Gongol.com Archives: February 2025
February 21, 2025
Someone stole cryptocurrency with a market price of $1.4 to $1.5 billion from the Bybit exchange. The company's CEO rushed to do a live video statement on the incident about two hours after it happened, which has certain echoes of bank presidents addressing crowds of panicked depositors in the 1930s. ■ It is strange to hear an executive giving a lengthy account of a heist almost immediately after it happened. To a small degree, that's almost refreshing to see. When things go wrong, most corporations go into lockdown mode and pretend like they don't know things that are self-evident to any reasonable onlooker. ■ But the need to address the incident like that is a reflection of the high-speed, high-emotion environment of cryptocurrency. There's no FDIC waiting to reassure depositors. Cryptocurrency middlemen and brokers depend upon amplified emotions and a high-stakes trading mentality -- it's not built on patience, due diligence, and sound valuations, it's built on hype. ■ Warren Buffett will release his annual letter to shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway tomorrow, in which he will undoubtedly follow his half-century-old practice of using plain language to tell a clear story about his investment choices and the productive activity taking place at the businesses he controls. ■ It's a stark contrast with explaining a blow-by-blow account of how malicious hackers could steal $1.5 billion during a "cold wallet" to "warm wallet" transfer. Slow (and perhaps even boring) has a lot going for it, even if it's not much to stir the blood. But losing ten digits to North Korean hackers (or whomeveer was behind the heist) is the kind of excitement nobody needs.
Behind the scenes at "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"
A wide-angle view of the set that never made it to the TV show
President fires top uniformed military officer in the US
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff received a Friday-night dismissal, as did the Chief of Naval Operations.
