129 - Why the Crypto Critics Are Wrong | Matthew Green
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2022
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matthew Green is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at John Hopkins University, where he teaches courses, cryptography, distributed computing systems, blockchains, and cryptocurrency. He also helped create Zerocash, one of the first privacy cryptocurrency experiments, and ultimately influenced the Zcash protocol.
He recently wrote an article titled, “In Defense of Crypto(Currency)”, in response to an open letter to Congress, signed by a large group of technologists, denouncing the entire premise of cryptocurrency and urging congress to strongly regulate the space.
In this episode, Matthew talks about his article, how crypto can do better as an industry, and why to be optimistic about the future of crypto.
------
🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/
🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/
------
Topics Covered:
0:00 Intro
6:34 Letter to Congress
12:27 Matthew’s Background
15:45 Why Write This Letter
19:03 Crypto Haters
24:14 What to do About Scams
28:45 Regulation
32:28 Addressing Concrete Objections
35:36 PoW Climate Issue
38:06 Blockchains Transfer Reversal
45:50 Crypto Doesn’t Scale Claim
50:42 Privacy Claims
1:02:43 Annoying Hype
1:05:50 Doing Better as an Industry
1:10:25 Matthew’s Favorite Project
1:14:58 Why Be Optimistic About Crypto
1:17:13 Closing & Disclaimers
------
Resources:
Matthew Green
https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green
Letter to Congress
https://concerned.tech/
In Defense of Crypto(Currency)
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2022/06/09/in-defense-of-cryptocurrency/
-----
Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Bankless, where we explore the frontier of internet money and internet finance. |
| 0:11.8 | This is how to get started, how to get better, and how to front-run the opportunity. |
| 0:15.7 | This is Ryan Sean Adams. |
| 0:16.7 | I'm here with David Hoffman, and we are here to help you become more bankless. |
| 0:21.4 | Guys, we have a fantastic episode on why the crypto critics are wrong. |
| 0:25.8 | This is in response to a letter that was recently written to Congress titled A Letter in |
| 0:31.8 | Support of Responsible Fintech Policy. |
| 0:34.2 | This was a blistering letter written by over 1,500 tech experts critiquing crypto. |
| 0:39.7 | We brought on Matt Green to talk about this letter, and his response to that Matthew Green |
| 0:44.4 | is a cryptographer, he's an associate professor at Hopkins. |
| 0:48.6 | We talk about that letter, the response, we talk about four common objections from those |
| 0:53.6 | outside crypto, and how to respond to those objections, and then what crypto natives |
| 0:58.4 | should actually do when criticisms like these arise, how to react to them. |
| 1:03.5 | This is overall a really great conversation with a cryptographer, someone who's deep on |
| 1:07.2 | the crypto side, but also sees kind of the regular everyday side of things and interacts |
| 1:12.2 | with regulators all of the time. |
| 1:14.3 | We also discussed privacy a little bit, which is one of my favorite topics. |
| 1:18.0 | David, what were your thoughts going into this episode? |
| 1:20.1 | I think Matthew is so perfectly positioned to span these two communities, where he is |
| 1:25.8 | teaching not just cryptography and distributed systems, but straight up blockchain and |
| 1:30.8 | cryptocurrency courses at John Hopkins. |
| 1:33.6 | The guy can speak our language, he can speak crypto native, but he's also in academia. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bankless, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bankless and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.