Hilary J. Allen

Always delighted to see journalists using @followthecrypto.org data in their reporting! If you're a journalist following campaign finance and run across crypto spending, I'm always happy to talk to you.

AI Code Hallucinations Increase the Risk of ‘Package Confusion’ Attacks A new study found that code generated by AI is more likely to contain made-up information that can be used to trick software into interacting with malicious code.

perhaps an interesting issue to look into: www.wired.com/story/ai-cod...

I was going to go to CVS, but ended up having the blood test and found out I'm still super immune

And if you want a long read about how and why the crypto and AI industries are buying elected representatives, may I offer you "Silicon Valley, Welfare Queen"

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Al Green's runoff opponent Christian Menefee has an "A" from Stand With Crypto. That should be treated as a scarlet letter.

www.standwithcrypto.org/politicians/...

I'd love people to start using Stand With Crypto as a resource to check which candidates will sell out to tech oligarchs

(from fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...)

How Candidates Are Using Winks and Posts to Seek Crypto and A.I. Cash

AI tech & crypto bros are subverting both political parties to their will.

You should thus be alarmed re: prospect of “bipartisan” legislation relevant to these industries, like federal “permitting reform,” which also has energy industry backing.

Absent opposition, we’re all about to get rolled.

Make 'em laugh

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

I’ve been wondering the same thing

If you want to talk about the crypto industry buying elections, I'd love to talk!

(Here's my book that covers this: fintechdystopia.com)

I wrote a paper that deals with cascade failures through interoperable systems in the context of the banking system: jcl.law.uiowa.edu/sites/jcl.la...

2 young billionaires are behind the prediction market boom. They hate each other The 20-something billionaires who run Kalshi and Polymarket are battling it out to be the top prediction market company. Observers and former insiders say the feud is just heating up.

At the center of the prediction markets boom is a bitter rivalry between two 20-something billionaire fintech bros vying for their companies to be distinct, despite everyone constantly lumping them together

"For them, it's existential," a former Kalshi employee told me

www.npr.org/2026/03/06/n...

Can you work crypto in there in a witty way?

Jack Dorsey’s 4,000 Job Cuts at Block Arouse Suspicions of AI-Washing When Block Inc. laid off nearly half its staff this week, co-founder Jack Dorsey offered a seemingly simple explanation: artificial intelligence was allowing the company to do more with fewer employee...

Also a reminder that when tech companies tell the world they're doing layoffs "because of AI," they may not be being entirely honest (ahem, Jack Dorsey www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

But hey, "because of AI" sure sounds better than "our business isn't doing so great..."

Who could possibly have predicted this?

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Why developers using AI are working longer hours Studies find AI helps developers release more software—while logging longer hours and fixing problems after the code goes live

www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Jenkins worries that if make the billionaires the enemy, we'll lose out on their noblesse oblige....

Here's a discussion of the eugenicist authoritarian priorities shared by many SF billionaires: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

I'd just HATE to lose out on those....

Masters in Business: Hilary Allen - Bloomberg Barry Ritholtz looks at the people and ideas that shape markets, investing and business.

(I had a great conversation with @ritholtz.bsky.social about AI-washing here: www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2...)

Jack Dorsey’s Block to cut workforce by ‘nearly half’ as it leans on AI tools Group’s shares surge 25% as CEO says ‘most companies are late’ to realise how much technology will affect employment

So Dorsey says he's cutting workforce because of AI and everyone just takes it on faith? Without asking if maybe imprudent overhiring a while back + exposure to tanking crypto might help explain? As the economy sours watch as more cos do this "AI-washing" of layoffs...

www.ft.com/content/50b9...

Trumpism won't last forever. But the oligarchy currently being built by tech billionaires will certainly try.

Hah! My initial thought was "you said it, they stink on ice"

Coinbase has studiously curated its image as “good” crypto, but even for “good” crypto, regulatory arbitrage is the use case – and you don’t have to take my word for it. Coinbase conceded that complying with the law would require it to: overhaul its entire business model to register as an NSE and clearing agency, potentially requiring Coinbase to jettison its entire customer-facing business and overhaul its public company governance structure to conform to limits on concentrated voting control of NSEs and clearing agencies. Here, Coinbase is using “if you make us comply with the law we’ll go out of business” as an argument for why the laws on the books shouldn’t be enforced. But if we reject the techno-solutionist assumption that tech businesses have the right to operate even when doing illegal things, then we might understand this as an admission that Coinbase really shouldn’t exist at all.

Or - hear me out - you could tell the story this way:

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Masters in Business: Hilary Allen - Bloomberg Barry Ritholtz looks at the people and ideas that shape markets, investing and business.

Thanks to @ritholtz.bsky.social for a fantastic conversation ranging from finance to law to tech to politics to psychology, interrogating the hype of crypto, AI, and fintech.

www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2...

You can almost see why private equity/private credit was so anxious to expand their investor base — to your 401(k).

$OWL

If you’d like to read the Fintech Dystopia book we’re discussing, here’s the link: fintechdystopia.com

Masters in Business: Hilary Allen - Bloomberg Barry Ritholtz looks at the people and ideas that shape markets, investing and business.

Thanks to @ritholtz.bsky.social for a fantastic conversation ranging from finance to law to tech to politics to psychology, interrogating the hype of crypto, AI, and fintech.

www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2...

I love it because I get to say "smelting" over and over again.

There are, however, some less familiar incentives and motivations that may exacerbate the risk of a financial crisis. Venture capitalists have benefited significantly from the easy money available during periods of accommodative monetary policy: financial crises typically beget accommodative monetary policy, and so venture capitalists may relish the prospect of another one. Even more disturbingly, the chaos following a financial crisis may be seen as an opportunity for adherents of the anti-democratic Network States movement to exploit. Finally, some of the Silicon Valley elite genuinely ascribe to TESCREALIST ideologies focused on ensuring that our artificially intelligent descendants can prosper in outer galaxies. A global financial crisis would seem like a non-event to someone fixated on a sci-fi style long-term enumerated in the thousands of years. That perspective should be deeply concerning to those of us familiar with the human costs of financial crises.

I read it the same way - I wrote something in a similar vein before the files were released: www.briefingbook.info/p/brave-new-.... I think the correspondence between Thiel and Epstein is more evidence of this mindset.

(For more on crypto and AI industry political machinations, see fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...)