<nettime> Josh Hall: Blockchain could reshape our world – and the far right is one step ahead (Guardian)

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Some connex pbs have caused my post to be send unedited. Here's the 
correct version (fingers X-ed)
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Original to:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/23/blockchain-reshape-world-far-right-ahead-crypto-technology



Blockchain could reshape our world – and the far right is one step ahead
Crypto technology is coming to a crossroads. Those who want to use it to 
radically redistribute wealth must take urgent action
By Josh Hall
Fri 23 Feb 2018


Alice Weidel is the co-leader of Alternative für Deutschland.’ 
Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Reuters
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain reads the title of a 2017 book. From 
currency speculation through to verifying the provenance of food, 
blockchain technology is eking out space in a vast range of fields.
For most people, blockchain technologies are inseparable from bitcoin, 
the cryptocurrency that has been particularly visible in the news 
recently thanks to its hyper-volatility. Crypto-entrepreneurs have made 
and lost millions, and many people have parlayed their trading into a 
full-time job. But blockchain technology, which allows for immutable 
records of activities, stored on a ledger that is held not just in one 
place but massively distributed, has applications in every conceivable 
area in commerce and beyond. Soon, there will be blockchains everywhere 
that transactions happen.
While the focus has so far been on currencies such as bitcoin, what’s 
less well known is the large and growing community of blockchain 
developers and evangelists, many of whom believe that the technology 
could herald radical changes in the ways our economies and societies are 
structured. But there’s a big question at the heart of that community: 
what might a world built with the help of blockchain technology look 
like?
Unchain, a large bitcoin and blockchain convention based in Hamburg, 
seems to have a potential answer. Along with speakers from blockchain 
startups, cryptocurrency exchanges and a company that purports to offer 
“privately managed cities as a business”, the conference programme also 
features Alice Weidel, listed on the site as an “economist and bitcoin 
entrepreneur”.
In fact, Weidel is the co-leader of Alternative für Deutschland, which 
recently became the third largest party in Germany’s Bundestag. Weidel’s 
election campaign in 2017 was the party’s breakthrough moment, and what 
many have seen as a watershed in German politics – the return of 
far-right, populist ethno-nationalism to the federal parliament.
Since 2015 the AfD leadership has adopted increasingly hard lines on 
borders, migration, Islam and Europe. The party has also attempted to 
recuperate language associated with historic Nazism; in 2016, the AfD’s 
then chair, Frauke Petry, called for the rehabilitation of the word 
“völkisch”, which is seen to be inextricably linked with National 
Socialism.
Weidel is thought to represent the more “moderate” wing of the AfD, in 
comparison with her colleague in the Bundestag Alexander Gauland, who 
has pushed for Angela Merkel to close Germany’s borders and to deliver 
ways by which immigrants can be repatriated. But the tension between the 
“moderate” and extreme wings of the AfD has been seen as a conscious 
tactic, in which Gauland pushes taboo subjects which Weidel then makes 
more palatable. Weidel herself, though, has also previously appeared to 
describe German Arabs as “culturally foreign” and to encourage a return 
to the paranoiac xenophobia of the Third Reich by describing Merkel’s 
government as “pigs” who are “puppets of the victorious powers” from the 
second world war.
The rise of the AfD has caused deep soul-searching in Germany. But 
outside of the country’s borders, Weidel’s invitation to the Unchain 
summit also poses questions for the nascent blockchain community. On one 
side are those who believe that crypto technologies should be used to 
divert power away from states (particularly social democratic states) 
and into the hands of a righteous vanguard of rightwing libertarian 
hackers.
Some of these people are now in positions of significant power: Mick 
Mulvaney, the director of the US Office of Management and Budget, is a 
staunch bitcoin advocate and his appointment was warmly received by some 
crypto news publications. Mulvaney has previously addressed the John 
Birch Society, an extreme rightwing pressure group that was formed to 
root out communists during the cold war but that now specialises in part 
in Federal Reserve conspiracy theories – a popular theme on some bitcoin 
forums. In June, the John Birch Society demanded that the Russia 
investigation be dropped; their “speakers bureau” offers talking heads 
on subjects including why the US must leave the UN, “the Trojan horse 
called immigration”, and “the global warming hoax”.
But there is another tendency: one that believes blockchain tech should 
be used as part of a liberatory political project, one that can 
redistribute wealth and help to fund and safely connect participants in 
radical left activities. There is already significant overlap between 
the crypto community and those active in “platform cooperatives” – that 
is, organisations that are attempting to build alternatives to platform 
companies such as Uber and Deliveroo, with power and ownership in the 
hands of the workforce. Similarly, The New Inquiry magazine recently 
launched Bail Bloc, a system that leverages participants’ unused 
computing power to mine cryptocurrency to pay bail bonds in New York.
Despite the wild fluctuations in cryptocurrency valuations, it seems 
clear now that blockchain tech is here to stay. In their book Blockchain 
Revolution, Don and Alex Tapscott insist that blockchains could 
revolutionise everything from business to government.
But we are at a dangerous point for the adoption of crypto technologies. 
Alice Weidel’s invitation shows one potential route forward: the 
diverting of more power into the hands of the authoritarian right. Even 
crypto-sceptics must acknowledge this danger, and should be working with 
the crypto community to develop alternatives. Blockchain technology has 
the potential to help us build a better world – but we need to take 
action to ensure that it doesn’t lead us down the path preferred by 
Weidel and her companions.
• Josh Hall is a writer and editor based between London and Berlin.
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