Digital Gold (38 page)

  
WikiLeaks blockade, 57

Paysius, 174

PC World
, 57

People's Bank of China, 273–275

Pidgin (chat service), 246

Pirate Party, 35, 333

Ponzi scheme, Bitcoin as, 220

pornography, 72, 112, 117, 126, 234

Powell, Jesse, 94–96, 103, 105, 127–128, 139, 252, 315, 337

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), 10, 13

proof-of-work, 18–19

P2P Foundation, 30, 323–324

public-key cryptography, 9–10, 141, 185–186, 238, 248, 281, 320, 330

Q coin (Chinese virtual currency), 257, 260–261, 268

ransom demands/payments, 82, 150, 347–348

Reeves, Ben, 237–239

reusable proofs of work (RPOWs), 18–19

Reuters
, 211

Ribbit Capital.
See
Malka, Micky

Ripple, 187, 325

redandwhite (screen name), 225–226, 245

Russia, 54, 135–136, 197

Sacks, David, 192

Salmon, Felix, 210–211

SatoshiDice (gambling site), viii, 136, 193, 224, 338

Satoshi Ltd., 174

Satoshi Nakamoto

  
creation and promotion of “e-cash,” 5, 20–22

  
disappearance/search for, xiv, 60–62, 80–81, 141

  
participation in forums, 55–56, 58–59

  
unearthing identity, 319–324, 339–340

Schumer, Charles, 84, 269

SecondMarket.
See
Barry Silbert

Shared Coin, 270

Shasky Calvery, Jennifer, 235, 266

Shrem, Charlie.
See also
BitInstant

  
arrest by federal agents, 298–300

  
background and founding of BitInstant, 128–130

  
lack of management skill, 220–224

  
marginalization in Bitcoin future, 331–334

  
vacating Bitcoin Foundation seat, 345

Silbert, Barry, 143–144, 147–149, 217–218, 300, 303–304, 314, 325–326

Silicon Valley Bank, 203–204, 305–306

Silk Road

  
additional resources, 368n

  
BitInstant transactions, 129–130

  
creation and business concept, 69–73

  
as fringe group experiment, 335

  
government investigation, 84–85, 121, 169–171, 213, 227–229, 298–300

  
growth and success, 115–121, 137–138, 167–168

  
growth in membership, 75–77, 82–84

  
hacker penetration, 169, 225–226

  
seizure by FBI, 245–253

Silk Road 2.0, 269–270

Sirius-M (screen name).
See
Malmi, Martti

Slashdot, 47–51, 53, 58

Snoop Dogg (rapper), 297

Snowden, Edward, 271

The Social Network
(movie), 145

Songhurst, Charlie, 184, 292

Spain, 330

Spitzer, Elliot, 186

SpongeBob SquarePants stickers, 39, 69

Srinivasan, Balaji, 191–192, 294–295, 329

scout (screen name), 169, 246

silkroad (screen name), 73, 118.
See also
Ulbricht, Ross

Stephenson, Neal, 19, 252

Summer Olympics (Beijing, 2008), 145

SVBitcoin (email list), 204

Swap Variety Shop, 39

Szabo, Nick, 18–19, 338–341, 351

Taaki, Amir, 57–58

Tanona, Bill, 165, 180

Target Corporation, data breach, 288–289

taxes/taxation, 13, 126–127, 168, 219–220, 239–241, 287

Tea Party movement, xi–xii

TechCrunch
, 214

Tencent (Chinese Internet company), 261, 284–285

Texas Bitcoin Association, 331–334

Thiel, Peter, 185–187, 192, 211, 291

Tibanne (cat), 66, 140, 200, 312

Tibanne Ltd., 68

Time
(magazine), 79–80

Tor (software/network), 71–73, 120, 245, 369n

Transaction malleability, 309–310

Trickster (screen name).
See
Malmi, Martti

21e6 (mining company), 191–192, 294–295, 329

Two Bit Idiot (blogger), 315

Ukraine, 329–330

Ulbricht, Lyn, 331–332

Ulbricht, Ross.
See also
Silk Road

  
about creation of Silk Road, 69–73

  
arrest by federal agents, 246–251

  
fundraising for legal defense, 331–332

  
murder-for-hire accusations, 225–226, 332

  
plans to go off-the-grid, 226–229

Underground Brokers (renamed Silk Road), 70.
See also
Silk Road

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 78, 81, 86–87

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 121, 247

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 186, 234, 266–267

U.S. Department of the Treasury.
See
Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit [FinCen]

