Ethereums Founder on What Crypto Can and Cant Do
When most people hear \u201ccrypto,\u201d the first thing they think of is \u201ccurrencies.\u201d Cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. And they\u2019ve given rise to an entire ecosystem of financial speculation, get rich quick schemes, and in some cases outright fraud.\n\nBut there\u2019s another side of crypto that gets less attention: the segment of the community that is interested in the way the technology that powers crypto can decentralize decision making, make institutions more transparent and transform the way organizations are governed. That\u2019s the side I find far more interesting.\n\nThere are few individuals as central to that latter segment of crypto as Vitalik Buterin. When he was still just a teenager, Buterin co-founded Ethereum, a decentralized platform whose token Ether is the second most valuable cryptocurrency today, surpassed only by Bitcoin. But the vision behind Ethereum was that the blockchain technology could be used for more than digital money; it could create a sort of digital infrastructure on top of which organizations and companies and applications could be built \u2014 ostensibly free of centralizing structures like banks and governments.\n\nOver the last decade, Buterin has become arguably the core public intellectual on the nonfinancial side of crypto. His new book, \u201cProof of Stake,\u201d is a collection of long, thoughtful essays that taken together lay out a vision of crypto as a truly transformative technology \u2014 one with the potential to revolutionize everything from city governance to voting systems to online identity.\n\nI myself have dueling impulses about Buterin\u2019s vision. On the one hand, I believe many of our governing systems and institutions are badly in need of the kind of reimagining he is engaged in. On the other hand, I\u2019m deeply skeptical of whether the issues Buterin and his ilk are focused on are actually technological problems that blockchains can solve. So this is a conversation that sits squarely within that tension.\n\nMentioned:\n\nSeeing Like a State by James C. Scott\n\nBook recommendations:\n\nThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer\n\nHarry Potter and The Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky\n\nAlgorithmic Game Theory by Noam Nisan, Tim Roughgarden, Eva Tardos and Vijay V. Vazirani\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin and Rog\xe9 Karma. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Sonia Herrero, Isaac Jones and Carole Sabouraud. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin, Kristina Samulewski, Will Wilkinson, Alex Tabarrok, Glen Weyl and Nathan Schneider.