About the author

about

A decade of data-driven analysis at the intersection of fintech, blockchain, and monetary systems.

Author of three books (2013–2014) and the most widely cited independent paper on permissioned blockchains (Consensus-as-a-service, 2015). Founder of Post Oak Labs. Former Head of Market Intelligence at Clearmatics; Director of Research at R3. Previously a visiting research fellow at the Sim Kee Boon Institute (Singapore Management University) and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (2014–2017).

Portrayed as a villain in Casey & Vigna’s The Truth Machine. Briefed John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight research team (2018). Privately briefed sovereign wealth funds, central banks, and securities regulators across Asia, Europe, and the Americas (2015–2021).

linkedin.com/in/timswanson
[email protected]

Selected works
Books
2013
Great Wall of Numbers
Business opportunities and challenges in China. Written in Shanghai. Foreword by Mark DeWeaver (Quantrarian Capital Management). CC BY 4.0.
Origin of the “Great Wall of Numbers” blog brand, later renamed ofnumbers.com.
2014
Great Chain of Numbers
Smart contracts, smart property, and trustless asset management. Foreword by Adam B. Levine.
81 Google Scholar citations. Cited in Glaser & Bezeenberger (2015); Clack et al. (2016); Werbach, 33 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 487 (2018)
2014
The Anatomy of a Money-like Informational Commodity
A study of Bitcoin. CC BY 4.0.
14 Google Scholar citations. Cited in Bergstra (2014); Vora, Modern Economy (2015)
Papers, essays & op-eds

Papers & reports
2015
Consensus-as-a-service: a brief report on the emergence of permissioned, distributed ledger systems
Most widely cited independent paper on permissioned blockchains. Introduced the term “permissioned ledger” — no use of the phrase in public record before April 6, 2015. Cited by Bank of England researchers (Benos, Garratt & Gurrola-Perez, Ledger 2019), ABB Corporate Research (Locher et al., arXiv 2018), Zyskind et al. (2015), Clack et al. (2016), and 400+ others.
 most cited
2021
Parasitic ‘stablecoins’
Cited in U.S. Senate Banking Committee testimony (Alexis Goldstein, Dec 14 2021, footnote 82) following the Terra/LUNA collapse. Published Jan 4, 2021 — explicitly named Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank as credit risks behind USDC; both collapsed March 2023. Also detailed the admin-key freeze mechanism enabling stablecoin blacklisting.
 Senate cited
2022
Decentralized Financial Market Infrastructures
19 Google Scholar citations. Journal of FinTech, World Scientific. With Lipton, Heller, Morini, Sams et al. DOI: 10.1142/S2705109921500024
 peer-reviewed
2016
Settlement Risks Involving Public Blockchains
TabbFORUM — named TABB top story of 2016. Acknowledgment in Yermack, NBER WP 21802.
 TABB #1 ’16
2018
Systemically important cryptocurrency networks
Inaugural paper for Georgetown Law’s fintechpolicy.org hub (Chris Brummer, Nov 2018). First published application of PFMI/SIFI regulatory frameworks to cryptocurrency networks — the framing regulators (FSB, Basel) later adopted post-2021.
 inaugural paper
2015
Watermarked tokens and pseudonymity on public blockchains
33 Google Scholar citations. Cited in Mainelli & Milne 2016 (SWIFT Institute Working Paper); covered by International Business Times at publication (Nov 2015).
 SWIFT cited
2017
IEEE Computer — special issue: Blockchain Technology in Finance
De facto guest editor of the flagship IEEE magazine’s special issue; organized with Prof. Philip Treleaven (UCL); recruited contributions from MIT DCI and others.
 guest editor
2014
Bitcoin Hurdles: the public-goods costs of securing a decentralized seigniorage network
First paper to frame PoW mining security costs as a public-goods / free-rider problem (April 2014) — the economic argument that underpinned the ESG energy debates seven years later.
Essays — ordered by reach
2017
Eight Things Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts Probably Won’t Tell You
Hacker News front page (Sep 2017). 136,000 views. Generated a rebuttal essay; widely republished.
 136k views
2021
Bitcoin and other PoW coins are an ESG nightmare
Hashrate-division energy model across seven PoW chains (55–180 TWh range). Published at peak ESG/Bitcoin energy debate; methodology cross-validated with Jonathan Koomey and Nathaniel Popper (Mar 2021).
 100k views
2018
How much electricity is consumed by Bitcoin, BCH, ETH, LTC, and Monero?
Cited as Reference [34] in MIT CEEPR Working Paper 2018-018 (“The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin,” Stoll, Klaaßen & Gallersdörfer, MIT / TU Munich, Dec 2018).
 52k views
2016
Code is not law
The signature argument; invited talks at Cornell and NYU.
 22k views
2017
Chainwashing
Coined the term — “97% of blockchain startups are chainwashing.” Cited in ScienceDirect systematic literature review on blockchain applications; broadly adopted across industry and academic vocabulary.
 coined term
2018
Is the Pitato Why We Can’t Have Nice Things?
Documented the full funding and pivot history of 21e6 / 21.co / Earn.com (~$125M raised, multiple failed pivots) and Balaji Srinivasan’s revisionist telling of the company’s history upon its acquisition by Coinbase.
 investigative
2016 Archy and Anarchic Chains
Referenced by FT Alphaville (2016).
2018
Interview with Ray Dillinger
Timed to the Bitcoin whitepaper’s 10th anniversary — the only extended interview with one of the two people who reviewed Satoshi’s code before launch. Primary source on Bitcoin’s pre-genesis period.
 primary source
2022
Web3 needs critics and criticism
Argued that substantive Web3 criticism requires definitional clarity — rejected the May 2022 anti-Web3 open letter’s approach as undefined and tribal.
Op-eds
2018
Can Bitcoin Become a Dominant Currency?
The Wall Street Journal. Assigned the prompt “Cryptocurrencies will dominate in the future” — argued the opposite. Commissioned January 2018; published October 2018
2018
Why Bitcoin Needs Fiat
CoinDesk. Published January 3, 2018 — at Bitcoin’s price peak. Argued miners remain permanently dependent on fiat banking infrastructure, a position running counter to the prevailing narrative.
2015
Explore the Blockchain, Ignore the Bitcoin Maximalists
American Banker. The case for enterprise distributed ledger technology, independent of Bitcoin maximalism — in the primary trade journal for U.S. banking executives. November 2015.

