Benny B

I am the former Director of the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative. In 2015, the Bitcoin Foundation went bankrupt. The developers who maintained Bitcoin's code needed to be paid. Someone had to step in. Jeffrey Epstein stepped in. Through me. He donated $525,000 to my initiative. I used the money to hire the core developers. Gavin Andresen. Wladimir van der Laan. Cory Fields. The people who write Bitcoin's code. I emailed Jeffrey to thank him. "This is a big win for us," I said. "Used gift funds to underwrite this which allowed us to move quickly and win this round. Thanks." That was 2015. Jeffrey had been convicted in 2008. Of procuring a child for prostitution. Everyone knew. We took the money anyway. At the time, Bitcoin had 12,000 code commits. Today it has 47,583. That means 75% of Bitcoin's code was written after Jeffrey became our benefactor. Someone asked if this was a problem. I said: "We moved quickly." Moving quickly was important. Ethics reviews are slow. When the Bitcoin Foundation collapsed, many organizations tried to "take control" of the developers. We won. With Jeffrey's money. Jeffrey was fascinated by Bitcoin. He wanted to meet the developers. In 2011, he emailed Gavin Andresen directly. "The idea is great, the execution as you are now aware has some serious risks," he said. He wanted to discuss the risks. In person. At Harvard. Gavin said no. He was busy. Jeffrey emailed Amir Taaki. "The Bitcoin idea is brilliant, but I suggest it has some serious downsides. Please call my NY office." He wanted to discuss the downsides. The downsides were not specified. In 2015, I suggested Jeffrey meet with Adam Back. Adam Back invented proof-of-work. The algorithm cited in Satoshi Nakamoto's original whitepaper. Adam and his Blockstream co-founder tried to schedule a trip to St. Thomas. To meet Jeffrey. St. Thomas is six miles from Little Saint James. Jeffrey's island. "Great," Jeffrey replied. "You will need to fly to st thomas. just let me know times. looking foward to it." He was looking forward to it. Jeremy Rubin reached out to Jeffrey in 2015. "I was wondering if you would be interested in financing my continued research," he said. "I'd also love to learn more from you about how financial markets really work and build some of my own 'exploits.'" Exploits. Jeffrey offered him options. "One, you can merely work for me, salary. Two, start a company, hire others, I make an investment. Three, do research. I can easily pay your tuition." Very generous. By 2018, Jeremy was pitching Jeffrey on crypto investments. Including Layer 1, a Bitcoin mining firm. Jeffrey was cautious. "I am more than happy to fund things but as I am high profile, it can't be questionable ethics," he said. "Their deal is to pump the currency, it is dangerous." He was concerned about questionable ethics. In 2016, Jeffrey claimed he had spoken directly with Bitcoin's creators. Plural. He wanted to build a Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency. He said he had connections. Someone asked this week if Jeffrey was Satoshi Nakamoto. A viral email claimed he was. The email was fake. But the funding was real. The meetings were real. The conversations were real. The 75% of Bitcoin's code written after his involvement is real. A crypto investor said it best. "We've basically funded an elite global pedophile ring since 2015. I feel sick." He's not wrong. Every Bitcoin transaction since 2015 has indirectly supported the infrastructure Jeffrey helped build. The infrastructure I helped him build. With his money. After his conviction. I resigned from MIT in 2019. After the story came out. After Jeffrey died. After it was too late. Someone asked why we took money from a convicted sex offender. I said we moved quickly. We won that round. Anyway, this is a big win for decentralization!