Crypto Cuba, Nanotech Revolutions, and Behavioral Economics
I fell into a “Cuba nanotech” rabbit-hole for the last few days as I was looking into the recent developments concerning bitcoin and crypto in Cuba — I always heard they had a great healthcare system, but I never looked into the details of their scientific research and development. It was quite interesting. Enjoy.
By: Sebs Solomon—Originally Posted on September 7, 2021 via SolarTsunami
Some Background: Trump Sanctions Cuba & Biden Doesn’t Care
Because the American embargo turned Cuba into a pariah in the global economy, Cuba has joined El Salvador and Paraguay in recognizing and regulating cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin. The Cuban government hopes that the adoption of digital currencies will help them maneuver around the sanctions that were exacerbated under Donald Trump, “to pressure Cuba on human rights and for its support of the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro.” Since 2017, US imposed: restrictions on transactions with the Cuban military, sanctions to stop Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba, targeted human rights sanctions, terrorism designation, and restrictions on travel and remittances — which led to Western Union pulling out of Cuba in November 2020. As expected, the Joe Biden administration has continued Trump’s hostile and aggressive policies toward Cuba, including “restrictions on transactions with companies controlled by the Cuban military…[and] the decision to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
Lately, congress has introduced several inane bills regarding Cuba; from renaming a street in front of the Cuban Embassy and permitting Cuban nationals to play baseball in the US — to a resolution expressing solidarity with Cuban citizens demonstrating peacefully. However, none of these bills and resolutions address the economic destitution caused by the sanctions and the devastating implications that has had on the Cuban people. Thus, it is unsurprising that Cuba has turned to speculative digital currencies in order to recover from the economic shutdown associated with COVID-19 and to restore its economy after years of US sanctions and embargoes. It’s almost as if the sanctions are not being lifted because the global powers that be want Cuba to run out of options and adopt cryptocurrency as an “alternative.”According to Cuban Prisoners Defenders, a Madrid-based NGO affiliated with Amnesty International, Cuba reached 272 political prisoners due to the lack of “presence of international human rights NGOs on the island.”
To be clear, I am vehemently opposed to any and all arbitrary imprisonment and torture of anyone, wherever it happens; however, the fact that the Madrid based NGO (Cuban Prisoners Defenders) seems to assert that the uptick in political prisoners is occurring due to the lack of international NGOs in Cuba, is absurd AND indicative of possible political motivations rather than actual concern for human rights.
Furthermore, when anti-government protests were taking place in Cuba this summer, many mainstream media outlets reported that the Cuban government restricted access to social media and messaging platforms (like Facebook and WhatsApp). Of course, freedom of speech and the right to protest are important in any country; however, the media failed to mention that in 2010, the US, through USAID, secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine the government.
Now, this is not to excuse the government of Cuba for suppressing any dissent, but I think it is imperative to report these types of stories with the full context. Moreover, since the early 1960s, the centerpiece of US policy toward Cuba “has consisted of economic sanctions aimed at isolating the Cuban government.” And who are most hurt by these types of embargoes and sanctions? In most cases, it hurts the sanctioned country’s people, not the regime. Adding to the list of terrible and abominable ideas that were suggested in how to “deal” with Cuba, the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, said the U.S. should consider “bombing Cuba as part of its response to recent citizen uprisings in the country against its government.” This is a horrifying statement. It is also a logically unsound idea because he is suggesting more violence as a way to quell…violence. Not only is that morally reprehensible, but it doesn’t actually make any sense. How can you use violence to “bring” peace? Very bizarre.
Crypto Cuba
McKinsey, The World Economic Forum, PwC, and IBM have all published guidelines “to integrate blockchain technology to reap cost, time, and efficiency improvements.” Kristi Yuthas, professor of accounting at Portland State University told Cointelegraph that the need for individuals skilled “in blockchain technology is a result of traditional companies being impacted by the technology…leaders with the acumen to create business value from these innovations are now in high demand.” In other words, those who can adapt will be successful and those who cannot adapt will be left behind.
