Cash is gradually dying out. Will we ever have a digital alternative that offers the same mix of convenience and freedom?

by Mike Orcutt
Jan 3, 2020

Think about the last time you used cash. How much did you spend? What did you buy, and from whom? Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly?

A decentralized internet was hailed as a way to dethrone Twitter and Facebook. But to the tech giants, the idea could unload some of their burdens.

By Nathaniel PopperDec. 18, 2019. The New York Times.

SAN FRANCISCO — Not so long ago, the technology behind Bitcoin was seen in Silicon Valley as the best hope for challenging the enormous, centralized power of companies like Twitter and Facebook. 

Now, in an unexpected twist, the internet giants think that technology could help them solve their many problems.

This post is part of CoinDesk's 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Gary Gensler is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Co-Director of MIT’s Fintech@CSAIL and Senior Advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative. He was formerly Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Under Secretary of the Treasury, and a partner at Goldman Sachs.

The year is 2021, and the nation is in crisis. North Korea has just tested a missile that will soon be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental U.S. The move took Washington by surprise as the project was likely funded via a new Chinese digital currency, which allowed North Korea to bypass the global banking system. In response, the National Security Council House has gathered in the White House Situation Room to formulate short- and long-term responses.

“Digital Currency Wars: A National Security Crisis Simulation” unfolded before a packed audience in Kennedy School Forum on Tuesday night. Hosted by the Economic Diplomacy Initiative and co-sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the exercise brought together administration veterans, career diplomats, and academics to dramatize a very real prospect — the rise of an encrypted digital currency that would upend the U.S. dollar’s dominance and effectively render ineffective economic sanctions, like those currently applied to North Korea.

By Olga Kharif

September 30, 2019, 8:00 PM EDT Updated on October 1, 2019, 7:42 AM EDT

What’s the world’s most widely used cryptocurrency? If you think it’s Bitcoin, which accounts for about 70% of all the digital-asset world’s market value, you’re probably wrong.

“Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy join Christiane Amanpour from Washington D.C. to discuss their bipartisan trip to the Middle East and the growing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Bill Weld, the only Republican challenging President Trump in the 2020 election talks about why he decided to run. Our Hari Sreenivasan talks to Neha Narula, the Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, about the future of cryptocurrencies.” Amanpour Podcast

View this and all of the Business of Blockchain videos here

Competition authorities don't like it when big companies merge to the detriment of consumer choice, which is why Sainsbury's and Asda are finding it so hard to get their proposed tie-up past the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

Big tech, however, is a different kettle of fish.

"As it stands, it is difficult for users to switch between platforms," notes the MIT Digital Currency Initiative and the Center for Civic Media, "and most mega-platforms do not interoperate".

In other words, once you've bought into them, you're stuck.

Today, MIT Technology Review announced the third annual Business of Blockchain event, which will take place on May 2, 2019 at the MIT Media Lab. The event is held in collaboration with the Digital Currency Initiative, an MIT Media Lab research group focusing on cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, and brings together industry leaders and pioneers in this emerging field to examine the technology, ethics, and impact of blockchains.