The Crypto-Secessionists

Isabelle Simpson at Cabinet Magazine:

What makes Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands attractive to crypto-entrepreneurs is how islands offer spaces where “empathy and control are simultaneously possible. … All that exists, whether cultural, economic or physical, can be observed and regulated, qualities that have ensured that islands have been both seen and used as laboratories and which have implied that, in isolation, utopian communities might exist, be established and evolve there.” Entrepreneurs and crypto-friendly politicians can present their fintech solutions as a form of benevolent capitalism, one that promises not only to fast-track the integration of Small Island Developing States in the global economy, but to create new wealth—magic internet money—that could be used to address complex socioeconomic issues and the existential threat of climate change. These ventures’ marketing typically implies that islanders’ way of life somehow prefigured the development of blockchain technology, which is then marketed as a logical next-step in the fight against climate change and cultural survival for these island nations.

more here.