Hilary J. Allen
LightNews LightNews
banner
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Hilary J. Allen
@profhilaryallen.bsky.social
1.2K followers 280 following 400 posts
Law professor at the American University Washington College of Law (but all views expressed here are my own); author of Fintech Dystopia and Driverless Finance; mythbusting crypto, AI, and other fintech

Internet serial: fintechdystopia.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Hilary J. Allen @profhilaryallen.bsky.social · Aug 29
"Let's Get Skeptical," the final chapter of Fintech Dystopia, has dropped
fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
Covering
- How much the abundance agenda and VC output suck
- Silicon Valley subsidies we can take away
- How to laugh our way into Silicon Valley skepticism
- A plan to actually fix finance
A picture of Olivia Newton-John with the caption "Let's Get Skeptical"
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
This is a good thread on narrative framing. How we talk about technology matters, particularly because hype is one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful weapons
emilymbender.bsky.social Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 12h
Just read a talk announcement about "AI" and K-12 education that looked like it maybe, maybe embedded a critical perspective but was still dressed up in the language of AI hype, presupposing both job market & education "reshaped by AI".

🧵>>
November 10, 2025 at 11:57 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Interesting article on how social media businesses are failing. Which is interesting context for Zuckerberg's palpable desperation for AI - and the Metaverse before it - to prop up Meta.

nymag.com/intelligence...
7 Reasons to Think Social Media Has Peaked
The platforms have big problems.
nymag.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
As I thought about this inevitability narrative, like Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder: if technological progress were really so inevitable, should it really matter how lawmakers and regulators treat it? Marietje Schaake, formerly a Member of the European Parliament, tells a story about a dinner she once attended with top Silicon Valley figures. She describes how she was cornered and asked “did Europeans realize their tendency to overregulate was the reason why no equivalent of Silicon Valley existed there?” But isn’t that ultimately an admission that technological progress can be channeled and even stopped? The Silicon Valley folk treated this as an obvious failing on Europe’s part, but what if, to quote the movie War Games, “the only winning move is not to play”? What if Europe has in fact won by using law to hold some tech businesses back, protecting its citizens and letting other countries be the guinea pigs, ensuring that the worst of Silicon Valley’s pathologies haven’t taken root there? As technology scholars Greta Byrum and Ruha Benjamin have observed, sometimes the best outcomes (in terms of benefit for the broader public) are achieved with non-technological approaches and solutions. Has Europe won by using the law to preserve space for them?
November 10, 2025 at 4:32 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
After reading this obit, it's hard not to see parallels with the undeserved hagiographies of many of the Silicon Valley elite: "lucky men who seem to have bought into their own hype cycle"

(from fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...)
November 9, 2025 at 2:22 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
The line between bailouts and crony capitalism is looking awfully blurry…
utopia-defer.red utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 3d
hey guys isn't it weird how they're all saying this at the same time? ignore the fact that this is now happening with Tyler Cowen, an economist who sits at the center of a sprawling system of think tanks and policy "influencers" who have been laundered into DC with both Koch and SV VC money
November 8, 2025 at 8:58 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Can't emphasize enough how central Andreessen is to so much that is going wrong right now.

Here's the book length treatment fintechdystopia.com

Here are academic article versions illinoislawreview.org/print/vol-20...

southerncalifornialawreview.com/2025/07/05/f...

Also, why is his head cropped?
November 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
I told some of the story of Silicon Valley authoritarianism in Ch 7 of Fintech Dystopia (fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...), but @gilduran.com is the OG on this subject and really digs into the interconnections. His mapping of the "authoritarian stack" is really worth a look.
November 6, 2025 at 12:17 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Kim Kardashian needs to read Fintech Dystopia:

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
It's possible, though, that bespoke legal services from humans will also end up going down the AI toilet if those human lawyers rely too heavily on GenAI tools – I guess that’s one way of leveling the playing field. Even when human lawyers edit AI output, it will be harder for them to find mistakes in something they didn’t produce than it would be to not make mistakes in something they wrote themselves. Back in the day when I was a practicing lawyer, I worked with a partner who liked to say with a twinkle in his eye, “we stick it to them in the contract definitions!”, knowing that the lawyers we were negotiating with would most likely miss any traps we laid there. But now it will be our own AI sticking it to us in our own contract definitions – and our research memos, and our legal briefs. And sadly, there are lawyers out there who don’t even edit the AI output. There have been plenty of stories about judges upbraiding lawyers for including entirely made-up case citations in their briefs. The lawyers’ excuse? “The AI put them there” (and most judges have found that excuse about as convincing as the Canadian Civil Resolution Tribunal found Air Canada’s excuse). Even when judges aren’t yelling at them, it’s not clear that relying on lower quality AI-generated work will be profitable for lawyers in the long run. AI tools are expensive to create and run, and if the funding currently subsidizing the use of those tools goes poof, paying junior lawyers to do the low-level tasks may very well be the more cost-effective way to go – especially because low-level tasks are how the junior lawyers learn to be senior lawyers.
November 6, 2025 at 12:01 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Silicon Valley is primarily in the narrative business.

