{"id":6403,"date":"2018-04-21T13:52:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T13:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2018-04-21T19:14:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T19:14:37","slug":"news-14000-cryptokitties-to-kill-ethereum-history-of-earn-coms-pitato-ransomware-cryptographers-on-cryptocurrency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/21\/news-14000-cryptokitties-to-kill-ethereum-history-of-earn-coms-pitato-ransomware-cryptographers-on-cryptocurrency\/","title":{"rendered":"News: 14,000 CryptoKitties to kill Ethereum, history of Earn.com&#8217;s PiTato, ransomware, cryptographers on cryptocurrency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Occasional beg cycle \u2014 this news blog, my part-time second job as a finance journalist, runs on sponsorship. I use the Guardian model\u00a0\u2014 no paywall, but you should sponsor me anyway because it keeps the good stuff coming. It pays for things like <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/03\/24\/woolf-university-college-courses-literally-on-the-ethereum-blockchain\/\">corporate documents from Gibraltar,<\/a> and so on. Also I <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/10\/11\/how-do-you-personally-record-skype-audio-on-android\/\">have my eye on<\/a> a nice phone recorder. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\">Fund critical crypto and blockchain journalism today, from $5\/month!<\/a> (Unfortunately, Patreon only accepts conventional currencies as yet.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ICOs <em>still<\/em> commonly propose running some application targeted at thousands or millions of people on the public Ethereum blockchain. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hypebot.com\/hypebot\/2017\/08\/why-you-cant-put-the-music-industry-on-a-blockchain-excerpt.html\">Music industry ICOs<\/a> are some of the worst offenders.) How does this scale? Well, CryptoKitties trashed Ethereum for a day with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccn.com\/cryptokitties-isnt-as-popular-as-you-think-it-is\/\">14,000 users at its popularity peak.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I commend FT Alphaville on the <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/04\/19\/1524169486000\/We-ran-away-with-your-bitcoins---LOL--JK-\/\">SaveDroid Totally Not An ICO Exit Scam.<\/a><\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It looks like there&#8217;s surprisingly little money in ransomware \u2014 about $4.5 million definitely, and $45 million in associated Bitcoin wallets, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1804.01341\">&#8220;On the Economic Significance of Ransomware Campaigns: A Bitcoin Transactions Perspective&#8221;<\/a> by Mauro Conti, Ankit Gangwal and Sushmita Ruj. See also the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/s\/610803\/true-scale-of-bitcoin-ransomware-extortion-revealed\/\">MIT Technology Review writeup.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Actual cryptographers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/crytographers-spank-blockchain-social-media\/\">politely dismiss<\/a> cryptocurrencies and blockchains as trash. &#8220;Interesting&#8221; is what you call something that&#8217;s almost, but not quite, complete rubbish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2513\u250f\u2513\u250f\u2513\u2503<br \/>\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2503\uff3c\u25cb\uff0f<br \/>\u2513\u250f\u2513\u250f\u2513\u2503   \/     CRYPTO<br \/>\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2503\u30ce)<br \/>\u2513\u250f\u2513\u250f\u2513\u2503         STANDS<br \/>\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2503 <br \/>\u2513\u250f\u2513\u250f\u2513\u2503         FOR<br \/>\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2517\u251b\u2503 <br \/>\u2513\u250f\u2513\u250f\u2513\u2503        CRYPTOGR<br \/>\u2503\u2503\u2503\u2503\u2503\u2503               a p h y y y<br \/>\u253b\u253b\u253b\u253b\u253b\u253b<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sarahjeong\/status\/955651919279722496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cracked: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cracked.com\/blog\/5-reasons-cryptocurrency-way-dumber-than-you-thought\/\">5 Reasons Cryptocurrency Is Way Dumber Than You Thought.<\/a> Not a bad basic explainer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Technical analysis: the <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/04\/19\/1524110400000\/The-Vomiting-Camel-has-escaped-from-Bitcoin-zoo\/\">Vomiting Camel pattern<\/a> makes it to Bitcoin. Sure beats the common <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/17\/news-ny-attorney-general-inquiry-localbitcoins-kyc-baidu-copies-kodakone-cambridge-analytics-on-the-blockchain-coal-fired-followup\/\">Bart Simpson pattern.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Tim Swanson saves me writing up the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ofnumbers.com\/2018\/04\/18\/is-the-pitato-why-we-cant-have-nice-things\/\">history of Earn.com, formerly 21.co,<\/a> the failed Bitcoin mining company that tried bolting its mining chips to a Raspberry Pi USB computer \u2014 the combination branded the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Buttcoin\/comments\/4phojt\/got_my_new_21co_pitato_today_guys\/\">&#8220;PiTato&#8221;<\/a> by \/r\/buttcoin, before pivoting to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nathanielpopper\/status\/986107537358405632\">ICO email spam.<\/a> The company was also responsible for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Bitcoin\/comments\/36j3lv\/21_inc_investor_slides_embedded_bitsplitbitshare\/\">venture capitalist pitch deck<\/a> that was considered scammy even by the standards of the crypto world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/21\/news-14000-cryptokitties-to-kill-ethereum-history-of-earn-coms-pitato-ransomware-cryptographers-on-cryptocurrency\/pitato\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6415\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6415\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pitato.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"566\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pitato.jpg 566w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pitato-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nicholas Weaver did a great talk yesterday at Berkeley: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ischool.berkeley.edu\/events\/2018\/blockchains-and-cryptocurrencies-burn-it-fire\">Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Burn It With Fire.