A Blockchain Tale Of Romance, Intrigue, And Paranoia

It began as a love story. In 2010, Arthur Breitman invited Kathleen McCafree to a luncheon for “classical liberals” (which turned out to be for anarcho-capitalists, but save that for later) and the two hit it off right away. Several years of dating and an engagement later, the couple became enamored by something else: blockchain technology. As they learned more about it, they agreed that it could offer so much more than its primary use at the time as essentially a financial tool. 

In response to what he saw as the fundamental flaws of both Bitcoin and Ethereum, in 2014 Breitman launched his own platform called Tezos. As he described it:

“While the irony of preventing the fragmentation of cryptocurrencies by releasing a new one does not escape us…Tezos truly aims to be the last cryptocurrency.”

Breitman decided to make an ICO (initial coin offering) of a token called Tez to support the launch of Tezos, and it wound up being the “largest ICO to date”, raising $232 million.

This is only the setup for a saga of grand proportions, which is related in this essay by Gideon Lewis-Kraus and which is equal parts juicy and informative. Along the way he manages to explain a lot of the tech fundamentals of blockchain as well as the cultures surrounding it. 

“What began in utopian ambition would blow up into one of the crypto world’s biggest scandals."