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On November 6, 2024, Dean Skurka, the president and CEO of the Canadian cryptocurrency firm WonderFi, was abducted in downtown Toronto. The incident occurred just before 6:00 p.m. near the intersection of University Avenue and Richmond Street West, an area busy with commuters during the evening rush hour.

Skurka was forced into a vehicle by unknown suspects and held for several hours. He was eventually released unharmed in Centennial Park, located in Etobicoke, after a ransom was paid. The payment, totaling $1 million CAD, was made electronically. Reports indicated that because Skurka was unable to complete the transfer himself while being held, a family member assisted in sending the funds to the abductors.

Following the event, WonderFi confirmed that Skurka was safe and that the incident had no impact on client data or company funds. However, the financial impact on the corporation became public months later through regulatory filings. The company revealed it had spent approximately $3.6 million CAD in the fourth quarter of 2024 related to the incident. This total covered both the $1 million ransom payment and significant costs for subsequent security upgrades.

The security measures included hiring dedicated personnel and enhancing physical and digital protection protocols for the company’s executives. This response highlighted a growing trend in the cryptocurrency industry, where high-profile figures are increasingly targeted for physical extortion. Security experts noted that such attacks often correlate with rises in the market value of digital assets, making individuals with perceived access to large amounts of cryptocurrency more visible targets for organized crime.

The Toronto Police Service continues to investigate the kidnapping, and the incident remains one of several high-profile cases involving the targeting of cryptocurrency investors and executives in Canada.

Davinci Jeremie worked as a software developer and systems designer for over 16 years, building financial systems and APIs using various programming languages. During this time, he also studied macroeconomics, researching inflation and traditional banking systems. He attempted to develop his own digital currency but was unable to solve the "double spend" problem, which is the technical challenge of preventing a user from spending the same digital token more than once.

In March 2011, a colleague sent Jeremie the Bitcoin white paper. Given his background in software development, he analyzed the source code and realized that the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, had successfully solved the double spend issue. Jeremie concluded that Bitcoin functioned as a digital version of gold and began purchasing the asset when it was priced between $0.67 and $1.00. He also began mining and managing server-side pools during this period.

Jeremie began sharing his findings on YouTube, originally focusing on gold and silver before transitioning to cryptocurrency. In 2013, he posted a video urging his audience to buy at least one dollar's worth of Bitcoin. This video eventually went viral, accumulating millions of views as the price of Bitcoin rose significantly over the following decade.

Jeremie eventually moved into the business side of the industry, serving as the CEO of the fintech firm Davinci Codes and founding Pandora’s Wallet, a platform designed to connect with various cryptocurrency exchanges. Now based in Dubai, he continues to provide market education to a large audience of subscribers. He views the shift toward Bitcoin as a way for individuals to store wealth in a portable, divisible asset that operates independently of traditional central banking systems.

In 2003, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were students at Harvard University working on a social networking site called ConnectU. After their original programmer left the project, they hired a fellow student, Mark Zuckerberg, to help finish the coding.

Zuckerberg spent several months delaying his work on ConnectU. During this time, he developed and launched a separate site called TheFacebook.com in early 2004. The Winklevoss twins eventually launched ConnectU later that year, but the platform struggled to gain users while Facebook grew rapidly.

The twins filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and Facebook, alleging that he had stolen their idea and used their source code to build his own site. The legal dispute lasted for years. In 2008, both parties reached a settlement valued at $65 million. The deal consisted of $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock. By the time Facebook went public in 2012, the value of that stock had increased to several hundred million dollars.

That same year, while on vacation in Ibiza, the twins were introduced to Bitcoin. They spent several months researching the technology and its potential as a digital currency. In 2013, they used $11 million of their settlement money to purchase roughly 1% of all Bitcoin in existence at the time. The price per Bitcoin was approximately $120.

Over the following years, they shifted more of their wealth from Facebook stock into the cryptocurrency market. In 2014, they founded Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange. By 2021, the company reached a peak valuation of $7.1 billion, and it remains a major platform in the industry today.

As the price of Bitcoin rose to new highs in 2024, the initial $11 million investment made the brothers some of the first publicly known Bitcoin billionaires. This transition from social media pioneers to digital asset investors changed their financial trajectory from the early days of the Facebook lawsuit.

