Editor’s letter

It was the $4.4 million ransom that was the breaking point for me. The many proponents of Bitcoin have been telling us endlessly for years that digital currencies are going to change everyone’s lives. Well, they were right. Thanks to the magic of Bitcoin, a group of hackers based in Eastern Europe can hijack oil pipelines in the U.S., create lines for gas at stations from

North Carolina to Florida, and then walk off with millions that can’t be traced. For people who don’t regularly read the financial pages, this is an appropriate introduction to digital currencies— or “crypto,” as the initiates like to refer to Bitcoin and its imitators. Created with utopian dreams of a medium of exchange unburdened by government, Bitcoin has delivered in full: a currency optimized for criminal transactions, a vast regulation-free waste of energy and computing power (see Technology, p.20), a windfall for speculators. And for the rest of us—in the words of Bitcoindabbler Elon Musk—“a hustle.”

So let’s get back to that ransom. The operators of the Colonial Pipeline had no choice but to pay it to get gasoline moving through the Southeast again. Of course there will be more such demands—and bigger ones. If you can get $4 million, why not

$20 million? Digital currency is the prerequisite for this growing business. Bitcoin boosters, including much of Silicon Valley, wanted a way to move large sums of money without government interference. We got that, and it hasn’t worked out. As in other areas, the absence of government just returns us to the state of nature—not a kind place. Governments themselves are becoming wise to this, exposing Bitcoin to risks of a sudden crackdown. Just how long this story goes on is anyone’s guess; last week Bitcoin plummeted in a frantic one-day sell-off, then just as mysteriously recovered. But we’ve seen enough now to know the plot, which follows so many science-fiction movies: a Mark Gimein utopian beginning gives way to a dystopian end. Managing editor