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), 298

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 137–138, 227–228, 245, 247–251

U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 114

U.S. Federal Reserve

  
about role as U.S. central bank, 17, 23

  
assessment of Bitcoin, 266–267, 289, 328

  
function of gold standard, 31

  
monetary policy, 80, 110–111

  
technology, adaptation to, 132–133

  
2008 big bank bailout, 32, 286

U.S. Government.
See
Government regulation/investigation

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 248.
See also
Taxes/taxation

U.S. Marshals Service, 353

U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), 271, 342

U.S. Secret Service (USSS), 17, 266–267

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ix, 224, 338

Variety Jones [vj] (screen name), 118–119, 228

Vaurum (Bitcoin company), 340–341

Vavilov, Val, 330

Ver, Roger.
See also
Memory Dealers

background and intro to Bitcoin, 77–80

  
as Bitcoin spokesman, 214

  
dealing with ransom demands, 348

  
investment in BitInstant, 128–131, 175

  
investment in Blockchain.info, 237–239, 252

  
meeting Erik Voorhees, 107–110

  
NYC Bitcoin Expo 2011, 103–105

  
promotion of Bitcoin, 127–128, 294

  
reaction to Mt. Gox collapse, 311, 314

  
relocation to Japan, 125–126

  
renouncing U.S. citizenship, 126, 169, 234, 330, 338

  
responding to Mt. Gox hack, 92–96, 308

  
size of Bitcoin holdings, 287

  
2013 Argentina, Bitcoin meeting, 277

Vessenes, Peter, 138, 144, 200, 213, 233

Virtual money.
See
Digital currency

Voorhees, Erik

  
introduction to Bitcoin, 107–110

  
early vision/prediction about value, vii–ix, xi–xiii

  
gathering for Lake Tahoe poker game, vii–viii

  
joining BitInstant, 130–132, 135–137

  
sale of SatoshiDice, viii, xv, 224

van Der Laan, Wladimir, 348

Wagner, Bruce, 102–104, 128

Walker, Paul, 325–326

Washington Post
, 267

Wells Fargo Bank, 202, 219, 272–273, 287–288, 302

WikiLeaks, xi, 56–58, 66–67, 80

Wikipedia, 4, 45

Williams, Tom (possible pseudonym), 98

Wilson, Fred, 154, 182, 212, 300–301, 305

Winklevoss Capital, 149

Winklevoss, Tyler and Cameron

  
backing BitInstant startup, ix, 144–149, 173–177, 201–202, 220–223, 297

  
buying/selling Bitcoin, 180, 196, 250–251

  
investment in Bitcoin, 211–215

  
loan to Mt. Gox, 205

  
Mt. Gox collapse, 312–314

  
regulatory filing for COIN, 353

  
testifying at government hearing, 300–302

Woo, David, 272

Woodside Bakery and Cafe, 291–293

World War II, 31

Wuille, Pieter, 348

Xapo, 281–282, 292–296, 305–306, 349–351, 353.
See also
Wences Casares

Yang Linke, 255–256, 258, 260

Yoda (computer chip), 329

Zimmerman, Phil, 10

Zuckerberg, Mark, 145, 176, 221, 291

NATHANIEL POPPER
is a reporter at the
New York Times
, where he has covered the intersections between finance and technology. Before joining the
Times
, he worked at the
Los Angeles Times
and
Forward
. Popper grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Harvard College. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
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COVER DESIGN BY GREGG KULICK

AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © PETER EAVIS

DIGITAL GOLD
. Copyright © 2015 by Nathaniel Popper. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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*
For more detail on how this and other basic elements of how the Bitcoin network worked, see the Technical Appendix on page 357.

*
For more information on the mining process, see the Technical Appendix on page 357.

*
See the Technical Appendix on page 357 for more detail on how the mining process worked.