After serving a four-month prison sentence in 2024, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, shifted his focus away from the daily operations of the cryptocurrency exchange. Instead of returning to the trading floor, he launched Giggle Academy, a free online education platform designed to provide basic schooling to children around the world through a gamified interface.

The platform was built to look and feel like a video game, where users earned digital badges and points for completing lessons in subjects like phonics and basic arithmetic. While the project was marketed as a philanthropic effort for underprivileged children, the underlying technology became a major point of interest for the broader crypto community in 2025.

Users discovered that the rewards earned for completing these kindergarten-level lessons were soulbound tokens minted on the BNB Chain. Unlike standard cryptocurrencies, soulbound tokens are permanent digital assets that cannot be sold or transferred to another person. They serve as a non-transferable record of achievement or identity on the blockchain.

Despite the fact that these tokens had no immediate market value, rumors began to circulate online that the tokens might eventually qualify holders for a future financial reward or a "governance airdrop." This speculation led to a massive surge in traffic that the platform was not originally intended for. By mid-2025, millions of adults were spending hours every day playing simple math games and tracing letters of the alphabet on their screens.

This trend highlighted a shift in how blockchain technology can inadvertently influence user behavior. While CZ maintained that the goal was strictly educational, the potential for future financial gain turned a primary school learning tool into a competitive global activity for adult speculators.

Between 2017 and 2018, a specific subculture known as "Bitcoin Carnivores" emerged within the cryptocurrency community. This group consisted primarily of Bitcoin maximalists who argued that the same principles of discipline and "soundness" applied to both finance and personal health.

Prominent figures in the space, such as Michael Goldstein and Saifedean Ammous, began promoting the idea that fiat currency functioned as a "poison" to the global economy by encouraging debt and inflation. They drew a direct parallel to the modern diet, claiming that processed foods, seed oils, and carbohydrates were biological equivalents to fiat money, unnatural and harmful to the human body over time.

Members of this movement adopted a strict "zero-carb" or carnivore diet, consisting almost exclusively of red meat and water. The logic was rooted in a desire for total self-sovereignty; just as Bitcoin allowed them to opt-out of the traditional banking system, the carnivore diet was viewed as a way to opt-out of the industrial food system.

This lifestyle choice became a badge of identity among hardcore Bitcoiners. It was common for participants to post photos of large steaks on social media while discussing block size limits or monetary policy. They believed that by eliminating "inflationary" foods from their diet, they could achieve better mental clarity and long-term health, mirroring the long-term "HODL" investment strategy they applied to their Bitcoin holdings.

While the peak of the trend was most visible during the 2017-2018 market cycle, the connection between Bitcoin and the carnivore diet persists. It established a lasting stereotype of the "hardcore Bitcoiner" as someone who applies a minimalist, skeptical approach to both their bank account and their dinner plate.

The crypto 2018 crash was one of the biggest in history and the South Korean ban was one of the reasons behind the market collapse. In January 2018, South Korea’s Justice Minister, Park Sang-ki, announced that the government was preparing a bill to shut down all local cryptocurrency exchanges. This news spread quickly because South Korea was one of the largest markets for digital assets at the time, and many people were trading at prices significantly higher than the rest of the world.

The announcement happened after months of rapid price increases where Bitcoin had nearly reached $20,000. When the South Korean government expressed its intent to ban trading to curb gambling-like behavior, investors panicked. People feared they would lose access to their funds or that other countries would follow South Korea’s lead. This led to a massive sell-off as millions of traders tried to exit their positions at the same time.

Within days of the announcement, the total value of the global cryptocurrency market dropped by billions of dollars. While the South Korean government later clarified that a total ban was only one option being considered and not a finalized law, the initial shock had already changed the market's direction.

This event matters because it showed how much influence individual governments have over global digital markets. It ended the massive bull run of 2017 and marked the beginning of a long period of declining prices known as a "crypto winter." It also forced many countries to start creating clearer regulations for how digital currency should be handled.

