Proteção de dados pessoais na sociedade da informação: entre dados e danos.

In 2020, when I wrote 21st-century's alchemy: cryptocurrencies Ponzu schemes, I could not foresee how fast events would follow. This year, the crypto market erased two trillion dollars, not to say it also ruined crypto enthusiasts' savings. If some currencies are more reliable than others, such as bitcoin or Ethereum, others, such as Terra, proved to be a scheme that will ultimately hold few people accountable for their misconduct. The lack of sufficient state regulation, fueled by low-interest rates, attracted wealthy investors borrowing free money to build up an economy based on crypto, NFTs, and other decentralized transaction assets. Its amorphism, duality, and novelty allowed believers to operate crypto as tech stocks, investments, or as means for transactions, inaugurating an era of uncertainty for central banks and the geopolitical world order in general. The claim that the current war is a result of a system threatened by new actors and attempts to rearrange the order set by the aftermath of Bretton Woods is no exaggeration since the crypto delirium bears the aspirations of a world not organized by a central power. The crypto endeavor represented an attempt to dismantle a reality almost not perceived by those living its consequences. Still, its cascade effect will long affect how the world is organized. My analysis intended to trace cryptocurrencies' origins and relied on a comparison with previous schemes deemed unlawful by governments, such as Ponzi schemes and alike. Based on computer scientists' algorithmic findings, it became possible to predict the likelihood of a cryptocurrency being a Ponzi scheme. In Brazil, where I primarily conducted the case study, multiple schemes were created, harming a vulnerable population who lacked informational resources to understand the actual functioning of cryptocurrencies. But, most strikingly, it turned out that not only unreliable currencies operated as Ponzi schemes, but the whole chain of reproduction and no cryptocurrency escaped the outcomes of a collapsing Ponzi scheme. The conclusion was that regardless of its functioning and practices, the state is the one who decides cryptomarkets fate to become the future token or fools' gold.