The pervasiveness of Web3 in major industries has begun to raise questions about the ethics required to operate in the space. During the second day of Paris Blockchain Week (PBW) 2023, a group of ecosystem professionals took the Venus de Milo stage to discuss the “Ethics of Web3”.
The panel began with moderator Moojan Ashghari, co-founder of investment club Thousand Faces Web3, who said that the ethical framework or standard of technology will always lag behind the introduction of technology.
“This is the biggest challenge in ethics: what are the right questions to ask ourselves today to make sure technology doesn’t harm us in the near or distant future.”
The panelists unanimously agreed that innovation usually comes before any ethical standards are implemented.. Margaux Frisque, co-founder and legal advisor of the Association of Women in Web3, noted the upcoming Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework in the European Union.
He spoke of MiCA being “inspired by feedback from operations [pasadas]” and will soon force companies to segregate their customers’ funds from other bank accounts.
“That is an example of good behavior that has become hard law, soon to be implemented throughout the EU. It is a good example of making ethics our law to protect people and innovation.”
The PBW hosted a full panel on the upcoming MiCA regulations, during which industry experts and regulators discussed the implications of the proposals by European legislators. The proposal has so far faced several delays, but is scheduled for a final vote in April 2023.
Loic Brotons, CEO of Galeon, echoed this sentiment that behavior influences ethics, saying that “mixing innovation and ethics is a bit tricky.”
“Usually innovation comes first, and sometimes really bad things happen. Then comes ethics because we look at what the innovation has done”.
He pointed to the FTX scandal, which he said was an example of the exact opposite of Satoshi Nakamoto’s “don’t trust, verify” philosophy.
“That was the problem with FTX,” he said. “Nobody was able to verify.”
He added that exchanges are shelling out proofs of reserve by the dozens so people can follow the money and verify their trust. “It is changing”, concluded.
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