On June 1, a group of technologists published an open letter urging the US Congress to confront the lobbying of crypto industry participants and take action against the emerging sector.

The appeal was signed by 26 scientists and employees of technology companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Politicians have been asked to question the claim of “unconditional goodness” brought by cryptocurrencies.

“Not all innovations are undeniably good; Not everything we can create has to be created. The history of technology development is full of dead ends, false starts and false turns,” the letter states.

The signatories argue that blockchain technology is “not suitable for almost all purposes touted as an existing or potential source of public interest.”

According to them, products created on the basis of a distributed ledger have no application in the real economy, but are “a tool for highly volatile and speculative investment schemes”. The authors of the letter believe that this poses a threat to ordinary citizens.

“We recommend [Конгрессу] Ignore the hype around the industry and focus not only on its inherent shortcomings and extreme flaws, but also on the list of technological misconceptions on which it is built,” he said.

The objection caused public outrage. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin noted that among the authors of the letter is tech journalist Cory Doctorow, who is considered a supporter of blockchain technology.

Buterin acknowledged that the crypto community has become more hostile in recent years. According to him, this is a result of the growth of the industry and the contradictions that arise in it.

The big difference between the “new idealistic movement” scene 10-15 years ago and today is that it felt possible back then to be on all the good guy teams at the same time. Today, much more hostile thoughts and conflicts.

I’m trying to understand.. where to from here?

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 2, 2022

“The biggest difference between the ‘new idealistic movement’ scene 10-15 years ago and today was that it seemed possible back then to be on all the good guys’ teams at the same time. Today, dissent and conflict prevail,” he wrote.

According to Buterin, the emergence of various classes of “normal people” and unscrupulous players is an inevitable part of growing up. He noted that the same situation was experienced in non-financial sectors as well.

The letter was criticized by University of Wyoming philosophy professor Bradley Rettler. According to him, the authors did not support the presented theses with any evidence.

I just read the anti-crypto letter from tech bros.

tl;dr When writing an essay, you need to support your claims – the bolder the claim, the more support is needed. This letter is long in bold claims and short in support. In short, surprisingly bad.

a 🧵

1/24

— Bradley Rettler (@rettlerb) June 1, 2022

“When you write an essay, you need to back up your statements – the bolder the statement, the more support is needed. This letter contains many bold statements and a few arguments. In short, it’s shockingly bad,” he wrote.

Rattler noted that no one qualifies blockchain technology as “unconditionally good,” and none of the key players in the cryptocurrency industry are demanding anarchy instead of regulation.

Nick Carter, general partner of Castle Island Ventures and co-founder of Coin Metrics, questioned the competence of the letter’s authors.

I don’t see how being a mid-level engineer with no track record of working on blockchains at link/hubspot/etc gives you any authority, especially when the entire letter is an appeal to an authority

— nic carter (@nic__carter) June 2, 2022

“How many of the 26 people who signed this letter are real “technical experts”, especially in the blockchain field? I don’t see how being an engineer with no blockchain experience at LinkedIn/HubSpot/etc gives you any authority, especially when the entire email is an appeal to an authority,” he wrote.

Recall that in March 2022, eight members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to their president. SEC Gary Gensler drew attention to the unfoundedness of the commission’s investigations against cryptocurrency companies.