<\/a> It&#8217;s 53 minutes long, sound starts at 3:50, Nicholas at 7:00. He bludgeons home a lot of pretty indisputable basic realities. You&#8217;ll enjoy it. &#8220;Bitcoin is not secured by math \u2014 Bitcoin is secured by the gratuitous consumption of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/06\/bitcoin-mining-being-pushed-out-of-china-whats-happening-and-how-the-shutdowns-being-managed\/\">Chinese coal.<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Reminder: I&#8217;m appearing at Intelligence Squared&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intelligencesquared.com\/events\/blockchain-quantum-leap-forward-or-digital-snake-oil\/\">Blockchain: Quantum leap forward or digital snake oil?<\/a> on Monday 2 July 2018, 7pm. Should be fun!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Buttcoin Maximalism <em>defeats<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/07\/saifedean-ammous-the-bitcoin-standard-the-austrian-case-for-bitcoin\/\">the challenger!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/21\/news-14000-cryptokitties-to-kill-ethereum-history-of-earn-coms-pitato-ransomware-cryptographers-on-cryptocurrency\/amazon-best-sellers-computer-history-culture\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6407\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6407\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/amazon-best-sellers-computer-history-culture.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/amazon-best-sellers-computer-history-culture.jpg 1009w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/amazon-best-sellers-computer-history-culture-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/amazon-best-sellers-computer-history-culture-768x435.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This was because I had the good luck to have an <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Radlein\/status\/986507257587421185\">Amazon Daily Deal.<\/a> So my sales chart looked like this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/21\/news-14000-cryptokitties-to-kill-ethereum-history-of-earn-coms-pitato-ransomware-cryptographers-on-cryptocurrency\/attack-sales-18-april-2018\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6408\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6408\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/attack-sales-18-april-2018.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"346\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/attack-sales-18-april-2018.png 346w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/attack-sales-18-april-2018-300x198.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>And don&#8217;t forget: the book is still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/dp\/B073CPP581\/\">$3.49 on Kindle Canada this month!<\/a> I suppose it&#8217;s time to be getting on with the sequel. What should I call it? <em>A Fistful Of Bitcoins<\/em>? <em>For A Few Bitcoins More<\/em>? <em>Invasion of the Bride of the 50 Foot Blockchain from 50,000 Fathoms<\/em>? Comment with your suggestions!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Finally starting to read <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a>\u2019s book and finding that it has a lovely frontispiece. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tlwfDWOk4h\">pic.twitter.com\/tlwfDWOk4h<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Stilgherrian (@stilgherrian) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stilgherrian\/status\/986854138301399040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So are the going to change those stupid stock images of big golden &quot;bitcoins&quot; to include engraved child porn? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bl3kLRlILd\">https:\/\/t.co\/bl3kLRlILd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Series 1 Goo Jit Zu (@t0m3llArd) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/t0m3llArd\/status\/976369306018525184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/SophieWarnes\/status\/986921423435427840<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">First they ignore you.<\/p>\n<p>Then they laugh at you.<\/p>\n<p>Then you realize there are good reasons why your naive ideas weren\u2019t immediately embraced, that the world is more complex than you thought.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John D. Cook (@JohnDCook) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnDCook\/status\/986958640593752064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just picked up a roll of these cool utility tokens. You buy them and this awesome distributed network (it is centralized though) will pick up and deliver a small package. You can also speculate on limited editions and trade cool ones OTC. Will use these to transport opendimes <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OQuMORjSEN\">pic.twitter.com\/OQuMORjSEN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chiefy (@chiefyx) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chiefyx\/status\/987346361736626177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/scott_lew_is\/status\/986769900764090368<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Regret to announce that my plan to run in the London Marathon dressed as the blockchain has been stymied by a) health and safety gone mad b)the organisers insistence that I can&#39;t use the blockchain to register and their demands for a fiat currency fee<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ruskin147\/status\/987272166038212608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Also: I need titles for the sequel to <i>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[603,12,601,297,602,82,6,459,70,604,171],"class_list":["post-6403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-21-co","tag-attack-of-the-50-foot-blockchain","tag-cracked","tag-cryptokitties","tag-earn-com","tag-ethereum","tag-links","tag-nicholas-weaver","tag-ransomware","tag-savedroid","tag-tim-swanson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6403"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6435,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions\/6435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}