Laura Shin: Uncovering Ethereum’s Founding - [Web3 Breakdowns, EP.24]

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Laura Shin. Laura is a crypto journalist, host of the Unchained podcast, and author of the book The Cryptopians. While writing her book, Laura uncovered one of the biggest mysteries in crypto - who was behind the 2016 DAO hack on Ethereum. We cover that episode in detail, her methods for gathering information in crypto more broadly, and what she learned from studying the founding of Ethereum. Please enjoy my conversation with Laura Shin.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes[00:02:11] - [First question] - When she knew she wanted to become a journalist

[00:04:06] - Stepping into crypto seven years ago and what pulled her into it

[00:06:23] - Forbes’ thoughts on her covering crypto and going full-time

[00:07:39] - Her TedX 2018 presentation and how her predictions held up today 

[00:10:39] - Doing 200 interviews over 2 years to write The Cryptopians

[00:12:33] - Balancing how wild the story felt with factual evidence-based reporting

[00:15:39] - What it was like to try and gather information in the crypto space

[00:17:33] - Who she most relied on to tell the story and who she wishes she could have spoken with while writing it

[00:20:25] - Idealists, capitalists and technologists shaping the messy foundation of Ethereum

[00:22:19] - How Vitalik maintained his dominance and influence over Ethereum

[00:23:54] - Thoughts on how a single figure can have so much power over an ecosystem

[00:25:17] - The battle between the Nonprofit and For-Profit status of blockchains

[00:28:16] - What made it so difficult to get involved in crypto in the early days

[00:29:11] - The first DAO coming together and within a few weeks getting hacked

[00:31:22] - Going from journalist to detective and trying to find out who the hacker was

[00:38:47] - How nervous she was about someone else breaking the story first

[00:42:08] - Big takeaways from illegal activity being traceable on public blockchains

[00:45:28] - Why she was able to find the DAO hacker before the government did

[00:46:21] - Whether or not there will be a movie made out of Cryptopians

[00:46:47] - What she’s most excited to see built in the next six months and six years

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