How Matthew Leising Confronted His Suspects in the DAO Attacks - Ep.191

Sep 22, 2020

Matthew Leising, a Bloomberg reporter and author of "Out of the Ether," dives into the gripping early history of Ethereum and the notorious 2016 DAO hack. He reveals the intriguing motivations behind going from skepticism to storytelling, and shares his challenges in identifying the attackers. Leising recounts a pivotal meeting in Tokyo with a prime suspect and discusses the long-term implications of the DAO incident for Ethereum. He also contrasts the dynamic world of crypto journalism with traditional finance, offering insights into the evolving landscape.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Homesick Discovery

Matthew Leising, homesick on his couch, noticed the DAO hack unfolding.
This sparked his interest, but Bloomberg wasn't ready for crypto coverage yet.

INSIGHT

Bitcoin Dismissal

Leising initially dismissed Bitcoin, not understanding its value proposition.
Joe Lubin's "world computer" concept clarified blockchain's potential, sparking his interest.

ANECDOTE

Early Team Dynamics

Ethereum's early team formation was haphazard, leading to clashes and firings.
Despite leadership struggles, the project thrived due to its strong core idea.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices