Bill Maurer, anthropology and IMTFI, Cointelegraph – The Clear Crypto Podcast, June 5, 2025 (Podcast + transcript)
What’s money, really, and how does blockchain redefine it? Our co-hosts Nathan and Adrian dive deep with [UC Irvine] Professor Bill Maurer, a leading anthropologist of finance, to unravel the essence of money from ancient Mesopotamia to Bitcoin. Bill challenges our coin-obsessed mindset, revealing how blockchain’s record-keeping roots could reshape society’s relationships and trust.
Cointelegraph – The Clear Crypto Podcast Host Nathan Jeffay:
Before we share that fantastic interview with Professor Bill Mauer anthropologist at UC Irvine and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, I will tell you that the part that I really loved was when we get him to discuss how an alien would react to being spoken to about money and about cryptocurrency, which would make more sense where the alien would get stuck. And I can tell you as we were talking to Professor Billers, I’m going call him, I, in my mind’s eye, could really see this professor actually having a conversation with an alien.
…I’ve often wondered if an alien were to land on earth and need to understand money from the start, and you were to think, you know, which system of money should I explain? Should I explain this thing that used to be linked to gold that isn’t linked to gold anymore, that you kind of spend online but you don’t quite know how it’s working? Or would I want to explain crypto, which is kind of this unified system? That might sound like a bit of a leading question. You know, this is the Clear Crypto podcast. So I guess we do have a bias here, but it feels to me like, facing that alien, that blockchain would actually be an easier concept to explain, which is counterintuitive to everyone who says, wait a minute, blockchain’s really, really complex.
For the full story, please visit https://cointelegraph.com/podcasts/the-clear-crypto-podcast/rewriting-the-ledger-bitcoin-and-the-nature-of-money.
Read transcript: https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/files/docs/2025/2025-06-05-rewriting-the-ledger.pdf