Cryptomania: How Cryptocurrency Can Save—or Destabilize—a Country - Commonwealth Club – World Affairs of California
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Cryptomania: How Cryptocurrency Can Save—or Destabilize—a Country

September 19, 2022 — Whether you’re a trader,  techie, or average joe, you’ve probably heard the words “crypto” or “bitcoin” swirling around the web. In the past year, digital coins – once viewed as the exclusive domain of tech millionaires – have shot to global prominence as the preferred currency of Russian oligarchs, Ukrainian resistance fighters, Salvadoran politicians, and everyone in between.

Despite the explosion of “cryptomania,” most people still know little about how the digital currency actually works. This week, we take a deep dive into the global world of cryptocurrency.

We start in Kazakhstan, where crypto miners are converting frigid winters into digital cash – and straining the country’s energy grid. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Ukrainian crypto champion Michael Chobanian and skeptic Molly White to discuss the ways crypto may help or hurt a country in crisis.

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