Bitcoin Heists and Corona Virus Activities

As it was discussed in the article “What Some People Are Doing To Fill The Social Distancing Space,” isolation has lit a metaphorical fire underneath people in regards to finding different ways to combat the overwhelming sense of boredom. Throughout the piece Brooklyn Riepma highlights creative ways that people of all ages are spending their time indoors, whether it be as a form of entertainment or interacting with those we usually spend time with. Some of the ways people have been passing the time that were mentioned include playing board games like Monopoly or Code Names, cooking and baking old and or new recipes, exercising, and taking part in hobbies like art, reading, or designing/creating clothes. I personally have taken it upon myself to busy myself by baking and cooking a lot, my brother’s girlfriend and I have made churros, crepes, stir fry and other recipes that I am normally too lazy to explore which has been a real treat (literally and figuratively). I also have been doing more at-home exercises like yoga, ab circuits and outdoor running with my brother and his girlfriend. Although I am not like Bob Helmer and his family who organized an at-home 5K, I am still enjoying the opportunity to get outside without putting myself or others at risk. There has also been a lot of involvement from celebrities and influencers when it comes to posting performances and guided workouts which I plan to explore.

In order to engage in some of these activities, or at least to do them in the company of others, we have turned to social media even more than before executive orders to stay indoors and avoid gatherings or activities that are deemed “nonessential”. Josh Constine’s article “Under Quarantine, Media is Actually Social,” touches upon the ways that social media has become redefined in a time of quarantine and how people modify their use and understanding of social media. Constine talks specifically about how different apps and online platforms/services are seeing notable increases in engagement and popularity, for instance Zoom, Google Hangout, Discord and Houseparty have become ranked in the top five of downloads recently. I for one have been using Discord for a fair amount of time, and before that I would use Skype to talk to friends and to play games with them, so this is less of an adjustment for me in that sense but it still is nothing compared to in-person interaction. I partially agree with Constine in regards to his point about how social media sites are kind of locked in this “stand-still” where people are stuck in the present and there is nothing really for them to post besides memes and content relative to their lives under quarantine. But I do not believe that this is entirely true, because in my experience people post images that were taken previously and put a witty caption about how they would rather be back in Europe for their exchange program or beach vacation rather than being stuck in quarantine. In this case people are still using social media as a means to make their lives seem more interesting than they actually are and effectively not connecting on any kind of meaningful level.

Throughout the article “Iceland’s Big Bitcoin Heist,” I learned a lot about the process of Bitcoin mining and the ways in which Iceland is a highly optimal location for mining facilities. I did not really understand what Bitcoin was until reading this article, I didn’t realize that these machines are functioning all hours of the day to mine and they are essentially making incredible sums of money with little if any human involvement. I also learned that Iceland in particular has a very small crime rate which contributed to the lack of security measures for the warehouse of mining machinery and ultimately its vulnerability. I did not realize how profitable Bitcoin mining can really be, and I now know that there was a huge burglary scheme that was only worth $500,000 upfront with the technology but was estimated to be worth up to $12 million because of the machines’ ability to generate money on its own. This has helped reshape my view of digital media in relation to society because it has forced me to consider how different forms of media can cause people to engage in illegal activities due to their ability to create revenue. Iceland is a low crime country and if this technology did not exist this extensive crime could not have happened and the “Mr. X” scheme would not be a thing. This also shows me that people can get away with crimes easier through digital media because of the inability to track the virtual currency, even though the group of thieves were discovered there are many cases of virtual theft where perpetrators get away. This has made me even more weary of different forms/uses of media because even when we think it can only have benefits there are ways in which they can be exploited and abused.