This is indeed a thing I wonder: (from fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...)

With both crypto and AI, there are humans involved at every level of the stack. Narratives of automation make it seem like the process is merely mechanical, but if there are humans involved, there are points for regulatory intervention (and in this case, humans who may need legal protections)

Unfortunately, Newsom's track record on crypto doesn't inspire much confidence that he'll do the right thing on AI. From fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

As my new paper on sandboxes explores, there’s no reason to believe that these AI sandboxes will benefit anyone other than the tech industry… …but you probably guessed that already. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Behold! Abundance at work!

Spot on, Neil Richards. As I wrote for the FT

Perhaps they might not feel the same way after they listen to the podcast that I did with Art Wilmarth and @amandalfischer.bsky.social on this issue.... creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

It was great to speak with Art Wilmarth and @amandalfischer.bsky.social about crypto in 401(k) plans for the DCBar's Brief Encounters: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Next Friday, I’ll be speaking about "innovation" claims in financial services at the State of Economic & Financial Policymaking Conference with the Better Markets Academic Advisory Board. You can register here if you're so inclined: bettermarkets.org/analysis/bet...

In Fintech Dystopia (fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...), I urge people to mock tech hype mercilessly. The Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers is on the job!

My draft article "Regulatory Sandboxes One Decade On" recounts our experience with fintech sandboxes to illustrate why AI sandboxes are extremely ill-advised: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thanks to Jared for another excellent conversation about fintechdystopia.com, this time with a focus on what you’re buying into when you buy Silicon Valley.

This book is fantastic. It was indispensable as I wrote fintechdystopia.com. I was very happy to shell out for the hardcover version, but now it's a paperback!

I can’t wait to get my hands on this book.

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

And check out @profhilaryallen.bsky.social's book here: fintechdystopia.com

Upcoming webinar! Join us for a discussion with @profhilaryallen.bsky.social, author of FinTech Dystopia: A summer beach read about Silicon Valley ruining things, on the emerging harms posed by cryptocurrency’s steady creep into the financial system. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Very honored to have Cory Doctorow write up my work in Pluralistic: pluralistic.net/2025/08/30/m...

What I wish we would say more often is "students need to learn how to use and apply logic, how to think critically and how to validate the information before them to prepare for the jobs of the future."

People need to understand who's trying to left-wash this deregulatory movement. As I describe in fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... "the abundance agenda in a nutshell: just let Silicon Valley do what it wants and hope that benefits will trickle down to everyone else.”

Yep, it's the lobbying: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

This has been a truly shitty news week. As much as I'm raging at the Trump admin, though, I'm also raging at the tech oligarchs who made it possible. I channeled my rage into writing "Fintech Dystopia," and I would be honored if you'd read it and rage with me fintechdystopia.com

Abundant concentration camps, and NEOM:

"Let's Get Skeptical," the final chapter of Fintech Dystopia, has dropped fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... Covering - How much the abundance agenda and VC output suck - Silicon Valley subsidies we can take away - How to laugh our way into Silicon Valley skepticism - A plan to actually fix finance

I hate to sound like a broken record/conspiracy theorist, but why does everything always seem to come back to Peter Thiel? fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Issue 91 – GDP on the blockchain The regulator set to take on primary crypto oversight is down to a single Commissioner, and new pro-crypto PACs focus on installing more Republicans in the midterms www.citationneeded.news/issue-91/

Yup. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

If you'd like to know the many, many reasons why this is not fine, I wrote a book chapter about the many ways in which blockchains are terrible: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Absolutely true, and more people need to be saying this! I'm trying to do my part to push back against the "abundance" rehabilitation campaign with fintechdystopia.com

AndreessenHorowitz used Super PACs to buy themselves stablecoin legislation, and are ready to do the same thing with AI. If you want to understand the playbook, I explain it in "Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen" fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... When Congress lets them extort, they just extort more

AndreessenHorowitz used Super PACs to buy themselves stablecoin legislation, and are ready to do the same thing with AI. If you want to understand the playbook, I explain it in "Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen" fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... When Congress lets them extort, they just extort more

And there are different kinds of "raptures" at work here: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Ditto re crypto mining (from Fintech Dystopia fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...)

I cannot hype enough @profhilaryallen.bsky.social’s amazing book FinTech Dystopia. Her writing is as fiery as it is insightful. It is the online version of a “page turner.” A treasure trove of knowledge that is so deeply accessible for readers. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/int...

Ch 8 - Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen - has dropped, wherein I explain how much we subsidize Silicon Valley, and how those subsidies have been weaponized against the public interest. I also name and shame the crypto industry's enablers, who have much to answer for. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

This is the point I make in Chapter 8 of Fintech Dystopia: "Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen" fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Ch 8 - Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen - has dropped, wherein I explain how much we subsidize Silicon Valley, and how those subsidies have been weaponized against the public interest. I also name and shame the crypto industry's enablers, who have much to answer for. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Tomorrow I drop Ch 8 of Fintech Dystopia, which includes a "Burn Book" of the Rs and Ds who have made a spectacle of themselves selling out the public to the crypto industry. Gallego features; now he's courting those folks to support a Presidential bid. Hard pass readsludge.com/2025/08/21/g...

Yup. From fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...:

I had a great conversation with @imixwhatilike.bsky.social about Fintech Dystopia, Part 1 Stay tuned for our Part 2 convo, coming soon! Here’s the link to the serial (only two chapters left to drop…) fintechdystopia.com

Chapter 7 of Fintech Dystopia has dropped, wherein I explain what you’re buying into when you buy Silicon Valley. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... Spoiler alert, you really don’t want Silicon Valley’s weirdos in charge of our financial system (or much else, for that matter).

I read a TON of tech books in preparation for writing fintechdystopia.com The Tech Coup was one of the absolute best.

Yep. And in next week's chapter of Fintech Dystopia, I will name and shame the people who let this happen. It's Burn Book time. In the meantime, if you want to know how the financial crisis will go down, I've got you covered in Ch 4: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

In a new digital twist to environmental individualisation of responsibility, the UK government is now advising people to “[d]elete old emails and pictures” in data centres to help with the current drought. www.gov.uk/government/n...