An announcement from Ethan
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you "Field Notes from a Pandemic"
As you may know, I have a book coming out, Field Notes from a Pandemic. With that, this newsletter will be going through some changes, at least for the time being. It will no longer be published as frequently as every Sunday and it will no longer be completely about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
With the new book — what a strange year it has been, eh? — the journalism and writing part of my life has grown. The demands for my time and attention have shifted unexpectedly and considerably.
I’m still debating the precise future of this newsletter, but for now it will feature infrequent updates about me: book stuff, public appearances and writings, and occasional musings on topics that interest me, such as geopolitics, culture and, yes, cryptocurrency still. I remain personally interested in the industry. I invested early, and about 80 per cent of my net worth is and has always been in cryptocurrency (among that, 80 per cent is Bitcoin, if you’re curious). My other book, Once a Bitcoin Miner, remains on track for next year.
To hear more about the pandemic book — this is my public schedule for the coming week:
Monday, Sept. 28, 2020
8:20 a.m., CHCH CH Morning Live
4 p.m., SiriusXM Canada Talks Krystal Nation
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020
7:45 a.m., CTV Your Morning
9:50 a.m., Global Television The Morning Show
2:05 p.m., 650 CKOM Radio John Gormley Live
There will be more media and literary festival appearances and excerpts to come. In normal circumstances, there will be in-person events, but normal was a long time ago.
News: The perennial story of the great KuCoin robbery in Singapore
In terms of cryptocurrency developments, what really stood out to me the past week was the fact that the Singapore-based exchange KuCoin had $150 million stolen. That is likely the largest and most brazen heist of the year. And as you may know, cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible. Stolen coins are forever lost. This brings to mind an issue of this newsletter around last year this time:
A cryptocurrency exchange platform has halted services after it lost millions of dollars in a hack.
What is that referring to? Japan’s Coincheck last year? South Korea’s Youbit in 2017? Japan’s Mt. Gox in 2014? Australia’s Cryptopia this year? Japan’s Remixpoint last month?
Anyone can start an exchange. Such platforms can be incredibly risky.