In 2015, Ashley Madison (a site built specifically for people cheating on their partners) got hacked by a group calling themselves the Impact Team. they stole a massive amount of data: names, emails, home addresses, sexual preferences, payment records (everything).

the hackers said threatened AM, “shut the site down or we leak everything.” Ashley Madison didn’t comply.

so the hackers dumped millions of users’ private details onto the internet.

once the data was public, random criminals started digging through it. they searched for people with power, money, or reputations to protect; CEOs, politicians, pastors, military officers, executives.

then sent out emails. they’d message victims saying something like: “I know who you are. I know you’re on Ashley Madison. Pay me in bitcoin or I send this to your wife, your family, and your employer.” most blackmailers demanded around 1.0 btc (which was worth roughly $225–$250 at the time). bitcoin was used because it's harder to trace, so the extortionists felt safer taking payments that way.

a lot of people panicked. some paid. some didn’t.

many had their lives blown up anyway. alot of careers destroyed, marriages ended, public scandals everywhere, and tragically some people took their own lives because the shame and pressure became unbearable.

there were over 15,000 .gov and .mil email addresses in the leak. this created a massive national security panic because it made high-ranking officials "soft targets" for foreign intelligence agencies or local criminals.

one of the craziest parts was that many victims had actually paid Ashley Madison a fee (about $19) to have their data "completely deleted" months before the hack. but the company kept the data anyway, which is exactly what the hackers used to extort them.

the company eventually had to pay an $11.2 million settlement to victims of the breach, largely because they had lied about their security and the "Full Delete" feature.

On This Day: January 10th 2009

Hal Finney, a legendary cypherpunk, tweeted two simple words: "Running bitcoin". This is the first tweet about Bitcoin in history and signaled that he was the first person besides Satoshi to run the node software.

On this day: January 10th 2024

The SEC Approves Bitcoin ETFs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs (from BlackRock, Fidelity, etc.), legitimizing Bitcoin as an institutional asset class after a decade of rejections.

Airdrop farming is often minimum wage labor. By the time you factor in the gas fees, the hours spent grinding tasks, and the potential for the project to disqualify you (Sybil detection), the hourly rate for "free money" is frequently lower than a standard job.

WHAT IS DECENTRALIZED SCIENCE ?

Think of DeSci (Decentralized Science) as a way to fix how science works by using the same kind of technology that powers things like Bitcoin or digital collectibles.

Right now, science has a few "bosses" (big companies and governments) that decide what gets studied. DeSci wants to give that power back to the scientists and the public.

🍁 The Three Big Problems DeSci Fixes:

To understand DeSci, you have to look at what’s broken in "Normal Science" today:

1. The "Money" Problem
Currently, scientists spend about half their time writing long applications to ask for money (grants). If the "bosses" don't think an idea is popular, the scientist gets nothing.

Instead of one big boss, thousands of regular people can chip in a few dollars to fund a project they care about (like a cure for a rare disease).

2. The "Paywall" Problem
When a scientist discovers something cool, they publish it in a magazine. But these magazines often charge huge fees just to read them! This means many people can't learn from the latest research.

All research is put online for free so anyone in the world can read it and use it to build even cooler things.

3. The "Trust" Problem

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a scientist's data is 100% real because it's stored on their private computer.

Scientists put their data on a Blockchain (a digital record that nobody can erase or change). This makes it impossible to "cheat" or hide mistakes.

🍁 How It Actually Works: DAOs

The heart of DeSci is something called a Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

Here, it's like a global science club where:

1. Members: scientists and regular people) own special digital tokens.
2. Voting: Members use their tokens to vote on which experiments the club should do.
3. Ownership: If the club discovers a new medicine, the members actually own a piece of that discovery, rather than a giant pharmaceutical company owning it all.

In 2024–2025, this weird but fascinating platform called Pump.science popped up.

Their idea was instead of waiting years for pharma companies to fund anti-aging research, anyone can fund experiments directly using crypto, and watch the tests happen live.

A compound starts with worms. Costs about $500. If people believe in it and the token tied to it hits $70k, it moves to fruit flies. If hype and funding push it to $3 million, it goes to mouse testing. No boards or no long approvals, the market decides if the experiment levels up.

Real labs run everything, and they stream the organisms 24/7, so you’re literally watching survival rates in real time.