Book reviews (12 titles, 2015–2024)

128k+ measured views (2018–2026) across 12 reviews of major crypto trade books — Casey & Vigna, Popper, Tapscott, Burniske, Shin, Faux, Leising et al. Running observation: the longer the review, the worse the book.

Coined / introduced to vocabulary
permissioned ledger (Apr 2015)
chainwashing (2017)
parasitic stablecoins (2021)
permissioned-on-permissionless (Jul 2015)
decentralization theater (2019)
cybercoin horseshoe theory (2022)

Advisory & ventures
Utility Settlement Coin → Fnality
Made the introduction (UBS → Clearmatics) that seeded the USC relationship. January 2015.

raised $63.2M · 14 banks

Hyperledger
Formal advisor, 2014–2015.

acq. → Digital Asset

Blockseer
Formal advisor, 2016–2018.

acq. DMG Blockchain 2018

MetaGood / OnChainMonkey
Formal advisor (ongoing).

 

Press, citations & appearances

200+ keynote speeches, panels, and media interviews (2014–2024). Cited in 170+ outlets.

Press citations (169)

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2021

2023

2024

Speaking engagements (174)

2014

  • June 5–7, 2014 — Curiosity Camp 2014 — an Innovation Endeavors unconference
  • November 4, 2014 — SKBI, Singapore Management University — panel “Cryptocurrency: Financial Market, Innovation and Analytics”
  • December 2, 2014 — O’Reilly Media — webcast “The Continued Existence of Bitcoin, Altcoins, Appcoins, and Commodity Coins”
  • December 11, 2014 — R3 Cryptocurrency Roundtable — “Making Lemonade out of Lemons: Squeezing utility from a proof-of-work experiment”

2015

  • Late January 2015 — CryptoEconomicon (Mountain View, CA)
  • March 2015 — SKBI / Singapore Management University — “Is the adoption of blockchains and consensus ledgers a foregone conclusion?”
  • March 21–23, 2015 — Stanford Blockchain Workshop — Working Groups and panels
  • May 5, 2015 — Sim Kee Boon Institute (Singapore) roundtable — “The Future of Fintech”
  • May 23, 2015 — Breaking Banks: “Bitcoin: Hope or Hype?”
  • July 8–9, 2015 — BNY Mellon dinner & Innovation Center (Silicon Valley) — fintech panels
  • July 20–23, 2015 — Blockchain University, Bangalore & Mysore (India)
  • July 28, 2015 — American Banker “Digital Currencies + the Blockchain” conference
  • September 10, 2015 — CoinDesk Consensus 2015
  • October 15, 2015 — State Street Innovation Symposium — panel “Blockchain and the Distributed Ledger Landscape”
  • October 21, 2015 — Risk Magazine “Risk USA” — panel “Blockchain on Wall Street”
  • November 5, 2015 — BNY Mellon “Corporate Trust Executive Forum” (Yountville, CA)
  • December 8, 2015 — Derivatives World London — panel “Blockchain in financial markets”
  • December 18, 2015 — GaiaX / Blockchain University (Tokyo) — “The Evolving Distributed Ledger Tech Landscape”; most-viewed SlideShare upload (60,437 views); Japanese translation by Kevin Takaoka

