Seeing the Round Corners

October 29, 2018

JARED POLIS – THE WONDERS OF BLOCKCHAIN

Sometimes when voters read the grand and glorious campaign platforms of candidates it makes us ordinary citizens wonder just what world they live in. To read Jared Polis’ issues on his campaign website is indeed disheartening to see just how far he is out of touch with ordinary Colorado citizens. True, the mega wealthy usually set themselves apart from the ordinary common citizen despite very great effort to show otherwise when it comes to running for public office.

Perhaps one of the most dangerous issues in Polis’ campaign is his position on Blockchain Policy. What is Blockchain Policy? First, this is Polis’ statement quoted directly from his campaign website:

Though our economy has grown, the next governor will need to continue to keep our state at the forefront of emerging markets in the technology sector.
In recent years the growth of distributed ledger technology has turned into a multibillion dollar industry and has the ability to revolutionize industries across the nation and our state.
From supply chains to cybersecurity to banking, blockchain-based solutions have the potential to reshape our economy, jobs, cybersecurity, and government transparency.
As governor, I will ensure that Colorado explores the potential use of blockchain technology and work alongside the business community, policy experts, local communities and Coloradans to build a robust economy for the future national hub for blockchain innovation in business and government. I believe strong leadership will put Colorado at the forefront of innovation in this sector – encouraging companies to flock to the state and establishing government applications that save taxpayers money and create value for Colorado residents.

For those who gave up on the Denver Post, the Sunday Perspective section headline reads “The Big Blockchain Lie, It’s not about decentralization and democracy; it is about greed.” It is well worth your time to read the article completely. The author of the article is Nouriel Roubini, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and CEO of Roubini Macro “Associates. What follows are significant points Mr. Roubini makes (quoted directly):

In practice, blockchain is nothing more than a glorified

spreadsheet.

Blockchain has been heralded as a potential panacea for everything from poverty and famine to cancer. In fact, it is the most overhyped – and least useful – technology in human history.
Blockchain fundamentalists’ ideal world is one in which all economic activity and human interactions are subject to anarchist or libertarian decentralization. They would like the entirety of social and political life to end up on public ledgers that are supposedly “permissionless” (accessible to everyone) and “trustless” (not reliant on a credible intermediary such as a bank).
Blockchain has also become the byword for a libertarian ideology that treats all governments, central banks, traditional financial institutions, and real-world currencies as evil concentration of power that must be destroyed.
Blockchain fanatics would have us put our faith in an anonymous cartel subject to no rule of law, rather than trust central banks and regulated financial intermediaries.
As for blockchain itself, there is no institution under the sun – bank, corporation, non-governmental organization or government agency – that would put its balance sheet or register of transaction, trades, and interactions with clients and suppliers on public decentralized peer-to-peer permissionless ledgers. There is no reason why such proprietary and highly valuable information should be recorded publicly.

Readers are encouraged to think long and hard about a candidate who supports such a hair-brained issue as Blockchain Technology being good for Colorado, especially coupled with his glaring problem with transparency as written about in an earlier edition of Seeing the Round Corners.

The mission of Seeing the Round Corners is to evoke a thought process and interest in becoming better informed and to be skeptical of the headline-grabbing purveyors of information. The writer belongs to the Society of Professional Journalists.

The reader's comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.