Understanding the current trajectory of these technologies, in addition to what Yuthas said about the importance of adapting to the ever-changing environment, it is no surprise that Cuba made the decision to adopt cryptocurrency. In one article, the writer at Coindesk showcased her insufficient knowledge of geopolitics when she asserted that Cubans “share many of the hallmark factors that drive bitcoin usage in Venezuela, such as an unstable local currency, strict capital controls and widespread mistrust of the government-controlled banks” — without giving a clear historical context of the harsh sanctions and embargoes that have isolated and crippled the Cuban and Venezuelan economies for years. Yes, I have no doubt that Cuba and Venezuela have their own problems with corruption, internally, but let’s be honest here, the external aggression from the United States and NATO makes things worse.
Due to the recent expansion of access to new technologies and digital enterprises, a series of crypto exchanges have emerged in Cuba, such as: Qbita, CubaXchange — now called HeavenEx (based in Uruguay), QvaPay (processes payments through Panama), and Fusyona (based in Brazil). According to Adrian C. Leon, a Cuban computer scientist based in Rio de Janeiro and founder of Fusyona (crypto exchange), for many people, cryptocurrencies are just another option, but for Cubans “it is a necessity [that] can be a solution to their exclusion from the global financial community.” In 2019, Leon even started lobbying Cuban Central Bank officials in the hopes of having Fusyona approved at the highest levels because he was nervous “his agents on the island who receive and transfer cash might be suspected of dodgy financial dealings.” Perhaps, Leon really does want to to help Cubans find an alternative way to engage in the global economy; however, Fusyona donates 20% of the token creation fee they receive to Binance Charity — and Binance Charity is partnered with many NGOs in the humanitarian sector, like UNICEF (I have written about UNICEF and its ties to shady characters and human capital investing here).
Interestingly, during a short stay on the island, crypto evangelist, John McAfee, once said he would be willing to help the Cuban government if they decided to adopt cryptocurrency. Furthermore, when the Cuban government began welcoming more foreign investment and established the Mariel Special Economic Zone — which resulted in Cuba and the United States forming a biotech joint venture to develop cancer drugs.
Placenta production in Cuba’s pharmaceutical sector? Odd.
Cuomo Does Cuba
One joint venture was established in 2018 and it came out of Andrew Cuomo’s trade mission to Cuba in 2015, where Cuomo exclaimed, “this historic venture with Cuba will provide Roswell Park access to innovative cancer-fighting drugs that could revolutionize treatments and put us one step closer to eliminating the threat of cancer once and for all.” Hard to fathom Andrew Cuomo is concerned with anybody’s health considering he decided to put COVID patients in nursing homes during the pandemic in 2020 — against the directive sent out by the American Health Care Association which clearly stated that forcing “COVID patients into nursing homes in order to increase hospital bed capacity could worsen effects of the pandemic…[and cause] a higher number of deaths.”
Nanotech in Havana
Prior to Cuomo penetrating Cuba with his 2015 trade mission; Fidel Castro’s son, in 2008, visited University of Southampton in the UK — to have a gander at the Optoelectronics Research Centre and the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
In 2015, Castro Díaz-Balart (or Fidelito) — Fidel Castro’s son — established the Center for Advanced Studies of Cuba,located south of Havana, that aimed to make the nation competitive in nanotechnology. Several years after Fidelito passed away, in 2018, the Cuban government announced that it would launch a National Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program to modernize its industry, especially pharmaceutical and biotechnological, in search of full technological sovereignty. In 2020, Cuba and Russia enhanced their collaboration in nanotechnology projects in medicine. This involved the creation “of new systems for supplying medications through the use of nanotechnologies is the interest of Cuban and Russian specialists who, together, will try to create small units that will take medicine to affected areas of the human body.”
When Obama entered the White House, he indicated the desire to normalize relations with Cuba in order to increasetelecom connections between the two countries. He instructed the secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite links between the US and Cuba. Prior to Obama’s Cuba Telecommunications To-Do List, the Cuban government, under Fidel Castro, had never shown any interest in “liberalizing” their telecom sector. Meanwhile, around the same time in 2010, Cuba was praised for surpassing many “developed” nations in undertaking comprehensive “data collection to define the scope of the population’s health problems — distinguishing it from many countries which suffer from a woeful lack of reliable data…lack of data is hamstringing faster progress towards the Millennium Development Goals for many countries of the Global South, which Cuba leads in several indicators.” The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the UN’s standards and metrics for measuring “development” before the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Interestingly, the Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Healthexpressed an interest in assessing the potential impacts “of nanotechnologies for developing countries within the framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals” according to an Allianz report titled Opportunities and Risks of Nanotechnologies.
