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Blockchain technology is about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity, from health care to our Internet of Things devices. In this podcast, host Laura Shin talks with industry pioneers across tech, financial services, health care, government and other sectors about how the blockchain and cryptocurrency will open up new opportunities for incumbents, startups and everyday people to interact more efficiently, directly and globally.

Sep 22, 2020

Matthew Leising, a reporter at Bloomberg who began covering crypto in 2015, is out with a new book Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All. In this episode, he discusses:

  • the catalyst that led to him writing his new book, which covers the early history of Ethereum and the DAO attack of 2016
  • why he thought the story of the DAO hack was compelling enough to make a book, and how he went about reporting it
  • the surprising things he learned about Ethereum’s early days and Vitalik
  • the twists and turns during his quest to discover the identity of the DAO attacker
  • why he thinks separate people were responsible for the two biggest DAO attacks
  • his meeting in Tokyo with one of the prime suspects of a copycat DAO attack
  • why he decided to end his story at the Ethereum hard fork and chose not to write about Ethereum Classic 
  • what he feels the long-term significance of the DAO and the hard fork has been for Ethereum
  • why he thinks the lessons of the DAO are not being heeded today
  • what he thinks the next chapter of Ethereum will be and how it will unfold
  • the differences he’s found as a journalist covering crypto as opposed to covering more traditional finance
  • and how the book is about more than just the DAO

 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com

Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod

 

Episode links: 

Matthew Leising: https://twitter.com/mattleising

Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Out+of+the+Ether%3A+The+Amazing+Story+of+Ethereum+and+the+%2455+Million+Heist+that+Almost+Destroyed+It+All-p-9781119602934

 

Matt's original Bloomberg article on the DAO attack, "The Ether Thief": https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-the-ether-thief/

 

Excerpt in Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-16/a-trip-down-the-crypto-rabbit-hole-in-search-of-the-dao-hacker

 

Excerpt in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/55m-hack-ethereum-down


Decrypt's interview with Matt about the book: https://decrypt.co/41952/book-sheds-new-light-on-ethereums-55-million-dao-hack