2016

  • January 4, 2016 — American Finance Association — panel on Cryptocurrencies & Blockchains
  • January 28, 2016 — BNY Mellon Blockchain Day (Jersey City, NJ)
  • February 5, 2016 — FIA/SIFMA Asset Management Derivatives Forum (Laguna Beach) — panel “Disruptive Technology”
  • March 9, 2016 — Alliance Bernstein Financial Summit (Boston) — panel “The Bitcoin vs. Permissioned Blockchain Debate”
  • March 10, 2016 — Wharton/SIFMA Securities Industry Institute (Philadelphia) — “Block Chain Technology: The Hype, The Potential and The Fundamentals”
  • April 6, 2016 — Korean Financial News / KBanker (Seoul) — “What will finance look like with a blockchain?”
  • June 8, 2016 — MIT EmTech FinTech (Hong Kong) — “Blockchain, Smart Contracts and the Future of Money”
  • June 17, 2016 — Tsinghua University Fintech Lab (Beijing)
  • June 24, 2016 — Nikkei FinTech Conference (Tokyo)
  • August 7, 2016 — Ethereum Meetup (Palo Alto) — “Code is not law”
  • August 18–19, 2016 — 6th Annual SKBI Conference (Singapore) — two presentations
  • September 21, 2016 — Smart Cloud Show 2016 / Chosun Ilbo (Seoul) — keynote “Blockchain and Financial Big Bang”
  • September 23, 2016 — Wanxiang Global Blockchain Summit (Shanghai)
  • October 13, 2016 — Itaú/Bradesco Fórum Blockchain (São Paulo)
  • October 18, 2016 — MIT Fintech Course: Future Commerce (virtual) — “Distributed Ledger Technology Landscape and Regulations”
  • November 9, 2016 — Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) — “Code is not law” (invited by Emin Gün Sirer)
  • November 16, 2016 — Boston Economic Club — “DLT as Financial Market Infrastructure”
  • November 22, 2016 — Korea Finance Telecommunications & Clearings Institute 30th Anniversary Seminar (Seoul)
  • December 8–9, 2016 — Inside Fintech (Seoul) — two presentations
  • December 12, 2016 — Joint Ethereum & Bitcoin meetup (Hong Kong) — conversation with Jehan Chu
  • December 15, 2016 — 13th annual China International Finance Forum (Shanghai)

2017

  • February 9, 2017 — WSGR Fintech Conference (San Mateo) — panel “Cross-border Fintech Issues”
  • March 6, 2017 — Bank Innovation 2017 (San Jose) — panel “The Battle of the Blockchain Consortiums”
  • March 23, 2017 — NYU — “Code is not law” in David Yermack’s Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies course
  • May 24, 2017 — R3 Regulator and Central Bank Conference (NYC) — “DLT 101”
  • June 1, 2017 — Red Flag FinTech Roundtable (San Francisco) — roundtable with Senator Tom Carper
  • July 7, 2017 — Situational Finance Technology Congress (Beijing) — “DLT as Financial Market Infrastructure”
  • July 12–13, 2017 — Corda Meetup Tokyo; R3 members meetup Seoul
  • September 28, 2017 — IEEE Computer Society — “Virtual Roundtable: Blockchain Technology in Finance”
  • November 13, 2017 — Blockchain at Berkeley meetup — “Code is not law”

2018

  • January 8, 2018 — UBS Greater China Conference (Shanghai) — panel “Cryptocurrencies: A Turbulent World”
  • February 13, 2018 — NMS Winter Forum (Scottsdale) — panel on Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies
  • March 8, 2018 — Bank Innovation 2018 (San Francisco) — panel on Blockchain Commercialization
  • April 1, 2018 — China-America Blockchain Summit (Beijing) — “Overview of GDPR and its impact on blockchains”
  • April 3–4, 2018 — Deconomy (Seoul) — panels and presentation
  • April 11–12, 2018 — Draper University Executive Blockchain Program (San Mateo)
  • April 23, 2018 — UC Berkeley Blockchain Course Guest Panel Series — “Blockchain 2040”
  • May 23, 2018 — Anderson Kill 1st Annual Blockchain & Virtual Currency Conference (NYC)
  • May 23, 2018 — Harvard in Tech (NYC) — panel “Smart Contracts”
  • June 21, 2018 — Haas School of Business (Berkeley) — panel “Enterprise blockchain for financial services”
  • July 27–30, 2018 — UBS Future of Money Events (Hong Kong)
  • November 5, 2018 — DC Fintech Week (Georgetown University) — panel “Evolving Crypto Use Cases”

