Disclosures

I strongly believe in clear disclosures by journalists and others writing about the topics they cover, and especially about cryptocurrencies, where undisclosed conflicts of interest are rampant. All outlets publishing cryptocurrency-related articles should have very clear and prominently-displayed disclosure policies.

I write the Citation Needed newsletter, which is entirely reader-supported.

I don’t post sponsored content on Citation Needed, my various projects (Web3 is Going Just Great, Tech Influence Watch, etc.), this website, my social media accounts, or anywhere else. This will not change. No, I won’t promote your project regardless of whether there is money changing hands, so please don’t ask.

I don’t run ads on Citation Needed, Web3 is Going Just Great, or any of my other websites and projects. I also don’t run ads on my social media accounts, with the exception of YouTube, which automatically shows ads on some of my videos and gives me a share of the revenue. I do not have a direct relationship with any advertisers, and don’t choose the ads that run other than doing my best to configure YouTube not to run any ads related to cryptocurrencies or other topics I cover.

Some generous people have sent money for W3IGG’s cloud hosting and various other upkeep costs, which I otherwise pay out of pocket. There is more information on this, along with a brief expenses report, at the W3IGG – Contribute page.

I own small amounts (less than $500 worth in total at time of purchase) of crypto tokens or other crypto assets, which belong to an undisclosed address I use for research purposes. These do not represent a significant portion of my assets, and are used primarily to access token-gated projects and experiment with smart contracts rather than for any attempt to earn a return. If I do somehow end up with more money than I put in as a result, I intend to donate it. ¹

I hold no direct long or short positions pertaining to cryptocurrencies or crypto-related companies. I do have some investments in the stock market and other traditional forms of finance, which I pay someone much smarter about and more interested in finance than I am to handle. These may include broad index funds that hold small amounts of stock in companies in or adjacent to the crypto and AI industries; I don’t direct those investments.

I have no financial relationships with AI companies outside of paying for some consumer AI products as a customer; this doesn’t come with any special access or arrangement.

I’ve been editing Wikipedia for about twenty years as GorillaWarfare, and I’ve been an administrator on the English Wikipedia for many years. I served on the English Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee from 2014 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2020, and I currently serve on the Wikimedia Foundation’s Product and Technology Advisory Council. All of these roles are volunteer and unpaid. I’ve occasionally received incidental benefits, such as travel to conferences, but have otherwise received no financial benefit from Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation.

I don’t accept money from candidates, campaigns, political parties, PACs, or other political organizations. I occasionally advise candidates and policymakers; this is always unpaid.

From November 2022 to October 2023, I was a Fellow at Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab, which supported me in my work for a year. This fellowship was enabled by the Democratizing Open Knowledge program, which is funded by the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web, a “nonprofit organization committed to preserving humanity’s most important information by fostering the development of open-source software and open protocols”. As the name suggests, they are organized around the Filecoin project, which is a cryptocurrency/blockchain project. The fellowship had no strings attached as far as my independence in researching and analyzing the crypto industry, and I was not obligated to do any work relating to Filecoin (nor was I obligated not to). My focus at the LIL did not involve Filecoin specifically.

While we’re here, I’ll mention that I don’t speak on behalf of an employer or anyone else. I hope it goes without saying, but just to say it: nothing I say should be taken to be financial, investment, legal, professional, or any other kind of advice.

^[1] This has happened once. In 2024, I discovered 1.4 SOL in an old research address had appreciated by $220, so I donated it to the EFF.