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
Right now, the idea that AI is inevitable is pervasive and pernicious. I can’t tell you how many friends I’ve discussed AI problems with, only to have them shrug and say “yeah, that’s terrible, but it’s happening and there’s no stopping it.” But this book has made clear that technology does not spring forth, fully formed, from the technology gods. Technology is built and deployed by humans for their own purposes (usually to make money), and what those humans build and how they deploy it are affected by existing laws and how those laws are enforced. Strong enforcement of existing laws can constrain those humans – and new laws can too – if lawmakers, regulators, and courts have the will to reject the inevitability narrative.
November 4, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Hilary J. Allen
lsolum.bsky.social
Allen on Fintech and Techno-Solutionism

Hilary J. Allen (American University - Washington College of Law) has posted Fintech and Techno-Solutionism (98 Southern California Law Review 761 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Silicon Valley-style technological innovation is ill-suited to address…
Allen on Fintech and Techno-Solutionism
Hilary J. Allen (American University - Washington College of Law) has posted Fintech and Techno-Solutionism (98 Southern California Law Review 761 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Silicon Valley-style technological innovation is ill-suited to address complex problems like financial inclusion and concentrated market power, yet promises abound that "fintech" can fix them. This oversimplified reduction of complex structural problems into technological puzzles has been critiqued as "techno-solutionism," and it poses real dangers for public policy.
legaltheoryblog.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
This reminds me a bit of the distinction the crypto industry is always trying to draw between “bad” crypto (fraud, scams, money laundering) and “good” crypto (gambling). Both are bad, even if one is less so.
veenadubal.bsky.social Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 11d
“Many people invoke a distinction between illicit uses of A.I. (such as the composition of entire drafts) and innocent auxiliary functions — outlining, for instance. But it is these seemingly benign functions that are the most pernicious for developing minds.”
October 31, 2025 at 4:33 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
With plenty of signs already flashing “warning, financial crisis ahead!” this is not the time to make financial regulatory oversight worse…
grahamsteele.bsky.social graham steele @grahamsteele.bsky.social · 11d
The @federalreserve.gov is expecting to cut about 30% of its workforce dedicated to bank supervision and regulation by the end of 2026.

This is in addition to its broader move to weaken the substantive regulations that apply to the banking industry.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Fed’s Bowman Moves to Reduce Bank-Supervision Unit By About 30%
The Federal Reserve’s top bank cop announced plans to reorganize the agency’s supervision and regulation division and shrink the unit’s staff by roughly 30%.
www.bloomberg.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Hilary J. Allen
ourfinancialsecurity.org
Crypto kiosks were associated with $250 million in scams in 2024, targeting Black and Latine communities. Despite this, the Senate is considering pro crypto legislation that would expose everyday people to more risk.
Crypto Legislation Must Address the Rampant Fraud at Crypto Kiosks - Americans for Financial Reform
Sometime after the shutdown dust settles, the Senate is expected to consider legislation to give a congressional seal of approval to cryptocurrency despite the widespread fraud and risks to everyday…
ourfinancialsecurity.org
October 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Hilary J. Allen
josephcox.bsky.social
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”
October 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
"It's the economic precarity, stupid"

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
October 28, 2025 at 2:48 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
I weighed in on financial oversight blind spots for @notus.com.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of folks interviewed were worried about leverage (me included). But concerns about under appreciated operational risks seem esp salient in light of the recent AWS outage.

www.notus.org/perspectives...
What is the largest blind spot in current financial oversight?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), E.J. Antoni, Thomas Hoenig, Nellie Liang, Rohan Grey, Kathryn Judge, Hilary Allen, Brad Lipton, Angela Walch, Rohit Chopra
www.notus.org
October 28, 2025 at 12:32 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Excited that my article on VC involvement in both building the crypto industry and the demise of Silicon Valley Bank has officially been published in the Illinois Law Review: illinoislawreview.org/print/vol-20...
Interest Rates, Venture Capital, and Financial Stability
As central banks tightened interest rates during 2022 and 2023, important debates arose regarding the relationship between monetary policy and financial stability. This Article illuminates one path th...
illinoislawreview.org
October 24, 2025 at 11:11 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
So I wrote my book Driverless Finance in 2020, and it was published at the beginning of 2022. driverlessfinancebook.com

I wrote a prologue about where I thought we were heading if regulators didn't intervene. Here's the bit about banks accepting crypto as collateral.

It sucks being a Cassandra.
October 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Hilary J. Allen
ojutel.bsky.social
I am so shocked that Ethereum decentralised governance is just a cult built around what "Daddy Eth" wants. Just like MakerDAO before it
finance.yahoo.com/news/ethereu...
Ethereum Core Veteran: Vitalik Buterin Has 'Complete Indirect Control’ Over Ecosystem
Geth lead Péter Szilágyi’s criticisms of the Ethereum Foundation prompted Polygon CEO Sandeep Nailwal to chime in with his own issues.
finance.yahoo.com
October 24, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Hilary J. Allen
mkonings.bsky.social
this by @jraden.bsky.social is very good on the role of AI as a vehicle for asset-stripping higher education.

"This problem was not generated in the classroom, and it can’t be fixed there."

defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:10 AM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
I pictured it: www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
And the banking regulators just greenlit this man’s bank proposal.

I suspect someone this obsessed with end times isn’t going to be too focused on making sure his bank doesn’t spark a banking crisis.
October 20, 2025 at 5:21 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
I was just unable to workout because the class I stream is down because of AWS. First of all, grrr. Second of all, when are we going to wake up and realize that efficiency isn't the be all and end all?

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
The supply chain breakdowns in 2020 should have clued us into an important characteristic of complex systems: one tradeoff for efficiency is fragility, and we need to start asking “when is something efficient enough? When will making it more efficient introduce fragilities that will be counterproductive in the long run?”
October 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
And people said I was crazy when I wrote this:

digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcont...
For example, an ex ante rule may be needed that prevents banks from relying on certain kinds of shared infrastructure. Even if banks’ local data centers individually tend to have more operational vulnerabilities than, say, a widely used cloud provider, from a systemic perspective, a cloud failure could be much more harmful than regular but scattered local outages.
October 20, 2025 at 1:46 PM
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
This is both embarrassing and dangerous.

Talk about politicizing financial regulation. Why should banking regulators pay less attention to climate-related threats
to the financial system than other kinds of threats?

scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...
October 17, 2025 at 6:03 PM