Read: “We don’t care as long as the money keeps moving and we get a cut.”

I was Time's Person of the Year in 2006. I worked at Funny Or Die. I’m now Digital Media Director at TEGNA, Inc. My silly opinions are my own.

Jul 28, 2016

For example, I prefer to get digital currency in the hands of more people, than to argue over which one is best.

On the Ethereum hard fork

Brian Armstrong

10815

Read: “We don’t care as long as the money keeps moving and we get a cut.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAhIg5Dy3uA

And that’s fine! That’s how the real economy works, and (part of) how the digital economy should work. However, flippantly saying “this could have been handled better” makes me concerned about Coinbase as the next MtGox.

Thankfully, Brian and his team are smart and had backups in cold storage (full disclosure, I once interviewed for Coinbase). But some people made some questionable trades between ETH/ETC/BTC pairs. An exploit like that reminds me of “transaction malleability” and large iced frappucinos.

I’m intentionally not mentioning the horse Brian is backing in a fight over digital asset sovereignty, but that’s a longer, more complicated post.

Coinbase — Keep making money, ensuring cold storage, and please don’t get Goxed.
Everyone else — remember that if you don’t hold the keys, you don’t own the coins.