Let Them Eat Crypto: The Blockchain Scam That's Ruining the World

‘An essential resource. Howson strikes not just at cryptocurrency, but the frauds who promote blockchain technology as a solution to any social problem’ David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain

‘A merciless takedown of attempts to apply blockchain to the world’s biggest problems ... If you are thinking of using blockchain for good, read this first’ Professor Villi Lehdonvirta, University of Oxford

The subject of immense hope, hype and confusion, crypto has amassed countless headlines in recent years. With cryptocurrencies, NFTs and metaverse markets crashing, the underlying blockchain technology is still promised to solve global development challenges, and revolutionise every industry. But is the technology really a silver bullet?

Peter Howson cuts through the jargon and bluster to tell an alarming story of how right-wing libertarian crypto entrepreneurs – often aided by charities, politicians and philanthropists – seek out and exploit conditions of poverty, oppression, corruption and conflict. Their goal? A new front of ‘crypto-colonial’ extractivism. Let Them Eat Crypto reveals the alarming truth: far from ‘banking the unbanked’, saving the gorillas, or freeing people from oppressive governments, blockchain offers only false solutions, surveillance and hi-tech snake oil.

Peter Howson is a technology writer, researcher and Assistant Professor in International Development at Northumbria University. His work has appeared in Reuters, The Independent, The Conversation, Novara, Jacobin and Coindesk. He investigates the green-washing, aid-washing and crypto-shenanigans that go on in Silicon Valley, as well as the lesser-known tech-hubs of the Global South.