a photo of crypto expert reviewer Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is a computer scientists and cryptographer. In 1998, Szabo proposed a decentralized digital currency called "Bit Gold." He also came up with the concept of "smart contracts", programmatic contracts that can be executed by code.

Reviews by Nick Szabo

All coin and product reviews by expert Nick Szabo.

  • Nick Szabo on XRP Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    Ripple is far from trust-minimized. As a result, it has high governance costs, including the disputes described here, and poor social scalability.

    Full review 💩

    2018-02-06

  • Nick Szabo on EOS Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    In EOS, a few complete strangers can freeze what users thought was their money. Under the EOS protocol, you must trust a "constitutional" organization comprised of people you will likely never get to know. The EOS "constitution" is socially unscalable and a security hole.

    Full review 💩

    2018-06-19

  • Nick Szabo on Ethereum Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    Computational scalability and a governance model that violates immutability are both huge problems for Ethereum. That and the finance/crypto culture gap are why Turing-complete smart contracts have not yet gained traction.

    Full review 💩
    Show thread Nick Szabo on Ethereum

    2018-08-18

  • Nick Szabo on Bitcoin Cash Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    BCH are the subset of the old Bitcoin culture, in contrast to BTC, did not value trust minimization and are not well governed.

    Full review 💩
    Show thread Nick Szabo on Bitcoin Cash

    2018-11-15

  • Nick Szabo on Monero Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    Among many things that affect crypto prices, these stand out recently:

    a. As parts of globe slide into recession, short-term speculators tend to sell. Affects Bitcoin but affects alts more.
    b. Recessions increase financial risks, causing moves into deeply safe Bitcoin & Monero.

    Full review 🔑

    2019-09-05

  • Nick Szabo on Bitcoin Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    You can securely control neither your land nor your digitally centralized financial assets without the help of government. Thus the locality & importance of legal ownership in these things.

    You can securely control your globally seamless Bitcoin without the help of government.

    Full review 🔑
    Show thread Nick Szabo on Bitcoin

    2020-01-06

  • Nick Szabo on Libra Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

    Of course Libra would censor like crazy if Libra were going to be a thing. All digitally centralized platforms censor. I very much wish this was not so, but if wishes were airplanes, beggars would fly first class.

    Full review 💩

    2019-11-18