전 SEC 위원, 암호화폐 범죄로 회의적

미국 증권거래위원회(SEC) 창립멤버이자 전 위원인 존 리드 스타크(John Reed Stark)가 최근 프로토콜과의 인터뷰에서 "블록체인은 모두 사기"라고 주장했습니다.

그는 창립 초기에 웹을 통해 금융사기를 치는 악당들을 뒤쫓는 것을 매력적이라고 생각했습니다.

20여년이 지난 지금, 그는 새로운 사기의 물결이라고 생각하는 것에 반대하는 목소리를 내고 있습니다. 이번에는 사기꾼들이 사용하는 기술인 암호화폐와 블록체인도 목표로 삼고 있습니다.

"블록체인 기술이 암호화폐, NFT, 탈중앙화 금융을 낳았고, 이것들은 마약 거래, 인신매매, 랜섬웨어 등의 범죄로 이어지고 있다. 게다가 암호화폐 채굴을 환경문제와도 연관이 깊다."
"변동성이 크고, 통화로서의 가치도 없다. 암호화폐가 탈중앙화돼 있다는 생각은 모두 사기다. 이것이 내가 암호화폐를 회의적으로 생각하는 이유다"라고 밝혔습니다.

John Reed Stark helped launch the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement in 1998, at the height of the dot-com boom.
Under Stark, the office’s founding chief, the team had the task of clamping down on securities fraud committed through the nascent but rapidly expanding web. The job was to go after the bad guys with the same technology they were using — technology that Stark found fascinating.

More than 20 years later, Stark is speaking out against what he considers a new wave of fraud. But this time he’s also taking aim at the technology that he says the scammers are using: cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

On top of that, the ramifications of blockchain technology being used in cryptocurrencies, in NFTs, for decentralized finance — all of these things have wreaked havoc, not just in terms of ransomware, human sex trafficking, drug dealing. The crypto crime wave is taking the world by storm. Then there are the environmental issues associated with cryptocurrency mining.

It doesn't work as a currency. Is there anybody who uses it? Of course not. It's way too volatile. What retailer would want to take it one day, and the next day have it be worth a third of what it was worth? It makes no sense.
And the idea that it's decentralized is a complete fraud. There's miners. There's digital wallets. There's the platforms, the exchanges. There's so many intermediaries. There's just more and more every time you read about it.

Reference
'Blockchain is bunk': Crypto critics find their voice