Jacob Silverman

Each “block” contains the cryptographic hash (a short, computable summary of all the data in it) of the prior block, linking the two and creating an irreversible record, a ledger composed of blocks of data that can be added to a chain (blockchain), but never subtracted from.

It rested on combining two previous developed technologies: public key encryption and blockchain.

Ironically enough, the more important technology is the one that predates it: public key encryption.

Does it do what it purports to do, create a peer-to-peer currency free of intermediaries?

That changed with the Silk Road, a dark web drug marketplace, where Bitcoin was finally used as intended: as a peer-to-peer currency operating both free of centralized control and outside the law.

Until it was shut down by US law enforcement in October 2013, the Silk Road was the most successful onboarding mechanism in Bitcoin’s history. That said, it’s worth noting that until 2017, the crypto “market” remained extremely small.

Bitcoin was a direct attack on state authority and the shared public good that is our monetary system.

There was no reason to speak truth to power.

With their value seemingly stable, Tethers served as the poker chips in the casino.

70 percent of trades on unregulated exchanges were fake. For Binance, the biggest exchange in crypto by a country mile in terms of trading volume, that number was 46 percent.