The current president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, recently emphasized that Cuba is committed to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnologies. In December 2019, Cuba’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, presented the Council of Minister’s role in nanoscience and nanotechnologies, which he said was vital in the economic and social development (a national program until 2030). Nanotechnology is not new to Cuba, in fact, in 2010, Oxford Fellow, Dr. Sonia Trigueros, collaborated with Cuban scientists to advance nanotechnology in medicine and spoke highly of the Cuban government’s decision to invest in science. She spent several weeks in Cuba giving lectures, seminars, and workshops and said her goal was to share “the advances [made] in using nanotechnology for medical challenges, such as antibiotic resistance and nano bio-sensing techniques for fast diagnosis and therapy.”
Cuba and China agree to develop artificial intelligence on the island.
Interesting development here, Cuban government seems like it’s in lockstep with the overall agenda of the World Economic Forum — AI, blockchain, crypto, optogenetics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and many other components of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This also explains why they are now trying to develop the telecommunications and internet infrastructure — can’t utilize the IoT, nanosensor technology, AI, and big data analytics without powerful computing systems and higher generation broadband connection.
Cuba joins the active brain research initiatives that are already established in nations like Israel, Canada, and Switzerland.
One wonders exactly what they mean by “control” and “enhance” but I imagine it has to do with optogenetics and other sciences alike because it appears as though medicine is moving to using light and electronics (instead of chemicals). Electroceuticals:
Brain mapping projects could be wonderful if used ethically, but judging by the nefarious characters involved in this type of research, I highly doubt it will be used with good intentions — we shall see, I suppose. Interesting that Cuba has joined this initiative, though, hopefully they utilize their research and development in ethical ways. For example, in 2010, MIT researchers showed that Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which is a noninvasive neurotechnology, could briefly change a person’s moral judgment.
Applying a magnetic field to a specific brain region to change a person’s “moral” judgments is quite horrifying, to say the least. According to the scientists at MIT, the right temporoparietal junction or TPJ, which is located on the surface of the brain above and behind the right ear, is highly active “when we think about other people’s intentions, thoughts and beliefs.” I don’t know what they mean by morality, in this experiment, because they never defined how it was being used. They could be referring to someone who “breaks the law” as immoral and I would have to disagree with that notion because then you have to factor in who is making the laws, too. Honestly, the whole thing sounds bogus and demonstrates a lack of understanding in what it means to be human —
The sum of a human being’s moral capacity cannot be deduced to an area of the brain that lights up on a brain scan machine when they’re asked to make decisions about obscure, hypothetical situations.
Anyway, let’s move on to another house of horrors that is the anthropology department in academia.
Anthropology & Behavioral Economics Enter Crypto
Sending and receiving money between the U.S. and Cuba became extremely difficult under the Trump administration and made even more complicated by the pandemic. According to Dr. Mrinalini Tankha, a professor of anthropology at Portland State University, and other experts, it was the desperate need for cash, against a backdrop of a global pandemic, that helped:
Foment a rise in crypto adoption in Cuba… she [also] credits the…crypto community for the rise of the internet in Cuba, as well as the fact that there are so many more people who have smartphones and 3G connectivity. A weak local currency is also a factor likely contributing to the appeal of bitcoin.
No, it’s not only because of the crypto community; she should have included Cuba’s need for higher generation broadband internet due to their recent moves toward “digitizing” in accordance with the agendas set by the World Economic Forum, United Nations, and other similar legacy institutions. Dr. Tankha specializes in economic, sociocultural and business anthropology. Her research focuses on on Cuba’s dual currency system and she was previously a scholar at the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion (IMTF) at UC Irvine — where she mentored and worked with:
Scholars, industry professionals and development practitioners located across the globe conducting research on multi-disciplinary projects addressing financial inclusion through diverse monetary technologies and forms of digital finance. The projects use innovative data collection instruments and aim to have impact.
