Chatter Report: Antonopoulos Criticizes KYC, Kasireddy Claims Decentralization Not Always Better

Criticism is the overarching theme of today’s crypto chatter roundup. Andreas Antonopoulos vehemently opposes mandatory KYC to access banking services. Also, Preethi Kasireddy calls for cryptocurrency users to rethink decentralization.

Also Read: Jimmy Song Uses Andreas Antonopoulos Model, Open Sources Forthcoming Book

The Role of Documentation in Banking

Mastering Bitcoin author Andreas Antonopoulos recently released a video that criticized the need for documentation to access banking services.

Antonopoulos explains that requiring documentation for banking is a historically recent phenomenon that is based on two assumptions. First, people with identification are “assumed” to be good and thus allowed access to banking services. Also, documentation is required because it allows governments to track and punish those who commit crime.

Antonopoulos is critical of both these assumptions as they have excluded “several billion people from the financial system.” Also, it’s a system that doesn’t work because society is full of criminals who have identification documents and banking licenses.

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Antonopoulos also believes that current KYC banking requirements are a toxic and fascist concept that gives governments too much power. Since the government issues identification documents, they have absolute control over who has access to financial services. This is supposed to prevent fraud and terrorism, but the result is that criminals are funded and supported by governments themselves.

More Decentralization Is Not Always Better

In other news, Trustory founder Preethi Kasireddy recently called out crypto Twitter on their religious-like stance on decentralization.

The Crypto community needs to STOP equating: Decentralizated == always BETTER &

Centralized == always WORSE Even a slight bit of common sense would tell you that this is incorrect. Context matters. Let's stop talking in absolutes and sounding like idiots. — Preethi Kasireddy (@iam_preethi) December 19, 2018

Centralization is a taboo concept in the crypto community and often serves as the basis for strong criticism about cryptocurrency projects. Kasireddy argues that this should not be the case because context matters when talking about decentralization. Her statement received mixed reactions. One commentator opined that decentralization is always better because “you can build centralized apps on top of a decentralized protocol, but you can’t build a decentralized app on top of a centralized protocol.”

Other cryptocurrency pundits agreed with Kasireddy, like Melik Manukyan who lamented the use of “decentralization” as just another empty buzzword. Manukyan believes that decentralization is just a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

What do you think of requiring documentation to access banking services? How about the importance of decentralization in the cryptocurrency industry? Let us know in the comments below.

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