IO Radio #19: Peter Howson, Researcher and Author of "Let Them Eat Crypto"

Dr. Peter Howson is a professor of International Development and a researcher who's worked around the world on projects related to environmental sustainability in the global south. We recently sat down with him to discuss his new book, "Let Them Eat Crypto." When he first heard about blockchain through his NGO partners, he bought into the hype that the technology could help solve some of the problems he was seeing in his field. He soon discovered that instead of a solution, blockchain based crypto projects offer a vehicle through which the ultra-wealthy exploit the poor and enrich themselves at the expense of the most vulnerable. Peter wrote the book, in part, to make amends for his initial enthusiasm about blockchain, and the conclusions he presents are a scathing indictment of the industry who promotes its spread. Howson disassembles crypto's core narratives by putting their greed, flagrant hypocrisy, and utter contempt for other humans on display, and demonstrates that from green washing fraudulent carbon credits, to crypto colonizers displacing indigenous populations, to recruiting impoverished children into financial schemes, all of blockchain's "solutions" are ultimately "Scammydocious." Get the book: https://www.peterhowson.org/book Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk21ySBLhM4 Visit our web site for more: https://ioRadio.org Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube at: https://youtube.com/americanscreamvideo?sub_confirmation=1