Recently, an old antibiotic called Rifampicin was tested on fruit flies and they lived about 30% longer. Once that data came out, people rushed in and the token linked to it $RIF exploded to around $500 million. Another compound, Urolithin A, which helps cells clean out damaged parts, also started gaining attention.

The tokens aren’t about owning the drug. They’re about owning the data. A longer-living fly doesn’t mean humans will live longer, but it’s enough to say, “okay, this one’s worth pushing further.”

That’s basically DeSci in action: faster experiments, public data, and the crowd deciding what science moves forward.

Trading crypto is simple: You just have to be right about the project, the narrative, the timing, the macro economy, and the liquidity. And then hope the founder doesn't rug you while you sleep. Easy.

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs stood on stage at the Macworld Convention in San Francisco to introduce a new product called the iPhone. At the time, mobile phones typically had physical keyboards and small screens, but the iPhone replaced these with a single multi-touch display. It combined three separate functions into one handheld device: a mobile phone, an iPod for music, and an internet communicator.

The development of the iPhone happened in secret under the project name "Purple." Apple engineers worked to create a device that could run a full version of a computer operating system, allowing it to handle complex web browsing and applications rather than the simplified versions of the internet used by other phones at the time. This shift changed how software was built and distributed, eventually leading to the creation of the App Store.

This event is significant because it fundamentally changed how people interact with technology and each other. By moving the internet from a desk to a pocket, it created the necessary infrastructure for modern digital life. This includes the development of mobile banking, digital wallets, and the constant connectivity required for mobile AI assistants and decentralized web technologies. Most of the digital tools used today for finance, communication, and work rely on the mobile-first world that began with this announcement.

Poverty makes you look for shortcuts. When you need money now, you stop looking for the best path and start looking for the fastest one.

That’s how you end up losing the little you have left.

Desperation is a magnet for bad decisions.

People think crypto is passive income until they realize they’ve spent 18 hours refreshing a chart, forgot to eat, and aged 5 years in a week, just to break even.

On January 8, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto released the first version of the Bitcoin software. The announcement was made on a mailing list for people interested in cryptography and software development.

Up until this point, Bitcoin existed only as a theoretical whitepaper that described how a digital currency could work without needing a bank or central authority. The release of Bitcoin v0.1 transformed that theory into a functional program that anyone could download onto their computer.

The software allowed users to connect to a network and begin generating digital coins through a process called mining. It also established the rules for how transactions would be recorded on a public ledger.

This release matters because it was the starting point for the modern cryptocurrency industry. By making the code available for free, Nakamoto allowed the network to begin operating independently of any single person or organization. Within days of this release, the first-ever Bitcoin transaction took place between Nakamoto and an early contributor named Hal Finney.

DID YOU KNOW: The First Man To Receive Bitcoin from Satoshi, Has His Body Frozen In Ice?

In 2014, Hal Finney, a prominent computer scientist and the first person to ever receive a Bitcoin transaction, was legally declared dead and subsequently cryopreserved. Finney was a lead developer at PGP Corporation and an early contributor to the Bitcoin code.

On August 28, 2014, Finney died in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 58 due to complications from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). Immediately after his legal death, a standby team from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation began a process called vitrification. This involved circulating chemicals through his body to replace water and prevent the formation of ice crystals, which can damage cells during freezing.

His body was then gradually cooled to -196°C. He remains stored in a large vacuum flask, known as a dewar, filled with liquid nitrogen at Alcor’s facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. Finney is recorded as the foundation’s 128th patient.

Finney was diagnosed with ALS in 2009, the same year he helped launch the Bitcoin network. As the disease progressed and he lost muscle control, he continued to write code using eye-tracking software.

He had been a member of Alcor for over 20 years prior to his death. His decision to pursue cryopreservation was based on his interest in transhumanism—the belief that technology can eventually evolve to solve human biological limitations. He hoped that future medical advancements would be able to cure ALS and repair the cellular damage associated with both the disease and the preservation process.

Finney’s case is notable because of his foundational role in digital currency. Some of the costs for his preservation were covered by Bitcoin donations from the cryptocurrency community.

Within the technology world, his preservation is often discussed as a practical application of his lifelong interest in the future. He remains in suspended animation today, maintained by the foundation until such time as medical technology might allow for his potential revival.