Interessante conversazione tra Evgeny Morozov e Sanneke Kloppenburg [1] La parte che "mi piace" di più è comunque la fine: There is, of course, a third, even more radical possibility: the boycott of anything related to blockchains and cryptocurrencies, not least because they have a huge environmental impact. Some scholars, like Pete Howson, for example, have called for global bans (or least limitations) on crypto-mining due to their disastrous impact on emissions (which we probably still underestimate). So, there’s always the option of moving from “blowing up a pipeline” in the colorful formulation of Andreas Malm to “blowing up a blockchain.” What are you thoughts on this more radical option? Blockchain, like many other digital technologies, does have a huge environmental footprint. There is now an increasing effort to develop guidelines and regulations for the responsible use of digital technologies, for example by the EU and by standard setting organisations. The goal of such guidelines and regulations is to mitigate the societal implications of digital technology. The harmful environmental impacts of digital technologies, however, do not get the same amount of attention yet. Often the energy consumption of technologies, but also the more systemic environmental risks of using digital technologies, is an externality, which remains invisible and hard to quantify. This is a serious problem, which goes beyond the case of the blockchain, as it also applies to Artificial Intelligence, for example. It is crucial to better integrate sustainability in these efforts to regulate the societal impact of digital technology. The sustainability aspects of technologies should not be an afterthought, but taken into account already when a technology is proposed or designed. A. [1] https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/sanneke-kloppenburg-on-climate-cryptogoverna...