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White White Post index Archived posts RSS Blog source White Video: Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes February 25, 2024 A written transcript of my video, ’Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes’. Video: The charges against Binance January 15, 2024 A written version of my video, ’The charges against Binance’. Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried’s "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview" January 23, 2023 Annotating Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempts to explain the FTX collapse. Livetweets of the December 14, 2022 Senate Banking Committee hearing on FTX December 14, 2022 Livetweets of the December 13, 2022 House Financial Services Committee hearing on FTX December 13, 2022 Is web3 bullshit? (Transcript) November 4, 2022 "Is web3 bullshit?". A talk by White on the Crypto stage at Web Summit in Lisbon on November 4, 2022. Blockchain solutionism (Lecture transcript) September 21, 2022 "Blockchain solutionism". A guest lecture by White at the University of Texas at Austin on September 21, 2022. This lecture was for a course in the School of Design and Creative Technologies called "Anti-Solutionism". There is also a Q&A portion at the end. Announcing the Whitespace newsletter and a Patreon August 21, 2022 Introducing the Whitespace newsletter and my Patreon, and a little more on what’s next for me. Statement to the Financial Stability Oversight Council: Regulating digital assets July 27, 2022 A statement to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, pertaining to financial stability risks posed by digital assets. Excerpts from letters to the judge in the Voyager Digital bankruptcy case July 23, 2022 People with funds locked in Voyager Digital have been sending letters to the judge presiding over the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. These are excerpts from those letters. Stop saying "They shouldn’t have invested more than they could afford to lose" July 22, 2022 Saying this about those who’ve just lost everything only excuses those who continue the narrative that crypto is a solution for people who don’t have money they could afford to lose. Excerpts from letters to the judge in the Celsius Network bankruptcy case July 22, 2022 People with funds locked in Celsius Network have been sending letters to the judge presiding over the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. These are excerpts from those letters. Cryptocurrency "market caps" and notional value July 17, 2022 A naive equation works well when estimating the value of small quantities of popular crypto tokens, but it’s also being used to estimate values of illiquid tokens and the market capitalization of all of crypto. Journalists are publishing misinformation and uncritically repeating these figures, helping to prop up the belief that crypto is a far larger industry than in reality. Is "acceptably non-dystopian" self-sovereign identity even possible? June 10, 2022 In the recent paper about "soulbound" tokens, Vitalik Buterin et al. write that they aim to build technology that is "acceptably non-dystopian". Do any of today’s self-sovereign identity projects fit that bill? Predatory community May 20, 2022 Projects that seek to create new communities of marginalized people to draw them in to risky speculative markets rife with scams and fraud are demonstrating "predatory community". The NFT creation user journey May 11, 2022 All it takes to create a free-to-mint NFT is three complex steps and $100. The future of art is upon us! Digital artists’ post-bubble hopes for NFTs don’t need a blockchain May 11, 2022 Some digital artists who create NFTs, particularly those who were already trying to earn a living in digital art before NFTs came along, have described their interest in its "post-bubble" potential as the future of digital art. What they are describing doesn’t require a blockchain. On anti-crypto toxicity April 18, 2022 Crypto is known for its toxicity towards outsiders. Similar attitudes are emerging from some who oppose crypto. The Axie Infinity hack, what happened, and why people keep talking about bridges March 30, 2022 Axie Infinity suffered an enormous hack on March 23. What happened, and what does it mean? The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto March 25, 2022 Around fifteen researchers and critics have annotated a thinly-veiled cryptocurrency advertisement that ran in the New York Times. We try to provide the editorial scrutiny and critical perspectives that the piece so irresponsibly lacked. Abuse on the blockchain (Lecture transcript) March 7, 2022 "Abuse on the blockchain". A guest lecture by White at Stanford University on March 7, 2022. This lecture was for two courses that run in parallel—POLISCI 243C: The Politics of Internet Abuse, and CS 152: Trust and Safety Engineering. There is also a Q&A portion at the end. Cryptocurrency’s Robinhood effect February 17, 2022 Cryptocurrency trading is experiencing a "Robinhood effect", where lower barriers to entry are combining with aggressive marketing and outside hype to draw inadequately informed traders into what is described as "investing", but looks a lot more like gambling. Cryptocurrency off-ramps, and the shift towards centralization February 12, 2022 The "off-ramps" from crypto—that is, the firms who will exchange your cryptocurrencies back into traditional currencies—are increasingly taking the position that is so common in discussions about privacy: "if you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?" Anonymous cryptocurrency wallets are not so simple February 12, 2022 How straightforward is it really to transact anonymously with today’s popular cryptocurrencies? Wikipedia Signpost: The Wikimedia Foundation’s acceptance of cryptocurrency donations January 30, 2022 Originally published in the Wikipedia Signpost: Should the Wikimedia Foundation continue to accept cryptocurrency donations? One editor doesn’t think so. Abuse and harassment on the blockchain January 22, 2022 In the frenzy to attract venture capital funding and draw new users and investors into blockchain technologies, "how will this technology be used to harass and abuse people?" is going unasked. While blockchain proponents speak about a "future of the web" based around public ledgers, anonymity, and immutability, those of us who have been harassed online look on in horror as obvious vectors for harassment and abuse are overlooked, if not outright touted as features. It’s not still the early days January 14, 2022 When I speak about the inefficiency of popular blockchains, or mention that we seem to be hurtling towards a "web3" so centralized it challenges big tech’s firm grasp on today’s web, or point out that somehow no one has managed to find a positive use for blockchains that wouldn’t be better served by one of the many more performant databases we have available to us these days, I often hear "it’s the early days". Blockchain-based systems are not what they say they are January 9, 2022 If you go out seeking to learn why blockchains and the systems built atop them are apparently the future of our web, you’ll begin to see some common themes. These fall apart under further scrutiny. The blockchain collection January 9, 2022 Some of my thoughts on blockchains and the technologies built atop them. Cryptoland: Unrolling my livetweets of the video from hell January 5, 2022 An unrolled copy of my livetweets of the Cryptoland hell-video. Transcript of Rob Monster’s live Q&A following the Epik breach September 18, 2021 Transcript of a live Q&A session held by Rob Monster on September 16, 2021. DI&B reading list February 1, 2021 In the beginning of February, I made a commitment to myself to read at least two articles a week pertaining to diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DI&B). I believe constant learning on these topics, and their intersection with the technology industry, is not optional and is key to being both a good manager and team member, but also to being a conscientous participant in the industry. The use of "Assume Good Faith" to shut down discussions about sexism on Wikipedia April 16, 2019 Sexism is...