Lex Sokolin, the Head Economist at ConsenSys, took time out from his first "packed, extremely lively FMLS," to sit down with me and chat all things Consensys, Web3, crypto, blockchain, FTX and more.
Describing himself as "self-radicalized", Lex explained his journey from a corporate banking background into the blockchain world, the former Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar from Columbia Law School then gave his take on the FTX collapse.
"There are reasons why you don't have a prop trading attached to customer deposits because you know in the case of collapse. and over-leverage and poor risk-taking the desire to take those customer funds and plug in your hole is pretty high," Lex explained.
The amiable Lex, the former CMO of ConsenSys, then spoke sharply of an "over-financialized" global economy: "you're going from like a symbiotic relationship to a parasitic relationship and the same thing happened in crypto."
Lex talked about how the collapse of some crypto firms will hurt legitimate enterprises building projects in the digital space that are not financially related. When asked whether some good could come out of the collapses, Lex answered with a wry smile: "We don't like the medicine, but we need to have it, right?"
Comparing today's activities in the digital space to the internet bubble and the collapse of the internet boom, Lex said: "It's not like there were no more internet companies and people stopped using the web just because there were bad Venture Investments." He pointed out the same with the financial crisis of 2008 and talked passionately of the 'macro-picture' of web3 and the opportunities for the growing number of those involved in developer networks.
Lex ended our frank discussion with some insights into upcoming trends and what we can expect in 2023. As someone not quite fully immersed in the web3 world yet, I found myself at the end of this fascinating chat, that little deeper.
