Thread by @smdiehl

The question the ACM can't ask in this article is the obvious one. Ransomware wasn't a threat until bitcoin, when you create an anonymous network to transfer money to strangers sight unseen ... of course criminals will exploit that. That's it's purpose.

cacm.acm.org/news/251337-th…

If you go to a bank and try to wire ransom money to a hacker in Siberia, they won't let you. That's a feature. It's an unprofitable enterprise for the criminals and they then don't bother.

Making ransoms unpayable stymies crime.

Ransomware is going to be an absolute plague on Western economies for the next decade. Like the point where it starts effecting GDP.

Enterprise software is creaking around the corners and this is going to an *absurdly* profitable enterprise for hacking groups.

Yes, a bunch of a people want their dopamine hit gambling on cryptocoins. Is that worth writing down 2-3% of every Fortune 500 company's corporate balance sheet to hackers every quarter just to let the gamblers get their hit.

We all bear the cost of bitcoin's ugly externalities.

If I seem salty about this, it's because I am. Maybe we the UK taxpayers doesn't like paying £92 million to recover from pointless hacks. And I forsee this happening over and over again, until we do something about cryptocurrency insanity.

theguardian.com/society/2017/m…