How would Marx view cryptocurrencies?

Some Internet left groups who are extremely curious about Crypto have been lingering on Crypto Twitter: If the old man Marx was alive, would he approve of this blockchain technology?

Last year, left-wing cultural writer Hussein Kesvani argued in an article titled "The Left Should Talk About Crypto" that Web3 and the Ethereum ecosystem's Crypto, for better or worse, would "inevitably" change the world.

Therefore, he argues that the left should take back the technology from liberals and anarchist capitalists, who borrow terms and concepts from socialism. These pirates include Li Jin, who has relative clout in the Crypto space, despite being a venture capitalist by profession, he claims to be a student of Marx and tweeted last year that The DAO is "the next step in the labor movement." direction."

As you can imagine, the Left loathes this sort of thing. In Kesvani's article, he called on the left to grasp the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies in order to make a more convincing case than venture capital firms. Kesvani wrote. “I believe that imagining a different future requires some understanding of Crypto and blockchain technology, not only for functional reasons, but also for examining the language and scope of empowerment of the new internet.”

Since Web3 has attracted a lot of mainstream attention, and all of the above has happened, there has been some disagreement on the left side, the old-school, strictly anti-capitalist left to be exact, about the suitability of Crypto as a technology. . Many old-school thinkers who have only recently learned about Web3 see it as an ultimate form of financialization of everything, and although it is masked in the context of mutual aid and equality, it is still an expression of the rent-seeking class that it does The oxygen molecule has a clear price tag. Another faction, however, takes a more moderate view, taking into account real-world issues like scams and greed, while still holding out a degree of hope for things like DAOs.

Within Ethereum and its adjoining communities, there is also a debate about whether the ideology they subscribe to belongs to the invisible left. Although ethereum followers are much more left-leaning than libertarian bitcoiners in spirit, and have published countless articles about good governance and fair distribution of wealth, they are not always happy to associate themselves with " Socialism" on a par, nor is it strictly tied to the classical left.

Crypto is nothing but nonsense
Negative stories about it can be found in the Marxist turf Jacobin Magazine, which previously tried its best to ignore Web3 (I'm too lazy to use "cryptocurrency" interchangeably), and has since viewed the industry as something irritating and something to fight back against. In the past few months, it has been particularly focused on breaking down rhetoric about the "democratization of wealth" in cryptocurrencies, with one article arguing that "utopian rhetoric around freedom, decentralization, and the economy of ownership may help investors at night. Sleep well, but at its core, it's just a way to market a new generation of products to the public."

Likewise, another recent article bemoaned the proliferation of "Crypto" in the football world, especially those "fan tokens" that claim to give fans a "voice" but are really just putting stickers and "victory tokens" "Song" and other tasteless stuff to monetize.

Another article refuted the claim that NFTs could benefit creators, citing the glut of funds caused by hyping NFTs as a departure from the opportunity to better distribute wealth post-pandemic. The article reads: "Very simple, NFTs are shit."