The Disastrous Voyage of Satoshi
Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didn’t work out
Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didn’t work out
Sophie Elmhirst The Guardian Sep 2021 30min Permalink
“The cowboy hats, target practice, and barbecue brisket were just a bonus. They were really there for the deregulated electrical grid.”
Meaghan Tobin Rest of World Aug 2021 10min Permalink
Ten years ago, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappeared.
Pete Rizzo Bitcoin Magazine Apr 2021 30min Permalink
Bitcoin partying at an Orlando hotel with worshippers of the blockchain.
Sam Biddle Gawker Dec 2014 15min Permalink
The internet is changing everything we thought we knew about the value of stuff—from stocks, to flying cherub art, to cats with Pop-Tart bodies.
Felix Salmon Wealthsimple Magazine Mar 2021 Permalink
A Buenos Aires hacker haven produced some of Argentina’s most valuable crypto companies. Then it suddenly disappeared.
Shaun MacDonald was an ambitious tech innovator whose start-up was going to revolutionize the crypto economy. His wealthy investors had no idea that their charismatic founder was really Boaz Manor, a notorious Canadian white-collar criminal.
Leah McLaren Toronto Life Nov 2020 25min Permalink
The rise and fall of a Bitcoin mining scheme that was “too big to fail.”
Alan Prendergast Westword Feb 2020 30min Permalink
With its cheap geothermal energy and low crime rate, Iceland has become the world’s leading miner of digital currency. Then the crypto-crooks showed up.
Mark Seal Vanity Fair Nov 2019 20min Permalink
In a small Minnesota town, an IT technician found his way to the darkest corner of the web. Then he made a deadly plan.
Mara Hvistendahl Wired Apr 2019 25min Permalink
Tomi Masters was a 23-year-old from Indiana who moved to California with dreams of making it big in the cannabis business. Then she met a hacker who introduced her to a dark new world of digital manipulation, suspicion, paranoia, and fear — one that swallowed her alive and left her floating in a river in the Philippines.
Davey Alba, Joseph Bernstein Buzzfeed Feb 2019 30min Permalink
There are people of all genders and political persuasions looking to walk the plank of the good ship Reality before they’re pushed, but I’ve never met so many so transparently trying to con as many fellow travelers on their way down.
Laurie Penny Breaker Dec 2018 30min Permalink
Inside the ongoing argument over whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the blockchain are transforming the world.
Nick Paumgarten New Yorker Oct 2018 20min Permalink
The hidden history of poker and crypto.
Morgen Peck Breaker Oct 2018 20min Permalink
Arthur and Kathleen Breitman thought they held the secret to building a new decentralized utopia. On the way, they plunged into a new kind of hell.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus Wired Jun 2018 40min Permalink
Mark Karpelès ran the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world until a heist made it insolvent, ultimately landing him in solitary confinement in Japanese prison.
Jen Wieczner Fortune Apr 2018 Permalink
The true believers won’t stop until they’ve remade the world.
Paul Ford Businessweek Mar 2018 10min Permalink
Can blockchain create a new, better internet?
Steven Johnson The New York Times Magazine Jan 2018 20min Permalink
How it feels to lose $30,000 in Bitcoin.
Mark Frauenfelder Wired Oct 2017 20min Permalink
An investigation leads to the deepest reaches of the internet.
Nigel Jaquiss Willamette Week Jul 2017 15min Permalink
Satoshi Nakamoto was the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. Facing bankruptcy and jail, Craig Wright fled Australia knowing that he would soon be outed as Satoshi by multiple publications. Backed by a business group that hoped to sell his patents, Wright was due to show the proof that he possessed the original keys for Bitcoin, but did he?
Andrew O'Hagan London Review of Books Jun 2016 2h20min Permalink
How a Russian-born Canadian 23-year-old invented Ethereum, the first cryptocurrency to seriously challenge Bitcoin.
Claire Brownell The Financial Post Jun 2017 Permalink
Money is an idea that we all agree to believe in.
John Lanchester London Review of Books Apr 2016 45min Permalink
Uncovering the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.
Sam Biddle, Andy Cush Gizmodo Nov 2015 15min Permalink
On Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson, two anarchists with a history of creating controversial software, and their dream of an economy based on untraceable, uncontrollable money.
Andy Greenberg Wired Jul 2014 25min Permalink