That one Time Vitalik and Co. Launched a “Better Crypto Journal” and Abandoned it after a Week

January 3, 2009. Bitcoin is born. Cypherpunks rejoice. January 3, 2020. Nakamoto is born. Cypherpunks rejoice.

At the start of this year, Nakamoto.com, a “general interest journal” pertaining to blockchain and crypto went live. It’s backers included an impressive line-up, including Ethereum creator Vitalik “Watching Child Porn is okay” Buterin and renowned libertarian Jameson “Freedom-of-Speech isn’t important when it’s used against me” Lopp.

Naturally, crypto nerds across the spectrum jumped at an opportunity to argue about something different. Many argued that Nakamoto carved a dangerous pathway towards imposing some “norm” with regards to the crypto thinkspace (if that’s even a thing). The advisory, spearheaded by Ethereum and ZCashers, implied an anti-Bitcoin and anti-Monero spin. The 14-man-strong BSV community also objected that the journal was anti-Craig Wright, but nobody else seemed to care about that.

Regardless, the space does desparately lack authentic journalism. If we’re keeping tally, Bitcoin is the Devil dot com is the gold standard for honest reporting. If an advisory of crypto-rich is a viable replacement to the perpetually-scheming-to-make-rent journalists and editors across that represent news sites throughout the niche, then so be it. For the first two days, the project seemed healthy and carrying a lot of potential. Vitalik, Zooko, and others engaged in dialogue on the Nakamoto Telegram, and a number of writers and experts began working on articles in hopes of making the first round of contributions. Eveb CZ of Binance shared encouraging remarks, and as the old saying goes, “Good enough for CZ, good enough for me.”

Day 3: The Fall

On January 5th, the Telegram channel was converted to read-only mode. Miraculously, this all-star line-up of industry veterans and thought leaders didn’t think to hire some sort of community moderator before D-Day. Actually, there was no moderation policy or protocol in place, whatsoever. At this point, I had already established communication with the Editor-in-Chief, as I was one of the suckers that went head-first crafting content to become a founding contributor. Alas, I had a bit of insight as to the state of operations over at Nakamoto.

Day 5: The Demise

By January 7th, communication had reached a stand-still, both through my one-on-one communications as well as externally through official Nakamoto channels. But at the time, this wasn’t made clear. After all, how could a project with so much thought and preparation put into it be abandoned so fast? At this point my article for contribution was complete, and I was pestering the editor repeatedly to publish my shit.

Day 8: The Day the World Stood Still

January 10th marks the last day anything was heard from the Nakamoto project. “Introduction to Cryptocurrency”, a really not-great beginner’s guide that one would have thought would act as the framework for a myriad of how-tos and tutorials to follow. But neigh, this was the last post or word anyone has heard from Nakamoto. Rest in peace, sweet prince (01-03-2020 – 01-10-2020).

IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING the article I wrote didn’t go to waste. I submitted it for guest contribution and had it published. There were rumors that Nakamoto was going to reboot in February, but when that didn’t happen, I took my work elsewhere. You can read it here if you like.

Day 84: A Second Pulse?

Okay, I lied. There was word since January 10th. Sorry for the sensationalist bullshit. On March 26th, Vitalik himself descended from his throne to grace the chat with a doge cartoon. No I’m not joking. See for yourself:

If you don’t believe me join the Telegram channel yourself.

Enjoying the Bitcoin is the Devil, the Reallyest Realest News in Crypto? Stay up-to-date and join the discussion on Telegram (telegram also includes my free trading signals that you can counter trade for great profit). If you’re reading this far you should also know that very soon NEET, the tokenized depression standard, will go live and be airdropped to depression junkies across the space. Telegram subscribers get first dibs and the largest airdrop, so you’ll want to stick around for that. Catch every shorthand meme on Twitter

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