Ethereum Co-founder Joe Lubin: Crypto Among Ukraine’s Best Weapons Against Russia

Crypto has proven a powerful weapon for Ukraine in its battle against Russia, with the crisis in Eastern Europe becoming “a point of no return” for crypto’s steady integration into global markets, said ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin.

Lubin, the Canadian-American entrepreneur and Ethereum co-founder, shared these thoughts and others in a wide-ranging chat with Dan Roberts, editor-in-chief of Decrypt, which sponsored Camp Ethereal 2022.

So far, at least $60 million in cryptocurrency has been channeled into the beleaguered nation.

“It’s another moment for our industry,” Lubin said at Camp Ethereal. “It represents crossing the chasm into mainstream adoption. Now we’re onto national security issues. It’s going to be so profound, a point of no return for our industry, because it’s clear that our technology is very powerful and unstoppable.”

Lubin predicted crypto will “be used by many different nation states, regardless of what other nation states say or do, and this means that every nation state has to create policy, get savvy, and start wielding these tools.”

Lubin also said global leaders are late to the party. He accused the U.S. government of “dragging its feet for a while,” and called President Joe Biden’s much hyped executive order, which was signed on Wednesday, “kind of funny, like, ‘Hey, all you agencies get a clue!’ That’s basically what he said.” 

Lubin likened crypto to an arms race, saying, “This country and many others are going to have to make use of this powerful tool and weapon. Nobody likes weapons, but you have to be as capable with powerful weapons as your neighbors are.”