I am highlighting Dr. Tankha because she is one of the main people quoted in recent articles about Cuba’s policy shift toward cryptocurrency — in mainstream outlets like CNBC. She seemed enthusiastic about software developers and NFT artists getting paid by cryptocurrency for their labor. Now, I don’t know this woman, and she could genuinely feel as though this is the best option for Cuba; but because of the fact that she is quoted on CNBC, a network with a business-oriented audience; I am not sure if this is supposed to be a good thing for regular people. Furthermore, while she was at IMTF, the projects she worked on were data collection and impact oriented — in conjunction with her focus on providing insight to stakeholders in industry and policy makers, just screams “impact investing on human capital” to me. I am not convinced she is the right “business anthropologist” looking out for the best interest of Cubans. Maybe I’m wrong, we shall see.
There was an interesting article in Bitcoin Magazine that discussed the “benefits” of having anthropologists in the bitcoin and overall crypto space. It described an interesting aspect of anthropology — its concern for people’s subjective beliefs and experiences of the world above the objective truth. Of course, a person’s subjective experiences will color their perception of the world; however, it does not mean that those subjective views are above an objective truth because the point of doing introspective work is to, first, know yourself, then to understand the objective world. Why not give credence to both instead of putting one above the other. In my opinion, understanding yourself is equally as important as understanding the reality that exists outside of your own thoughts and experiences, both can be taken into account. I think it is dangerous to do one without the other or to put more weight on one versus the other. If you only look outside of yourself, you lose your ability to make decisions based on your individual thinking and if you only look at your own personal experiences then it will be difficult to exist in a society made up of many other individuals. Peaceful co-existence does begin with understanding ourselves, though, because without recognizing our own humanity, we cannot recognize it in others.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, anthropologists in the cryptocurrency space, take pride in their “openness to alternative belief systems and ability to craft a more nuanced and holistic view of the world.” They believe that truth is relative rather than universal and absolute and that each culture must be viewed as “a truth” that must be understood as a rational system on its own terms — which explains why they approach bitcoin with “no judgment and with openness to challenge [their] own preconceptions of it.” This sounds nice, in theory, but how can you not judge ideas from your own point of view if you have certain ethics and principles to which you adhere? You can be open to hearing new ideas, but still be grounded in your principles. I have no qualms with cultures having different customs and traditions, but I also believe that there are certain universal and absolute moral truths that instinctually guide every human being (if the person takes the time to do the introspective work) no matter the “culture” they grew up in.
Culture is not biological, it is a set of learned behaviors — meaning, anyone can choose to change those learned behaviors at any moment. It is not surprising that the crypto community would embrace the anthropology sector; they won’t have to justify anything to academics who believe “judging a culture from an external point of view often leads one to miss the point.” Like I already said, it’s not about having an open mind or not, it’s that it is impossible to engage with any idea without your personal or subjective view. Having an opinion on the things you see and hear based on your subjective experiences doesn’t mean you “missed” the point — it’s perfectly natural and it should be encouraged, in my opinion.
Behavioral Economics
Dr. Damon Bryant, co-founder of Xchainz who also served as Global Human Capital Management Advisor at IBM, insists that: behavioral economics, psychometrics (measuring mental capacities), and industrial organizational psychology are the biggest components to building a mental bridge “for people who are reluctant to enter a virtual world of personal finance.”
This sounds highly suspect to me — he wants to use what he learned in psychology and behavioral economics to convince or “manipulate” people into embracing cryptocurrency. No thanks.
Anyway, at the University of Central Florida psychology department, from which Bryant earned his degree, several graduate students formed an applied research group called Performance Solutions to apply “knowledge from industrial organizational psychology to the development of user-friendly cryptocurrencies…[they worked] across other disciplines to look at everything from…using cryptocurrency — to the public’s perceptions of it all.” I imagine they are not simply just “looking” at people’s perceptions of cryptocurrency, they will most likely propose solutions about the best way to get people on board — based on their observations and data collected.
