This Machine Kills

We continue our discussion of Hilary Allen’s paper on DeFi and shadow banking and dive into her comparative analysis between Wall Street and Silicon Valley. We see how there are direct analogues between the kind of financial innovations and systemic fragilities that led to the 2008 crash and the crisis dynamics of DeFi: overleveraging and crypto tokens; rigidity and smart contracts; bank runs and stablecoins. Allen then argues that the best approach is not to legitimize DeFi through regulation, but to erect a firewall that prevents it from integrating with the mainstream economy and financial sector.

Some stuff we reference:

••• DeFI: Shadow Banking 2.0 | Hilary J. Allen https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4038788

••• Is Crypto Re-Creating the 2008 Financial Crisis? | Charlie Warzel, Hilary Allen https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/galaxy-brain/624cb2ebdc551a00208c1524/crypto-bubble-web3-decentralized-finance/

••• Defi and Shadow Banking 2.0: Leverage, rigidity and bank runs | Cory Doctorow https://doctorow.medium.com/defi-and-shadow-banking-2-0-7bae9d1d308e

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We discuss an extremely good paper by law professor Hilary J. Allen – DeFI: Shadow Banking 2.0 – which lays out a very clear, critical, and comparative analysis of the unregulated financial instruments that led to the 2008 global financial crash and their systemic similarities to the unregulated financial innovations that are emerging in DeFi / Web3. In this first part, we lay out the causes of the 2008 crash, explaining specific instruments and dynamics that caused this hyper-complex fragile system to collapse. In part two, on the patreon later this week, we explain how DeFi is already unfolding in ways that are best described as: “It is happening again.”

Some stuff we reference:

••• DeFI: Shadow Banking 2.0 | Hilary J. Allen https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4038788

••• Is Crypto Re-Creating the 2008 Financial Crisis? | Charlie Warzel, Hilary Allen https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/galaxy-brain/624cb2ebdc551a00208c1524/crypto-bubble-web3-decentralized-finance/

••• Defi and Shadow Banking 2.0: Leverage, rigidity and bank runs | Cory Doctorow https://doctorow.medium.com/defi-and-shadow-banking-2-0-7bae9d1d308e

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dive into chapter 7 – Ecology of Freedom – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. In which we discuss the tragedy of the commons, ecological imperialism, flirtations with farming, domestication of plants and animals, dangers of teleological reasoning, and much more.

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We take a walk on the weird side as a brief reference to the novel Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove—a graphomaniac author of alternative histories and all around beautiful mind—leads us down a rabbit hole of increasingly bizarre discoveries. Enjoy a little something different from our normal programming…

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We talk about the absurdities of proptech – or the real estate technology sector – which is jam packed with out-of-control purchasing by house-flipping algorithms powered by automated valuation models that lead to balance sheets filled with liabilities and it’s all fuelled by way too much free-flowing capital. In other words, a classic recipe for disaster.

The article we discuss:

••• House-flipping algorithms are coming to your neighborhood | Matthew Ponsford https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/13/1049227/house-flipping-algorithms-are-coming-to-your-neighborhood/

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We are unlocking a premium episode in which we discuss Ed’s new reporting on the political economy of play-to-earn games, focusing on Axie Infinity and its super-exploitative system of “managers” and “scholars.” Surprise, surprise – the technological and financial foundation of Axie Infinity is just a house of cards built on a bed of sand. Its failure is inevitable. The question is: how much damage will it do along the way?

Some stuff we reference:

••• The Metaverse Has Bosses Too. Meet the ‘Managers’ of Axie Infinity | Ed Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88g3ag/the-metaverse-has-bosses-too-meet-the-managers-of-axie-infinity

••• Miami Mayor Unveils Laser Eyes Robot Bull Statue at Bitcoin Conference https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5q9wm/miami-mayor-unveils-laser-eyes-robot-bull-statue-at-bitcoin-conference

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dive into chapter 6 – Gardens of Adonis – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Here we bust the myth of the “Agricultural Revolution” in two main senses. First, we bust the idea of agricultural development as a linear, deterministic, teleological transitional stage in human society. Second, we bust the idea of agriculture as a revolution that happened immediately, spread quickly, and never turned back.

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We’re joined by Richard Nieva, reporter at Buzzfeed, who, along with his colleague Aman Sethi, just published a massive investigation into Worldcoin, a company that aims to distribute crypto to people around the world in exchange for having their eyes scanned by an ominous biometrics device called the Orb. We discuss the long list of major issues with Worldcoin’s operations—including faulty technology, delayed payments, labor exploitation, colonialist extraction, and much more—as uncovered by Richard and Aman’s reporting.

Follow Richard: https://twitter.com/richardjnieva

Follow Aman: https://twitter.com/Amannama

Articles we discuss:

••• “What Did You Do With Our Eyes”: This Startup Promised People Free Crypto If They Scanned Their Eyeballs. Now People Feel They've Been Scammed | Richard Nieva, Aman Sethi https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems

••• Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users | Eileen Guo, Adi Renaldi https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/

••• Crypto Startup That Wants to Scan Everyone’s Eyeballs Is Having Some Trouble | Ellen Huet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-16/worldcoin-the-eyeball-scanning-crypto-unicorn-hits-signup-snags

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We discuss Ed’s new reporting on the political economy of play-to-earn games, focusing on Axie Infinity and its super-exploitative system of “managers” and “scholars.” Surprise, surprise – the technological and financial foundation of Axie Infinity is just a house of cards built on a bed of sand. Its failure is inevitable. The question is: how much damage will it do along the way?

Some stuff we reference:

••• The Metaverse Has Bosses Too. Meet the ‘Managers’ of Axie Infinity | Ed Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88g3ag/the-metaverse-has-bosses-too-meet-the-managers-of-axie-infinity

••• Miami Mayor Unveils Laser Eyes Robot Bull Statue at Bitcoin Conference https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5q9wm/miami-mayor-unveils-laser-eyes-robot-bull-statue-at-bitcoin-conference

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dive into chapter 5 – Many Seasons Ago – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow.

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)