2019

  • March 20, 2019 — JetBlue Blockchain in Travel Summit (NYC)
  • March 22, 2019 — First New York Fed Research Conference on FinTech (NYC)
  • March 2019 — University of Amsterdam (sponsored by Blockchain University)
  • March 31 / April 1, 2019 — Helsinki — met with Nordea to discuss USC consortium
  • April 3–5, 2019 — Deconomy 2019 (Seoul)
  • April 9, 2019 — Silicon Valley Ethereum Meetup — “Distributed Financial Market Infrastructure”
  • April 23, 2019 — Boston University — “Regtech in the Era of Intermediaries”
  • October 22–24, 2019 — DC Fintech Week 2019 (Georgetown University Law Center)

2020

  • February 18, 2020 — IIEL “Barbados Cruise” fintech event (Georgetown University Law Center)
  • April 22, 2020 — Boston University Questrom School of Business — “Global Fintech Investments + Regtech”
  • May 27, 2020 — MIT Horizon — “Good and Bad Use Cases for Blockchain”
  • June 4, 2020 — Duke Law FinTech Discussion Series — “Cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings”

2021

  • January 26, 2021 — DLT Working Group for the Federal Reserve — presentation on stablecoin credit risk
  • February 17, 2021 — Georgetown / IIEL (Seminar on Sustainable De-Fi) — panel “Global Capital Flows into the DeFi Ecosystem”
  • June 22, 2021 — SORA Economic Forum 2021 — “DeFi’s Dependency on the US Banking System (via USDT/USDC)” (video)
  • September 30, 2021 — Yale School of Management — YBlockchain? Episode 005 webinar (YouTube)
  • November 3, 2021 — Willamette University College of Law — “Collateral-backed stablecoin landscape”

2022

  • February 28, 2022 — Web 3.1 Unconference — “The Nuances of Tokenization” + fireside chat
  • May 18, 2022 — ISLA Crypto Cafe: Digital Asset Forum — presentation on stablecoins
  • September 23, 2022 — SORA Economic Forum 2022 — “product and infrastructure market fit with blockchains”
  • December 5, 2022 — Boston University — panel “Blockchain, Beyond Crypto”

2023

  • March 13, 2023 — CopperCasts podcast with Robert Sams and Fadi Abouafla — “FMI and Stablecoins”
  • March 28, 2023 — Boston University “Fintech Revolution” class — “The Fed and FDIC bailed out ‘crypto friendly’ banks”

2024

  • May 16, 2024 — Stanford University Graduate School of Business (host: Gregory Leblanc) — guest lecture on CBDCs and permissioned blockchains
  • November 20, 2024 — SORA Economic Forum — presentation “Decentralized Derivatives”
  • Podcast & audio/video (22)
  • Epicenter Bitcoin — Episode #63 (January 26, 2015); Episode #84; Episode #213 (“Busting the Great Wall of Hype,” December 13, 2017)
  • Let’s Talk Bitcoin — Episodes #89, #116, #127, #128
  • Beyond Bitcoin — Episodes #14, #27 (“Architecture for the Internet of Money,” final episode)
  • Breaking Banks — “Bitcoin: Hope or Hype?”, May 23, 2015
  • Big Fintech Media — “A Jumbo Jet is not a Helicopter,” August 1, 2016
  • Future Tech Podcast — “A New Level of Financial Transparency,” July 6, 2017
  • The Ether Review — Final episode, October 31, 2017
  • Follow the Coin — “Interview With Tim Swanson // Code Is Not Law,” December 12, 2017
  • 11:FS Blockchain Insider — Episodes 26, 41, 66, 90
  • Life in the Fast Chain — “Swanson’s Take on Wild Cowboys, Lizardcoin, and Lambos,” May 23, 2018
  • SupChina — Episode 12: “Bitmain — the Most Valuable Crypto Company in the World?”, July 3, 2018
  • Sirius XM — “After the blockchain bubble,” December 17, 2018
  • CoinSpice — “The Un-Truth Machine,” March 6, 2019
  • What is Crypto — “The Problems with Mining,” January 16, 2020
  • The Bankers’ Plumber — “The Consortium Conundrum and all things DeFi,” March 24, 2021
  • CoinDesk TV — “Is Bitcoin in a Bubble? The ‘Coin Toss’ Debate,” February 24, 2021
  • The FinReg Podcast (Duke GFMC) — “Cryptocurrency 2020 Year in Review,” January 11, 2021; “Cryptocurrency 2021 Year in Review,” January 3, 2022
  • When The Music Stops — “Enterprise Blockchains w/ Tim Swanson,” September 13, 2021
  • CopperCasts — “FMI and Stablecoins,” March 13, 2023
  • CryptoCoinShow, Blockhash, The Decrypt Daily — “The Tau Protocol” (April–June 2021)

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