Thank you for writing this piece! I think that there should be a serious discussion if crypto is net positive or negative for the world.
In my opinion, there are a few more ways how crypto could contribute to existential risk. Since you can accept donations in monero, it is much easier to make a living by spreading dangerous ideologies (human extinction is a worthy goal, political measures against existential risk are totalitarian, etc.) Of course, you can also support an atheist blogger in Iran or a whistleblower in China by crypto, but it is very hard to tell if the advantages or disadvantages weigh more.
Moreover, crypto can be used to fund more dangerous stuff than “just” artificial pathogens. Think of AGIs that are build for a criminal purpose, imperfect mind uploads that suffer, or perfect mind uploads that are build with the intention to torture them, underground companies that avoid AI regulation in order to cut costs etc.
These scenarios do not prove that cryptocurrencies are net negative; especially since it may be possible to build DAOs that will solve some coordination problems. Nevertheless, I would be happy if more smart people were thinking hard about these issues.
Thank you for writing this piece! I think that there should be a serious discussion if crypto is net positive or negative for the world.
In my opinion, there are a few more ways how crypto could contribute to existential risk. Since you can accept donations in monero, it is much easier to make a living by spreading dangerous ideologies (human extinction is a worthy goal, political measures against existential risk are totalitarian, etc.) Of course, you can also support an atheist blogger in Iran or a whistleblower in China by crypto, but it is very hard to tell if the advantages or disadvantages weigh more.
Moreover, crypto can be used to fund more dangerous stuff than “just” artificial pathogens. Think of AGIs that are build for a criminal purpose, imperfect mind uploads that suffer, or perfect mind uploads that are build with the intention to torture them, underground companies that avoid AI regulation in order to cut costs etc.
These scenarios do not prove that cryptocurrencies are net negative; especially since it may be possible to build DAOs that will solve some coordination problems. Nevertheless, I would be happy if more smart people were thinking hard about these issues.