On the 15th anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto publishing the Bitcoin white paper, Modern Consensus has gathered a selection of tributes – a mix of the poignant, the thought provoking and since Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gensler felt the need to weigh in, the clownish. Bitcoin Magazine One of the very first publications devoted to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Magazine was co-founded in 2012 by a 17-year-old Vitalik Buterin, whose father had piqued his interest in the young technology the year before – and who went on to invent Ethereum, announcing it in his own white paper in November 2013. In a feature published today entitled “The Reformation of Money: Bitcoin’s Whitepaper…
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Back to the Future with Misinformation About Crypto
Wall Street Journal sets off a firestorm regarding Hamas fundraising then fails to correct the record
On October 10th, the Wall Street Journal ran a story with the headline, “Hamas Militants Behind Israel Attack Raised Millions in Crypto. Digital currency transactions highlight how U.S. and Israel have struggled to sever the access of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah to foreign funding.” The story stated: “Digital-currency wallets that Israeli authorities linked to the PIJ received as much as $93 million in crypto between August 2021 and June this year, analysis by leading crypto researcher Elliptic showed.” It also cited research by crypto analytics firm BitOK suggesting that Hamas received $41 million. Ten days later the paper followed up with “Why Hamas Uses Crypto to Raise Money”,…
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:( , of, oof – don’t think I have anything particular?
The banality of Bankman-Fried and his FTX/Alameda cozeners
Political philosopher Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil became a classic in part by introducing the concept in noted its subtitle. She argued that the full context of Eichmann’s actions in helping organize and carry out the Holocaust weren’t fully elucidated by his trial, which thus obscured, “the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us—the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil”. Not to say that what FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is currently on trial for rises to the level of evil, but I’ve been struck over and over by the banality and seemingly utter disregard for…
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60 Minutes Interview of Michael Lewis Contains Two Doozies
Superstar author promotes new SBF book
In the US, books are always published on Tuesdays, and around my house, the Tuesday of a new Michael Lewis book brings heated anticipation. And not just cuz we own a bookstore. Liar’s Poker, Money Ball, The Big Short, Flash Boys and Next are all key books in our household. And even the misses — The Blind Side and Trail Fever come to mind — offer a few insights and some great turns of Crawfish phrase. So a book by a gifted storyteller about crypto’s most impossible to ignore character is naturally of great interest to Modern Consensus. But Lewis’ appearance last night on 60 Minutes to promote his book…
