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.

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INSIGHT

Hack Investigation

Leising investigated the DAO hack, driven by a desire to uncover the attacker's identity.
He discovered multiple DAO attacks, with varying levels of sophistication.

ANECDOTE

False Lead

Leising tweeted about meeting the DAO attacker but later deleted it, realizing his mistake.
He included the story in his book to illustrate the investigation process.

ANECDOTE

Tokyo Interview

Leising interviewed Tomoaki Sato, linked to a copycat DAO attack through blockchain forensics.
Sato claimed others had access to his account, never directly denying involvement.

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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

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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

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