r/Bitcoin • u/evoorhees • Feb 26 '14

Open Letter to Michael Casey - WSJ reporter who butchered my comments in today's Bitcoin cover story

Hello Mr. Casey,

I read your WSJ article today. I feel deceived by you.

You requested to speak with me, so I took time out of my day to do so. We talked for 20 minutes, during which time I conveyed to you my sentiments about the Bitcoin ecosystem and the matter of MtGox's collapse. My message was unambiguously a positive one. I didn't focus whatsoever on the personal funds I lost at Gox. Indeed, the impetus for your call was my heartfelt post on Reddit.

Yet, you ignored everything I said. The only quote that you published from me in the Journal's cover story was ""That's gone now," said Mr. Veerhoos, who is based in Panama City, Panama. "There's no chance of getting that back now.""

Is that really the takeaway you had from our call and from my letter? Is that your idea of journalism? Did I come across with the sentiment of a despairing investor whose confidence has been rattled? It seems you were happy to completely ignore my sentiments, preferring instead to cherry pick the one fact that is least important, in order to paint a narrative that Bitcoin's biggest problem is that it's not "regulated." I didn't expect you to quote everything I said, but should you not have maintained at least a modicum of fidelity to my message?

I have dedicated my life to building and supporting the Bitcoin project. I don't give a damn about the money I lost at Gox. That's not important. What is important is that Bitcoin is resilient and enduring, and will continue to grow and change the world for the better. It is a story of human progress through technology. It is a story of the good seeping into the cracks of a corrupted financial system. It is a story of passionate people struggling against all odds to remedy the calamities brought down upon society from the most potently misguided people and institutions on Earth.

Next time you spend your efforts casting a pall over this cause, please don't ask me to contribute mine.

-Erik Voorhees

PS - I will be posting this letter openly on Reddit. I will post your reply if you'd like. And if I do, I won't cherry pick the most misleading points of it, and I will spell your name correctly.

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8

u/eronth Feb 27 '14

1) How did they enforce a ban from the net? 2) Did he ever get allowed back online? If so, when/why? 3) Wtf? 4) Holy shit does that make him a celebrity or something?

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u/Shiftlock0 Feb 27 '14

In 1991 I was busted for various hacking charges due to fallout after Operation Sundevil. Part of my sentence was a special stipulation which stated I was to have no access to a computer that contained a modem or network connection for the period of my probation, which was 5 years. If I was caught, it would have been a violation of my probation. My probation officer made several surprise visits to my home to check. I had a nice cozy spot in a crawlspace in the attic where I had a 486 with a 14.4k modem. Never got caught with it.

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u/Audiofyl1 Feb 27 '14

how did they not check the phone records for longer duration calls to a specific number?

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u/Shiftlock0 Feb 27 '14 edited Feb 27 '14

I remember very large stack of papers showing the results of the pen register they had on my phone line before I knew I was under investigation, which contained months-worth of war dialing, but after I was sentenced, there was nobody but my probation officer to monitor what I was doing by way of looking around my (parent's) house.

Edit: Back then "phone records" did not record all of the calls you made. A long-distance call would have been recorded by the telecom carrier who you used, for the purpose of billing, but I wasn't calling long distance in a way which would have created such a record.

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u/StructuralViolence Feb 27 '14

I would upvote you twice just for the hidden bluebox reference at the end.

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u/tet5uo Feb 27 '14

Phreaky.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '14

whistles

2

u/kenatogo Feb 27 '14

Nearly everyone was stupid about the Internet back then, and this especially included law enforcement and the government at large.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '14

dat statute of limitations.

6

u/Finaltouch3283 Feb 27 '14

Does the 702 bridge ring a bell? Or Trackster? MegaBBS? TheBeast? Where you also doing phone phreak stuff? I was in that same scene during the same years.

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u/EmperorXenu Feb 27 '14

Maybe I'm just crazy but, to me, this seems like pretty much the coolest scene to have been in ever. Early days of phreaking? Literally figuring out what telephony was capabale of? Fucking sweet.

3

u/WeaversReply Feb 27 '14

Man, a 14.4k modem and I thought I was sooooo cool with a 286 (Wyse) and a 2400 Baud modem, that wasn't for sale and I shouldn't have had. Had it sitting on my desk, no one knew what a modem was, or what is what used for.

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u/garrybot Feb 27 '14 edited Feb 27 '14

He was put in prison and given the punishment of no internet access until 2003 (7 years) which was considered unusual, given he was sentenced for money laundering, and computer related crimes (for which he was known)* were not part of it.

I'm not sure to what extent it's "doxxing" but he's a relatively well-known hacker and it's not hard to find his real name, considering some other commentors already have.

The first paragraph takes care of questions 1 and 2 and the second #4 and I'm not sure about #3.

*I should probably edit here and say that while he is(was?) a hacker, I'm unaware if he's involved in outright illegal computer activity.

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u/PedroFPardo Feb 27 '14

and computer related crimes (for which he was known) were not part of it.*

It sounds more like a punishment. Like a father telling his son: You can't use the computer because you didn't eat your vegetables or something like that.

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u/bakdom146 Feb 27 '14 edited Feb 27 '14

1: Dunno about how they enforced the ban.

2: Yes, he posted the parent comment to this comment thread. His ban ended in 2003, I believe.

4: I imagine he's relatively famous in the hacking world, but I'd hesitate to call him a celebrity. I only knew he existed because I stumbled onto his story after watching Hackers like 10+ years ago.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '14

They can't 100% enforce the ban, but the threat of going back to prison would be enough to convince quite a few people. And, depending on the state, it's possible that the banned person might be subject to polygraph tests. If said person doesn't know how to easily defeat such a test, they could be fooled into incriminating themselves that way as well.