Crypto Colonialism
Description
Pete Howson:
(interview by Evgeny Morozov)
“Michael Herzfeld used the term “crypto-colonialism” originally to make sense of the clandestine nature of geopolitical impositions that used debt and asymmetric trade relationships to maintain colonial ties. I use it in a different way, to show how blockchain and cryptocurrency experiments are being imposed in places suffering from the scars of past colonial invasions. And yeah, sustainable development is often used to legitimize these projects. But crypto developers are not necessarily drawn to poor, marginalized parts of the Global South because they want to fix things or the local environment. Poverty, oppression, and corruption are the ideal conditions for crypto entrepreneurs to extract resources, find new punters and perform real-world tests.”
(https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/pete-howson-on-cryptocarbon/ )
Discussion
Pete Howson:
EM: “You show how in several of the blockchain-based carbon offsetting projects there’s actually no impact whatsoever on local communities, with the sale of private credits benefiting mostly investors overseas. Could you explain how this works and why no benefits actually accrue to the communities that are meant to be helped by these supposedly well-meaning crypto-initiatives? How come the financiers in the Global North are the ones to cash out – an ultimate irony given that the crypto-currencies were supposed to help contain and limit their power?
PH: Mainly because it’s really hard in Europe or the US to send money to poor countries without going through the KYC/AML hoops that intermediaries like PayPal and Western Union help with. In the UK I can link my crypto wallet to my PayPal or credit card. I can convert my Tree Coins to Fish Coins and back to pounds sterling no problem. You can’t do that so easily in Peru or Zimbabwe. So this is all useless to them. These forest communities can’t do anything with their Tree Coins. And these carbon credits were all produced years ago. When you buy these Tokens/Credits today, the project just takes your money and pays back their investors and directors. It’s taking "real" money from Peter to pay Paul, while giving useless crypto tokens to Bill, who can’t spend them on anything. And then an electronic certificate goes to Peter that suggests some trees existed once upon a time in the past. That’s pretty much it. That’s the business model.”
(https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/pete-howson-on-cryptocarbon/ )