Two years ago, Damon Bryant went on the Survival Skills Podcast, where he pointed out that one of the main areas within behavioral economics is “framing” because how certain things are framed, “despite the statistical probabilities associated with those events, people respond differently, based upon how it’s phrased.” One example of framing Bryant gives is asking someone if they would rather go to a hospital where they have a 50% chance of life or a hospital where they have a 50% chance of death — he says most people would pick the hospital with 50% chance of life, even though:
Statistically, it is the exact same thing, but it’s just a matter of how it’s phrased that individuals would respond differently…and [framing] is one area of behavioral economics that really helped propel psychology more into the limelight of business, finance, economics, and…making life changing decisions.
I think by “framing” Bryant is referring to “advertising,” especially since he is relating it to business and finance. His message is eerily reminiscent of Edward Bernays — at least the way his ideas were portrayed on the BBC documentary, The Century of the Self — thank you James and Jordan at The Yellow Brick Road for recommending this documentary. The mini-series is about the various ways governments and big corporations used Freud’s theories to influence (or manipulate) the general public. Bernays was Freud’s nephew and he was the first to use his uncle’s psychological techniques in advertising, public relations, and propaganda.
During the Survival Skills Podcast, Bryant describes psychometrics as an area that uses psychological testing to measure human intelligence — he defines intelligence as the ability human beings have to adapt to their environment in order to accomplish desired goals. I wish the host would have asked him about the type of environment to which Bryant is referring because what if it’s toxic — still think it’s “intelligent” to adapt to a toxic environment? Additionally, Bryant states one of the positives of psychometrics is that it attempts to quantify “psychological characteristics, so we can understand the maximum levels of performance [of each person] and place individuals in certain roles [where] they will perform well.” Does he not think that human beings can’t change or grow as they have more experiences? Testing someone at one or two points in his or her life and then deciding where they are placed (based on the test results) doesn’t seem like the most fair or valid method. Human beings are not “programed” robots incapable of change, the opposite, as a matter of fact.
Furthermore, Bryant said he became interested in psychology, partly, because of his favorite professor in college, Dr. Curtis Banks, who was a student of Phil Zimbardo — the lead author of the Stanford Prison Study (which was heavily criticized for ethical and scientific reasons). Lastly, the host asked Bryant a good question: how can two people with the same socioeconomic backgrounds, family structures, and education, when placed in similar situations, can have different reactions — one may become corrupt while the other may not; to which Bryant explained:
Some people practice self-monitoring — adjust to the environment that is around them; while others are more value-oriented — could be placed in any context where their values may be inconsistent with what’s in the environment, but they will behave consistent with their values.
His answer to that question is surprising, considering he didn’t have many criticisms of the Stanford Prison Experiment — which, itself, concluded that “relatively small changes in circumstances could turn the best and brightest into monsters or depersonalized serfs.” It was with the understanding that any person’s behavior can be corrupted under the right circumstances, that Bryant decided to explore “social intelligence and general human intelligence and how these things can be shaped within organizational settings to increase productivity.” His answer to that question conflicts with the business model to which he applies his knowledge of psychology. He spoke quite a bit about the importance of adapting to your environment in order to accomplish certain goals, but, somehow, he still believes that some people (who are value-oriented) will not adapt to just any environment if it’s inconsistent with their principles. How can both things be true?
Closing Remarks
With Cuba’s recent adoption of cryptocurrency, years of research and headway in nanotechnology, advances in biopharmaceuticals, expansion of its telecom infrastructure, and recent developments in artificial intelligence, in theory, Cuba is well positioned to take on the upcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution. Is that a good thing? Some people would say, yes. In my opinion, it could go both ways, so I am on the fence. Also depends on what you mean by good, right? Is it a good thing that Cuban people will have high speed internet and continue to have access to free healthcare? Yes, why not — but is that higher generation broadband, combined with IoT nanosensors, programmable digital currency, quantum computing, nanosatellites, and remote monitoring of health going to create a biosecurity state of epic proportions — yes. Be careful what you wish for and always read the fine print.
Toodles.
