Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Host Rich Goldberg is joined by Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Varsha Koduvayur of Valens Global and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to discuss their new report, “Crypto-Fascists: Cryptocurrency Usage By Domestic Extremists,” and how cryptocurrency has been embraced by white nationalist groups for fundraising. They also discuss some of the unique ways cryptocurrency offers anonymity, including privacy coins, mixing and coin joining. Plus, how so-called “smart contracts” could be used to sponsor terrorist attacks or election tampering.
Varsha Koduvayur
Varsha Koduvayur is an analyst at Valens Global, where she focuses on U.S. domestic extremism and geopolitics.
Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a scholar, author, practitioner, and entrepreneur who is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Valens Global, a private company focused on fashioning creative solutions to complex twenty-first century challenges that has twice been named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s E360 list of the top small businesses in the United States.
Subscribe to Cryptonite with Rich Goldberg in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
White nationalism? Anonymously crowd-funded assassinations? This is a replay from ten years ago, right?
You spelled it wrong. What you meant was Ku Klux Krypto.
Seriously?
It’s interesting that there’s a new report that Reason reported on that shows the most marginalized use crypto. Out of the 6M who use it, they are predominately poor with limited banking access.
This podcast episode is garbage
Rich,
I’ve resisted commenting on this episode because I like the show and want to encourage listeners, but I do want to get my two cents in before I listen to the next episode later today.
There are lots of legitimate questions swirling around cryptocurrencies: what are they good for, what harm might they facilitate, how do they differ from traditional scarce stores of value, how vulnerable are they to manipulation and fraud, what regulation is appropriate, etc.
But hanging the “white supremacist” stuff on cryptocurrency is lazy exploitation. The whole anti-white-supremacy movement is a snipe hunt, a convenient distraction from the reality that ideology-motivated lawlessness and civil unrest are being driven overwhelmingly by the radical left through organs such as BLM and Antifa. Two hundred cities burned a couple of summers ago because of progressive radicalism.
“White supremacy,” like “systemic racism” and “climate change,” is something that is routinely invoked without evidence or any kind of perspective by people who want to leverage ersatz moral authority. Your guests played that game in the traditional way, with a mix of vague and unsubstantiated claims intended to justify a regulatory crackdown on people who hold views “right-thinking” people find objectionable.
Traditional racism in America is dead. The left’s neo-racism, its relentless identity politics and vilification of half the population based on its skin color, is thriving.
I look forward to the podcast returning to real issues in the crypto space.
— Hank
PS And thanks for the shout-out. I enjoyed it.