Episode 101
Michael Casey | The Age of Cryptocurrency and the Remaking of the Modern World
Episode 101
Michael Casey
Michael Casey | The Age of Cryptocurrency and the Remaking of the Modern World
summary
In this week’s episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Casey, an acclaimed author, journalist, researcher, and entrepreneur who currently serves as CEO and founder of Streambed Media, an early-stage video production and technology platform that seeks to optimize capital formation and creative output in the digital media industry. Michael is also chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board and a senior advisor at the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, where he has spearheaded research projects that employ blockchain technology to achieve social impact goals.
Michael Casey’s breadth of experience as a financial journalist for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, as well as his time spent stationed overseas in Thailand and Argentina, provide him with a unique perspective on the ‘problem of trust’ and what he calls ‘the Internet’s original sin.’ The latter is a reference to the observation that the inventors of packet switching and the basic Web protocols did, according to Casey, “a masterful job figuring how to move information seamlessly across a distributed network. What they didn’t do was resolve the problem of trust.” “On the one hand,” writes the chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board, “the distribution of public information was disintermediated, which put all centralized providers of that information, especially newspapers and other media outlets, under intense business pressure from blogs and other new information competitors. But on the other, all valuable information – particularly money itself, an especially valuable form of information – was still intermediated by trusted third parties.”
This intersection between money, communication, and trust serves as the basis for Demetri and Michael’s conversation during this episode. The two discuss Shoshana Zuboff’s work on Surveillance Capitalism, the loss of faith in financial institutions and central banks (including recent actions by the Federal Open Market Committee and the intervention by the Fed in the overnight Repo market), and how cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technology aims to reinstill this lost faith by resolving the problem of trust.
The overtime to this week’s episode is an exhaustive exploration of the forces driving cryptocurrency adoption around the globe, the cultural impetus behind these forces, and the financial imperatives fueling Bitcoin’s ascent as truly global money.
You can access the overtime, along with a transcript and rundown to this week’s episode through the Hidden Forces Supercast Page. All subscribers also gain access to the overtime RSS feed, which can be easily be added to your favorite podcast application.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Subscribe & Support the Podcast at http://patreon.com/hiddenforces
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
bio
Michael Casey is CEO and founder of Streambed Media, an early-stage video production and technology platform that seeks to optimize capital formation and creative output in the digital media industry. He is also chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board and a senior advisor at the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, where he has spearheaded research projects that employ blockchain technology to achieve social impact goals. Additionally, Casey is a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, an adjunct professor at Curtin University’s Center for Culture and Technology.
Until mid-2015, Casey was a senior columnist covering global finance at The Wall Street Journal, the culmination of a two-decade career in print journalism that spanned various roles and stints on five continents. He also hosted online TV shows for WSJ Live and frequently appeared on various networks as a commentator, including CNBC, CNN, Fox Business, and the BBC. Casey is a frequent speaker on the international conference circuit, giving presentations on topics of digital innovation, globalization, and the future of media and money. He also advises and consults for both startups and large enterprises that are undergoing or confronting digital transformation.
Casey has five acclaimed books to his name, including The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything and The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order, both co-authored with Paul Vigna. He has also worked with and has featured in various documentaries covering a variety of themes to do with digital technology and culture.
A native of Perth, Australia, Casey is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and has higher degrees from Cornell University and Curtin University.
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Virtutis, magnitudinis animi, patientiae, fortitudinis fomentis dolor mitigari solet. Quis suae urbis conservatorem Codrum, quis Erechthei filias non maxime laudat? Piso igitur hoc modo, vir optimus tuique, ut scis, amantissimus. Quodsi ipsam honestatem undique pertectam atque absolutam. Quia dolori non voluptas contraria est, sed doloris privatio. An dubium est, quin virtus ita maximam partem optineat in rebus humanis, ut reliquas obruat? Et quidem illud ipsum non nimium probo et tantum patior, philosophum loqui de cupiditatibus finiendis. Nam si propter voluptatem, quae est ista laus, quae possit e macello peti? Varietates autem iniurasque fortunae facile veteres philosophorum praeceptis instituta vita superabat. Quicquid enim a sapientia proficiscitur, id continuo debet expletum esse omnibus suis partibus;
Quorum sine causa fieri nihil putandum est. Collige omnia, quae soletis: Praesidium amicorum. Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota philosophiae ratione dissentit. Quid de Platone aut de Democrito loquar? Quid enim me prohiberet Epicureum esse, si probarem, quae ille diceret? Quamquam tu hanc copiosiorem etiam soles dicere. Quid ei reliquisti, nisi te, quoquo modo loqueretur, intellegere, quid diceret? Videsne, ut haec concinant?
