Paris Marx is joined by Olivier Jutel to discuss blockchain’s pivot to humanitarianism, the questionable people behind the technology, and how their projects in the Pacific have benefited capitalist and imperial power.
Olivier Jutel is a lecturer at the University of Otago. Follow Olivier on Twitter at @OJutel.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
BCCI was an international bank established in 1972 that was shut down in 1991 for hiding money laundering and other financial crimes.
Hernando De Soto is a Latin American economist who advised Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori and advocates neoliberal policies like land title programs. He now pushes for it to be done through blockchains, and wrote an op-ed with Phil Gramm.
Books mentioned: David Gerard’s “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain” and “Libra Shrugged,” Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture,” Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s “Empire,” Herbert Schiller’s “Communication and Cultural Domination,” Armand Mattelart’s “The Invention of Communication,” Lilli Irani’s “Chasing Innovation,” and Teresia Teaiwa in “Anglo-American Imperialism and the Pacific.”