The Corruption of Computer Scientists

I am disappointed to learn that a computer scientist that I have admired for their research papers and blog posts has become a “crypto bro” and is the CEO of a crypto startup.

Crypto currencies are seductive for computer scientists. The distributed block chain database and trustless transaction systems are fascinating computer science problems. Combine this with the chance of becoming wealthy. More wealthy than could be dreamed of as a professor or technology company employee.

The seduction of interesting problems and, most of all, wealth, leads the corrupted computer scientist to accept and promote claims that should have been ridiculed. For example, that there is an actual application of crypto currency and block chain that is not satisfied by technology that has existed for decades. Or at least applications that don’t involve illegal transactions and money laundering.

Especially when motivated by wealth, smart people find ways to justify the unjustifiable. Sadly, that is the case of the crypto bro I previously admired.

The vast amounts of money lost in the 2022 crypto crash and the plaintive letters submitted to the Celsius bankruptcy trustee show that crypto schemes that gone wrong have real victims that go beyond that venture capital funds that may have lost money (assuming the venture capital funds didn’t cash out before the crash).

I hope that time will prove me wrong and that there will be new and unique applications for Professor Crypto Bro’s technology. Sadly, given the wide reading I have done on crypto and block chain, I don’t think that this will be the case.