Ransom and Legal Tender: Bitcoin's Diverging Paths on the Global Stage
This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson address two recent and opposing news pieces: the ransomware attacks and El Salvador’s decision to introduce bitcoin as legal tender. The question remains: will these ransomware attacks be the trojan horse for tight regulation, or will reasonable measures be introduced that could be beneficial for crypto in the long run?
Jun 12, 2021
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ABOUT
This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson dig deep into two of the biggest storylines in crypto: the proliferation of ransomware (and what crypto’s got to do with it) and El Salvador’s upstart bid to become a global bitcoin capital.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Just over a month after ransomware group DarkSide held gas company Colonial Pipeline hostage for $4.4 million in bitcoin, there’s been a major development. The feds say they’ve gotten most of the payment back – an almost unheard of feat, and one shrouded in mystery.
How did they pull it off? The gang runs through some of the most popular theories, from FBI honeypot mixing services to good old police work. Then, they hash out what it might take to pull off the perfect crypto crime.
Even as the U.S. is moving to (possibly) crack down on bitcoin, another nation, El Salvador, is racing to embrace it. President Nayib Bukele closed out Miami’s crazed bitcoin conference with the blockbuster news that he’d make bitcoin legal tender. It's being framed as a means to give El Salvador’s majority unbanked population access to financial services – but is that really the case?
Ben, Anna and Danny discuss these and other topics, plus an update on where the ESG movement stands.
Ben Schiller’s Twitter handle is: @btschiller
Anna: @baidakova
Danny: @realDannyNelson
Image credit: metamorworks /iStock/Getty Images Plus/ modified by Coindesk
HOSTS
Dan Ilett
Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.
Anna Baydakova
Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.
Danny Nelson
Danny was CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.
Benjamin Schiller
Ben Schiller is a senior adviser at Miden, a privacy-focused blockchain. He was a CoinDesk managing editor from 2019 to 2025, and, before that, a staff writer at Fast Company.
Danny Bradbury
Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.
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