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Can you still be in crypto “for the tech?”

The idealist in me would like to say yes — but it’s an increasingly tricky question to answer.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain, in the most general sense, are money technologies. That’s quite different from something like media software, where being in it “for the tech” can be more easily expressed by keeping the software free to use.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the creator of VLC media player, has over the years refused tens of millions of dollars from advertisers in order to do exactly that. 

In crypto, it’s not so clear. If you’re in…

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