The grift economy

It feels like every week or so there's a new LinkedIn InMail recruiting me for crypto or NFT focused startups. This is my long form reply: I'm not interested.

For all the nuanced technical benefits, the world of cryptocurrency is rife with scams and malpractice that cause more harm than good. It's an ecosystem full of wildly unethical behaviour and its all built on world burning technology.

Bitcoin and Ethereum burn through a nations worth of electricity and carbon emissions every year; the equivalent of Turkmenistan and New Zealand respectively (source). We only have one planet, and my generation are being left with a world thats burning. I cannot bring myself to contribute to technology that causes that.

But not all crypto—

No, but the industry as a whole is one I cannot support.

Same goes for gambling, oil & gas or bloody money from weapons trade. Sure, not all businesses, but the industries as a whole do not gel well with my ethical standards.

But this startup is different Jack!

Great! Not interested. There is, perhaps, only one startup that I consider is genuinely making the world a better place through leveraging blockchain and they're not hiring for a Jack shaped role right now — and thats OK!

But—

No thanks.

If you want a longer read exploring NFT's in detail I recommend Moxie's first impressions and following @web3isgreat.