Crypto Design 201

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Faye Hays - September 21, 2018

Usability in crypto is a two-pronged battle: one at the product level and one at the ecosystem level. How do we design for both?

I found myself asking this question on Monday at the Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) in New York. OFF gathers activists and dissidents with leaders in technology, business, philanthropy, music, and art. The goal is to discuss “making the world more peaceful, prosperous, and free.”

The event included a panel discussion titled “Why Decentralization Matters,” organized by Alex Gladstein and moderated by Laura Shin. Panelists included Megha Rajagopalan of Buzzfeed News, Venezuelan designer/engineer Alejandro Machado, and crypto entrepreneurs Andy Bromberg of Coinlist and Amber Baldet of Clovyr.

Megha and Alejandro shared their experiences in places where the consequences of weak privacy and central bureaucratic shortcomings are all too tangible - even deadly. Amber emphasized that in the pursuit to thwart authoritarianism, how you build software matters. Andy noted that building tech for tech’s sake is not enough, just as developing a revolutionary medicine is useless if it never makes it into people’s hands.