Nulla profecto est, quin suam vim retineat a primo ad extremum. Illud mihi a te nimium festinanter dictum videtur, sapientis omnis esse semper beatos; Virtutis, magnitudinis animi, patientiae, fortitudinis fomentis dolor mitigari solet. Idem fecisset Epicurus, si sententiam hanc, quae nunc Hieronymi est, coniunxisset cum Aristippi vetere sententia. Quod autem meum munus dicis non equidem recuso, sed te adiungo socium. Nam quibus rebus efficiuntur voluptates, eae non sunt in potestate sapientis. Scientiam pollicentur, quam non erat mirum sapientiae cupido patria esse cariorem. Quae animi affectio suum cuique tribuens atque hanc, quam dico. Quod ea non occurrentia fingunt, vincunt Aristonem; Nemo igitur esse beatus potest.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Item de contrariis, a quibus ad genera formasque generum venerunt. Si longus, levis; Claudii libidini, qui tum erat summo ne imperio, dederetur. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Compensabatur, inquit, cum summis doloribus laetitia. Tum mihi Piso: Quid ergo?
Hoc loco discipulos quaerere videtur, ut, qui asoti esse velint, philosophi ante fiant. Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit? Quid ad utilitatem tantae pecuniae? Vide, ne etiam menses! nisi forte eum dicis, qui, simul atque arripuit, interficit. Zenonis est, inquam, hoc Stoici. Earum etiam rerum, quas terra gignit, educatio quaedam et perfectio est non dissimilis animantium. Paria sunt igitur. Pollicetur certe.
Quae similitudo in genere etiam humano apparet. -delector enim, quamquam te non possum, ut ais, corrumpere, delector, inquam, et familia vestra et nomine. Iam id ipsum absurdum, maximum malum neglegi. Ergo id est convenienter naturae vivere, a natura discedere. Age nunc isti doceant, vel tu potius quis enim ista melius?
Illud dico, ea, quae dicat, praeclare inter se cohaerere. Quid autem habent admirationis, cum prope accesseris? Quare, quoniam de primis naturae commodis satis dietum est nunc de maioribus consequentibusque videamus. Tibi hoc incredibile, quod beatissimum. Quae cum magnifice primo dici viderentur, considerata minus probabantur. Polycratem Samium felicem appellabant. Nihil opus est exemplis hoc facere longius. Sit hoc ultimum bonorum, quod nunc a me defenditur; Facile est hoc cernere in primis puerorum aetatulis. Verum tamen cum de rebus grandioribus dicas, ipsae res verba rapiunt;
intelligence report
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Si verbum sequimur, primum longius verbum praepositum quam bonum. Quid censes in Latino fore? Laboro autem non sine causa; Sumenda potius quam expetenda.
An est aliquid, quod te sua sponte delectet? Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota philosophiae ratione dissentit. Si est nihil nisi corpus, summa erunt illa: valitudo, vacuitas doloris, pulchritudo, cetera. Sed quoniam et advesperascit et mihi ad villam revertendum est, nunc quidem hactenus; Quod si ita se habeat, non possit beatam praestare vitam sapientia.
Tu autem, si tibi illa probabantur, cur non propriis verbis ea tenebas? Quarum ambarum rerum cum medicinam pollicetur, luxuriae licentiam pollicetur. Quid ergo attinet dicere: Nihil haberem, quod reprehenderem, si finitas cupiditates haberent? Iam doloris medicamenta illa Epicurea tamquam de narthecio proment: Si gravis, brevis; Nunc omni virtuti vitium contrario nomine opponitur.
Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Causa autem fuit huc veniendi ut quosdam hinc libros promerem. Sed haec omittamus; Septem autem illi non suo, sed populorum suffragio omnium nominati sunt. Varietates autem iniurasque fortunae facile veteres philosophorum praeceptis instituta vita superabat. Cum audissem Antiochum, Brute, ut solebam, cum M. Et non ex maxima parte de tota iudicabis? Atque haec ita iustitiae propria sunt, ut sint virtutum reliquarum communia.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Tu autem negas fortem esse quemquam posse, qui dolorem malum putet. Quare, quoniam de primis naturae commodis satis dietum est nunc de maioribus consequentibusque videamus. Quacumque enim ingredimur, in aliqua historia vestigium ponimus. In voluptate corporis-addam, si vis, animi, dum ea ipsa, ut vultis, sit e corpore-situm est vivere beate. Nec vero sum nescius esse utilitatem in historia, non modo voluptatem.
Illud dico, ea, quae dicat, praeclare inter se cohaerere. Quamvis enim depravatae non sint, pravae tamen esse possunt.
Et quod est munus, quod opus sapientiae? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Disserendi artem nullam habuit. Ita cum ea volunt retinere, quae superiori sententiae conveniunt, in Aristonem incidunt; Nondum autem explanatum satis, erat, quid maxime natura vellet. Quare ad ea primum, si videtur; Id enim volumus, id contendimus, ut officii fructus sit ipsum officium. Quorum altera prosunt, nocent altera. Nam his libris eum malo quam reliquo ornatu villae delectari.
Bonum integritas corporis: misera debilitas. Quae tamen a te agetur non melior, quam illae sunt, quas interdum optines. Cum autem venissemus in Academiae non sine causa nobilitata spatia, solitudo erat ea, quam volueramus. Experiamur igitur, inquit, etsi habet haec Stoicorum ratio difficilius quiddam et obscurius. Si enim non fuit eorum iudicii, nihilo magis hoc non addito illud est iudicatum-.