How Crypto Is Like Early Corporations

And how they’re both artificial life

Hogarthian image of the 1720 “South Sea Bubble” from the mid-19th century, by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery

Crypto sucks, but it’s here to stay. Like the corporate form, it’s a version of artificial life that’s not very good for humans, but it’s not going anywhere. Today’s religion was yesterday’s cult. Today’s cult is tomorrow’s religion.

People forget that early corporations were bonkers, colonial charlatans were…