Ben's quibbles with Podcasting 2.0 and Blockchains

Hi Chris! Love the show, been listening to you on various platforms since the mid-aughts. I was listening to the interview with Podcasting 2.0, and I have some quibbles.

You talk about how the blockchain is auditable on a public ledger, but the Podcast Index does not have any public governance documents or finances. I agree that there are problems with 501c3 organizations, but as a private organization the Podcast Index has not requirement to release anything, and as far as I can tell they have not released any finances or governance. I believe that the folks in charge are currently on the up and up, but if they leave or they have a change of heart things could immediately change.

I am a free software proponent by I'm also a blockchain skeptic, and I think there should be space for that viewpoint; just because I'm very bought into free software does not mean I have to necessarily buy into blockchain technology. You bring up the climate profiles of a bunch of other technologies, which is legitimate, but I don't think that blockchains have yet proven themselves as a necessary good either that justifies the amount of carbon that they burn. The fees on BTC and Ethereum alone are problematic, and together they form the vast majority of blockchain transactions.

Just because it is new and just because it is open source does not make cryptocurrency necessarily good. Just because they stand in opposition to traditional banking, an obviously shitty and exploitative system, does not make them necessarily good. And there should be room for folks to criticize them.

Thank you so much for your shows and for the thought provoking things you bring up.

Best,
Ben
Richmond, Va.