War Is Calling Crypto’s ‘Neutrality’ Into Question
War in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia have made cryptocurrency a hot potato for international politics.
Wired UK,
2022
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Cryptocurrencies were intended to be politically neutral, decentralized instruments, but Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine has changed that. The war highlights how decentralized finance is departing from its original goal of transactional neutrality: Crypto exchanges are blocking the accounts of sanctioned Russians, while Ukrainian officials are successfully soliciting crypto donations to their government’s coffers. In this even-handed reporting, technology journalist Gian M. Volpicelli notes that this real-time transformation will have important and lasting implications for crypto’s role in society and the economy.
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About the Author
Gian M. Volpicelli is a senior writer at WIRED.
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