Crypto, Hawaii, and Palestine
Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well. Here are some ideas I’ve been thinking about recently.
I finished reading an interesting book by Laura Shin titled The Cyptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze. It’s got me thinking a lot about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies (and if they are really as transformative as their proponents claim). If you’re new to the party, like me, a quick primer might be helpful. Blockchain technology is, in its simplest form, a distributed ledger, meaning there are many copies of the same list of transactions. These lists are decentralized and are designed to be immutable (meaning they cannot be changed in the future) and every transaction that has ever been posted to the block will remain as long as the block is active. Cryptocurrencies are basically an imagined token that can be transferred between individuals on a blockchain. Many people have made a lot of money on cryptocurrencies, but this relies on finding other people to sell your cryptocurrencies to at a higher price (not unlike stocks, but stocks are regulated and slice of ownership of a real thing - a company). A friend shared this thoughtful video essay with me called The Line Goes Up.
In preparing for my first trip to Hawaii later this year, I read Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii by James Haley. The book tells the story of Hawaii from the mid 1700s through statehood. I’ve learned a lot about the islands including how Kamehameha “united” the islands through conquest and the early days of contact with European and Asian societies. He was able to trade with these new contacts for guns, cannons, and other weapons. At this point he became the King of the Hawaiian Islands where previously there was a King of each island and a hierarchical structure of various chiefs. Various Americans played different roles over the years, on both sides of the annexation debate. A fascinating read for anyone interested in the Hawaiian islands and/or American imperialism.
It has been reported that the Israeli military has killed a Palestinian-American journalist named Shireen Abu Akleh in the city of Jenin. And to make things worse, Israeli police attacked her funeral procession. It may not always make headlines here, but the Palestinian people have been under a brutal Israeli occupation for decades. Some are quick to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. But that is simply not the case. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. The critique of the actions of a state are not an indictment of an ethnic or religious group, only the state that takes those actions.
It has also been reported that PayPal has quietly stopped providing payment services to some independent media outlets like MintPress News and Consortium News. This is especially disheartening when these outlets are not calling for violence or preaching hate.
Thanks for reading. As always, I’d love to hear any feedback you might have on this newsletter.