Growth/Narrative. Helped to launch four platforms and 30+ protocols on Ethereum & beyond. R&D: Public Interest/Civic Tech
Chicago, IL
Joined January 2021
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Robin Whitney retweeted
People have asked me:
You're a pro-crypto, pro-markets @UChicago guy but also a regulated markets expert cited two dozen times in SEC rules; what's your take on prediction markets?
My answer is I'm not a fan.
But maybe not for the reasons you'd think.
mozillafoundation.org/en/not… – at Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Robin Whitney retweeted
If AI is going to generate trillions of dollars of new wealth, the public should control how that wealth gets spent.
And taken to its full conclusion: the public should hold ownership stakes in the companies reshaping the economy. Not through government takeover — through democratic governance, like public airwaves and public waterways.
Robin Whitney retweeted
Anthropic's CEO is fighting the Pentagon because he won't let his AI be used for domestic mass surveillance. Meanwhile the government is buying your location data, browsing history, and purchase records from data brokers without a warrant, and AI can now assemble all of it into a complete picture of your life automatically. This is the part people miss. It's not just that one company tracks you. It's that AI can now combine ALL the data from ALL the brokers into a surveillance profile that no human could ever build manually. And there's no law stopping it.
Robin Whitney retweeted
Does your nonprofit or community organization need a better way to manage funds together?
Our step-by-step multisig wallet setup guide is now available for download! These are the same tools we've used to manage our cooperative treasury.
Robin Whitney retweeted
Not sure people not subject to this in their cities truly comprehend how much ICE is terrorizing Chicago. They are everywhere, kidnapping whomever they want, arresting journalists, targeting construction and domestic laborers, deliberately sowing fear in almost every neighborhood
Robin Whitney retweeted
For anyone wondering, the pronunciation the immigration agents were using for Kedzie Avenue on body cam, according to the defense lawyer in court, was “Kah-DEE-zee.”Subtle, but his point was made
chicagotribune.com/2025/10/0…
Robin Whitney retweeted
If you see a group of unarmed people on little boats trying to deliver aid to a starving population, and then you see a powerful military blocking them and calling them terrorists, and you don't know which side you're on, I don't think there's any hope for you.
Robin Whitney retweeted
Judge: Let me see it...
Deputy: Mr. Foreperson, Count 1, how do you find?
Foreperson: Not unanimous.
Deputy 2: Count 2?
Foreperson: Guilty.
Deputy: Count 3, IEEPA?
Foreperson: Not guilty.
Robin Whitney retweeted
I don’t want my crypto wallet to be a social app. I use it to send and receive money, occasionally I use the embedded browser for bridging and swapping.
I don’t want mini apps and games and followers and features that make the most important features laggy and worse.
Robin Whitney retweeted
This is one of the most spellbinding anecdotes I've ever read, and it’s just Ray Bradbury rambling about a carnival worker he met when he was twelve.
“He said, ‘You were my best friend outside of Paris in 1918. You were wounded in the Ardennes and you died in my arms there.’”
Robin Whitney retweeted
The Senate should not reintroduce land sales after the House removed them from the Big Beautiful Bill. Federal preservation of wilderness is among the greatest decisions that the United States has ever made.
Robin Whitney retweeted
There is no public support in the US for war with Iran, and the fact that this has no impact on whether we’ll go to war with Iran is the stuff that implodes nations.
Robin Whitney retweeted
If you told me a few years ago Coinbase would be a sponsor to a us military parade I’d think you were insane
Robin Whitney retweeted
A few people have said that worldcoin uses semaphore and therefore, permits the creation of multiple pseudonymous identities.
Ok yes it does, but also, not really.
Yes, you can have a different pseudonymous identity across apps and because of ZK magic, there is no way to connect your World ID to those identities, or those identities to each other. Great. Semaphore is good tech (not a worldcoin invention).
The problem here is the immutable singular root identity and how "the app" decides how to use that affordance.
Let's say twitter here decides to use worldcoin as log in. It has a choice, do I let each user have multiple identities, or not?
There has to be some limit, or what's the point, the point is sybil protection at the end of the day.
So it sets the limit at 3, I can now have 3 identities on here and the app doesn't know my world ID, or which 3 identities are linked. great!
Ok, but what if "the app" chooses 1. Many will. And then what if the app bans you, well you're perma-rugged. Forever.
This is the key selling point of worldcoin, the ability to revoke access from people trying to route around identity systems.
It's the perfect deplatforming technology.
So what, I never get to use twitter again. Ok.
What if the app is more useful? What if the app is.. the internet. What if it's my CBDC wallet and there is no more cash? What if it's a digital ID and it's my voting rights, access to healthcare?
The ability to deny access at the root of my identity is what is profoundly dangerous here. And the bigger this gets the more dangerous it gets.
