempt to look at the weirdness happening right now that is also making people gobs of money. I wrote about this a bit at my old home and it is...in some ways a primer. Warning: This post is long. But let me make the case for reading it all.
As a technology writer, I try to balance healthy skepticism of new tools and products and platforms with the understanding that technology will evolve whether I like it or not. I don’t want to buy into the hype, but I think it’s also worth keeping an open (or at least curious) mind about movements that are growing in power and popularity.
Nowhere has this been harder for me than in the world of crypto. In recent years the crypto conversation has moved from a fringe topic dominated by a small segment of shit-stirring diehards, criminals, curious developers, and literal cryptographers to a mainstream obsession for many household names in tech, media, politics, art, and finance. Now, the true believers are adamant that the internet itself is going to transition and reorient itself around cryptographic tokens and blockchain technology (this change is referred to as Web3). This internet would be decentralized and far more immersive. The idea has captured the interest of countless technologists, like Mark Zuckerberg, who are looking to make a land grab in the event of a new era of the internet (this is partly where the metaverse comes into play). It’s all quite complicated, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, here are a few explainers.
Given the energy and money (the biggest thing crypto has done so far is make a lot of people stupidly wealthy … and now they’re using that money) behind crypto projects and ambitions, I’m naturally interested in following this topic. But the conversation, I find, is ridiculously polarized. Ryan Broderick wrote about the crypto culture war this week, but it’s something I’ve been trying to parse for years now. I feel like I’m always speaking to either a zealous true crypto believer who will cede no ground, or somebody who basically thinks crypto is so morally bankrupt that even discussing it is odious.
So today I’m having a conversation with a true believer who I think can bring some nuance to the discussion. I’ve known Aaron Lammer for a while now—he is aspecialist for Radkl. He’s deep in the weeds on crypto, but he’s also good at calling bullshit on it—his podcast,, is an eight-part series dedicated to investigating the suspicious collapse of a Canadian crypto exchange.
