Since ETH started trading on Poloniex in 2015 I’ve recruited several new etherlings to join the cause. Most are forever grateful — they started buying in at around a dollar. My more recent recruits are not so happy. Let’s just say I feel obliged to buy them drinks whenever we go out. My friends and associates who’ve been on the fence are greater in number than those who took the plunge, so ever since the DAO debacle I’ve fielded my share of, “See! Knew it was a scam! Knew it wouldn’t work! So glad I didn’t buy Ether!”



Amidst all the “I told you so’s” what critics don’t realize is that the Ethereum community has already performed better than any legacy regulatory or enforcement agency could ever hope to under similar circumstances. How? The sheer fact that the heisted DAO funds were immediately traceable and measures were in place to both freeze and retrieve those funds is an accomplishment to be lauded. A regulatory or enforcement agency would need to monitor the entire centralized legacy world in real-time with the ability to detect fraud in order to match Ethereum’s detection of the heisted funds. The legacy banking system’s siloed and obfuscated infrastructure makes this virtually impossible. When corporate fraud, theft and impropriety do occur in the legacy world, more often than not the money is untraceable or spent by the time the authorities find out.

