The Crypto Policy Symposium, organised by Stephen Diehl, Martin Walker and Darren Tseng, was held on Monday 5 September and Tuesday 6 September, and broadcast over Zoom to an appreciative audience of (I think) between 1000 and 2000. [Crypto Policy Symposium]
The intended target audience was regulators, bureaucrats and politicians — and they were very interested.
The organisers decided that this conference needed to lead to more action against technologies that were being used as bad excuses for predatory behaviour. So they’re starting a new US-based 501(c)4 foundation: the Center for Emerging Technology Policy. [CETP]
Stephen and Darren, with Jan Akalin, have also put out a book: Popping the Crypto Bubble. Available as a lovely paperback or hardback, or it’s free on Kindle Unlimited! [Amazon UK, Amazon US]
Stephen manned the Zoom desk with only a few sound dropouts. But if you missed anything, you’ll be pleased to hear that all the videos are up on the YouTube channel! [YouTube]
Here’s the sessions in original running order:
Monday:
- Conference opening
- Monday keynote: Representative Brad Sherman
- Are regulators and regulations fit to meet the crypto challenge? — Ruth Wandhöfer, Stephen Diamond, John Reed Stark
- Crypto and predatory inclusion — Martin Walker, Nadine Chabrier, Tonantzin Carmona, Mario Gomez, Fred Abrahams
- Crypto innovations: what are the risks? — Martin Walker, Edmund Schuster, Kelvin Low, Jared Bibler, Natasha de Teran
- The crypto virus: narrative economics in the golden age of fraud — Izabella Kaminska, Jacob Silverman, Ben McKenzie
- The politics of crypto — Izabella Kaminska, Vili Lehdonvirta, Ian Grigg
- Is crypto the new internet? — Rory Cellan-Jones, David Gerard, Keith Pritchard
Tuesday:
- Tuesday keynote: Alex Sobel MP
- The environmental impact of crypto — Martin Walker, Dr. Pete Howson, Alex de Vries, Bob Seeman
- Crypto, Blockchain, and Education — Sebastian Hervas-Jones, Roxana Marachi, Nicholas Weaver
- Cryptopia: land of the promised vs. virtual — Emily Nicole, Oscar Salguero, David Gerard, Molly White
- Football, crypto and NFTs — Jemima Kelly, Joey D’Urso, Geoffrey Huntley, JP Rangaswami
- Crypto contagion — Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, Carol Alexander, Frances Coppola, Amy Castor
- Conference Close & Special Announcement — Darren Tseng, Jan Akalin
Afterwards was a reception, with Jan, Darren, Stephen and Martin doing a panel and taking audience questions. [YouTube]
Jan, Darren, Stephen. Martin
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Even though I had already heard of the book, I misread it here as Popping the Crypto Pimple, which, well… one could probably take that metaphor and run with it.
(Notably, one should only rupture an acne pustule if one is a dermatologist, as doing so carelessly can easily cause the laceration to become infected. Unlike your average investment bubble, though, most pimples will just gradually disappear on their one. Perhaps crypto is more of a melanoma?)
The discussion on education was especially illuminating. Careful thinkers, coming from different areas of experience, genuinely trying to listen and learn from each other. Doesn’t happen very often nowadays.