Is crypto’s biggest rival artificial intelligence?
As AI absorbs talent and capital, it’s not clear yet if crypto and AI are competing or converging but crypto’s focus on human agency may matter more than ever in an automated world.
Amanda Cassatt is joined by Aaron Wright, crypto lawyer, former Wikia general counsel and CEO of Tribute Labs, to unpack the battle between crypto and AI and what the explosive growth of stablecoins actually means for the U.S. dollar as both institutions and corporations look to gain exposure to crypto.
Outside of the technological battle we’re seeing, Aaron believes we’re also undergoing a structural shift that’ll see the separation of the U.S. dollar from U.S. banks. He discusses the slow erosion of smaller national currencies, and the rise of open, permissionless financial infrastructure that anyone can access. What looks incremental today may ultimately reshape who controls money and how power flows in a dollar-dominated world.
The conversation spans across artificial intelligence, dollar hegemony, central bank authority, as well as the growing divide between institutional crypto and the onchain “trenches.”
Timestamps:
00:00 – Cold Open: Stablecoins and the End of Dollar Hegemony
05:00 – Splitting the Dollar from the Banks
10:00 – Do Stablecoins Weaken Central Banks?
15:00 – Should Local Currencies Even Exist?
20:00 – The Paradox of American Decline
25:00 – Regulation, Law, and Crypto’s Lost Years
30:00 – Institutional Crypto vs. the Trenches
35:00 – Is Crypto Still About Technology?
40:00 – AI vs. Crypto
45:00 – Open Systems, Wikipedia, and Internet Decay
50:00 – KYC, Surveillance, and Enshittification
55:00 – Identity, Reputation, and ZK Proofs
1:00:00 – Crypto’s Endgame: Human Agency
Resources:
Follow Aaron Wright @awrigh01 https://x.com/awrigh01
Learn more about Aaron's work: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2373233
Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast
Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt
Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin
Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6iSvbKOJWoEPiAoGmiulkd
Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440
Substack: https://substack.com/@UCInZsV3L1nDGoFjxoNUnPQQ