The debate surrounding LLMs like ChatGPT is whether they hint at general intelligence that could be harmful to humans or are simply advanced software that augments human productivity in specific domains. On one side, some believe that ChatGPT exhibits “emergent properties” and maintains an “internal world model”, suggesting glimmers of AGI. This group posits that […]
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), cryptographic tokens which are unique and not mutually interchangeable, are being hyped right now on social media and in traditional media. I have read many dumb takes promoting crypto since 2009, but the NFT ones are the dumbest. And no, this is not because NFTs “consume a rain forest each time you […]
Central bank digital currencies are on the rise. A report published by the IMF in June 2020 lists dozens of white papers and various studies on the subject. Recently, two countries have passed the concept stage: the Bahamas have deployed their “Sand Dollar” currency nationally while China has conducted a large-scale test of its central […]
“Blockchain” has dozens of definitions, it’s basically what people want it to be. That’s why you may read articles about “blockchain” solving almost any issue and transforming every single industry. It’s a logical fallacy as “blockchain” is used by many as a synonym of “software leveraging cryptography”, and it’s true that software is eating the […]
I read the article developing the thesis for the a16z Crypto fund II and it only confirmed my opinion that most VC don’t know what they’re talking about [there are a few exceptions!]. Or maybe a16z does, but they’re hiding their real thesis (“continue to invest in software”) behind irrelevant statements for some strategic reason. […]
We shouldn’t even have to talk about blockchain public voting, because blockchains were specifically designed to bypass authorities (“trusted third parties are security holes“), whereas public elections are specifically managed and controlled by public authorities. “Blockchain public voting” is an oxymoron, at least given our current forms of government. It’s a common error to think […]
Did you know that R3 Corda Blockchain has “no block chain” per its technical whitepaper (page 5)? Did you know that the Libra blockchain won’t use a blockchain per its technical whitepaper (page 8: “Unlike previous blockchain projects, which view the blockchain as a collection of blocks of transactions, the Libra Blockchain will be a […]
The idea that blockchains or distributed ledgers may bring benefits in terms of cybersecurity is a widespread myth. Even the US Department of Defense fell for this myth in a recent report “DoD Digital Modernization Strategy” with plans to build a “Block Chain Cybersecurity Shield” allowing to “transmit secure messages” and “develop unhackable code”. It […]
During a recent training about innovation in Finance that I was delivering, I decided to do a whiteboard exercise and list the differences between “a blockchain” and a conventional “software” with the help of the participants, in order to teach them how to distinguish the real from the fake news. The first thing we agreed […]
This year I decided to only make safe 2020 predictions, because who doesn’t like to be proven right? I want to be able to brag about my successes in one year. 1/ Firms, the usual suspects (IBM, SAP, MS, the big four, McK, FB, etc.) and startups alike, will continue to mislead the public by […]
