Ben Shapino vs. Big Dick Wolff

However, Wolff’s point that “they won’t allow [cryptocurrencies]” because it’s too disruptive does not acknowledge the progress made around cryptocurrency acceptance into the corporate and investment space. The 2019 Deloitte Global Blockchain study found that more than 50% of the surveyed senior executives consider blockchain an essential strategic direction, up by 10% compared to 2018. Moreover, four in ten respondents said they plan to invest in 2019 over five million dollars to develop solutions based on blockchain. No matter what you think about these executives, these are not insignificant statistics. In Grundrisse Mark wrote “Capital undertakes only advantageous undertakings, advantageous in its sense” meaning that if there is an advantage for adopting a technology, Capital will find a way to do it. It may be disruptive, but we should keep in mind that capitalist markets are essentially battlegrounds for the bourgeois class and the pro- crypto segment of them are getting ready for that fight. Unfortunately, there’s a high probability that it will most likely be the workers who will suffer the most from that fight. I wouldn’t underestimate them.

Conclusion: The consensus of Chomsky and Wolff seems to be “Cryptocurrencies = definitely bad” and “Blockchain = Good Maybe?” They both make good points but they miss the forest for the trees. Their misconceived notions are understandable and doesn’t take away from the work that they’ve done for the Left, however Blockchain in a left wing context warrants a more robust analysis and I plan to do just that.

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