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1.84 MB
Extraction Summary
6
People
3
Organizations
1
Locations
2
Events
4
Relationships
4
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Email chain
File Size:
1.84 MB
Summary
This document is an April 2015 email from Jeffrey Epstein to MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito. Ito informs Epstein that 'gift funds,' implicitly from Epstein, were used to hire key Bitcoin core developers (including Gavin Andresen) for the Lab's new Digital Currency Initiative. This move was made possible by the recent collapse of the developers' previous sponsor, the Bitcoin Foundation, representing a 'big win' for the MIT Media Lab.
People (6)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| jeffrey E. | Sender |
Sender of the top-level email from jeevacation@gmail.com, presumed to be Jeffrey Epstein. He is responding to an upda...
|
| Joichi Ito | Recipient / Forwarder |
Director of the MIT Media Lab. He received the email from Jeffrey E. and had previously sent an email updating Jeffre...
|
| Gavin Andresen | Bitcoin Chief Scientist |
Mentioned as 'gavin' in the top-level email. He is the Chief Scientist for the Bitcoin core development team and one ...
|
| Wladimir van der Laan | Bitcoin Lead Developer |
One of the five core Bitcoin developers, referred to as the lead developer. He moved to the MIT Media Lab's Digital C...
|
| Cory Fields | Bitcoin Core Developer |
An important contributing developer for Bitcoin who moved to the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative.
|
| Linus Torvalds | Creator of Linux |
Mentioned as an analogy to describe the role and importance of the five core Bitcoin developers.
|
Organizations (3)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| MIT Media Lab |
The institution that launched the Digital Currency Initiative and hired three core Bitcoin developers after the colla...
|
|
| Bitcoin Foundation |
A non-profit organization that previously funded the Bitcoin core developers. It is described as having "blew up" and...
|
|
| WSJ (Wall Street Journal) |
A WSJ Blog ('moneybeat') is cited as reporting on the MIT Media Lab becoming the new home for the Bitcoin developers.
|
Timeline (2 events)
A few weeks before 2015-04-25
The Bitcoin Foundation, which had been paying the core developers, effectively collapsed after a board member declared it 'bankrupt'.
c. April 2015
The MIT Media Lab hired core Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen, Wladimir van der Laan, and Cory Fields to launch its Digital Currency Initiative.
MIT Media Lab
Locations (1)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
The new institutional home for the Bitcoin developers' Digital Currency Initiative.
|
Relationships (4)
Joichi Ito's email to Jeffrey E. states, 'Used gift funds to underwrite this... Thanks,' indicating Epstein provided funding to Ito's initiative at the MIT Media Lab.
Ito, representing the MIT Media Lab, hired Andresen for the Digital Currency Initiative.
Ito, representing the MIT Media Lab, hired van der Laan for the Digital Currency Initiative.
Ito, representing the MIT Media Lab, hired Fields for the Digital Currency Initiative.
Key Quotes (4)
"gavin is clever\"Source
— jeffrey E.
(Reply from Jeffrey E. to Joichi Ito, likely referring to Gavin Andresen.)
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Quote #1
"Used gift funds to underwrite this which allowed us to move quickly and win this round. Thanks."Source
— Joichi Ito
(Email from Joichi Ito to Jeffrey E., thanking him for funds that enabled the hiring of Bitcoin developers.)
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Quote #2
"This is a big win for us."Source
— Joi Ito
(In a forwarded email, describing the successful recruitment of the three Bitcoin developers to the MIT Media Lab.)
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Quote #3
"It's official, more or less: MIT's famed Media Lab has become the principal home and funding source for the small team of developers responsible for maintaining and improving bitcoin's core software."Source
— WSJ Blog
(A quote from a Wall Street Journal blog post about the event.)
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Quote #4
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (2,370 characters)
From: jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]
Sent: 4/25/2015 5:06:32 PM
To: Joichi Ito
Subject: Re: Digital Currency Initiative
Sent: 4/25/2015 5:06:32 PM
To: Joichi Ito
Subject: Re: Digital Currency Initiative
gavin is clever\
On Sat, Apr 25, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Joichi Ito [REDACTED] wrote:
FYI
FYI
Used gift funds to underwrite this which allowed us to move quickly and win this round. Thanks.
- Joi
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Joi Ito [REDACTED]
> Subject: Digital Currency Initiative
> Date: April 25, 2015 at 10:25:09 AM EDT
> To: [REDACTED]
>
> As Bitcoin and Digital Currencies have started to become an important trend, the Media Lab has launched an initiative in the space.
>
> I wrote a blog post on why I think Blockchain/Bitcoin are like the Internet:
http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2015/01/23/why-bitcoin-is-.html
>
> The way that Bitcoin is organized currently is that there are five core developers and around a hundred contributors to the core code. The five core developers are like Linus Torvalds of Linux. They decide what changes are made to the core code. One of the five is the lead developer, Wladimir, and one is the Chief Scientist, Gavin.
>
> Gavin, Wladimir and Cory (an important contributing developer) were being paid out of a non-profit organization called the Bitcoin Foundation. A few weeks ago, it "blew up" when one of the board members declared the foundation "bankrupt". ( https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/index.php?/topic/1284-the-truth-about-the-bitcoin-foundation/ ) Many organizations scrambled to step into the vacuum created by the foundation and "take control" of the developers. We moved quickly talking to all of the various stakeholders and the three developers decided to join the Media Lab. This is a big win for us.
>
> According to the WSJ Blog:
>
> http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/04/24/bitbeat-tackling-bitcoin-price-swings-with-eye-on-emerging-markets/
>
>> It's official, more or less: MIT's famed Media Lab has become the principal home and funding source for the small team of developers responsible for maintaining and improving bitcoin's core software.
>>
>> Gavin Andresen, who bears the title of Chief Scientist for the six-person core development team, announced on his blog Wednesday that he and two other core developers, Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Fields, had moved to the MIT Media Lab's new Digital Currency Initiative, ending their previous status as
>
> From: Joi Ito [REDACTED]
> Subject: Digital Currency Initiative
> Date: April 25, 2015 at 10:25:09 AM EDT
> To: [REDACTED]
>
> As Bitcoin and Digital Currencies have started to become an important trend, the Media Lab has launched an initiative in the space.
>
> I wrote a blog post on why I think Blockchain/Bitcoin are like the Internet:
http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2015/01/23/why-bitcoin-is-.html
>
> The way that Bitcoin is organized currently is that there are five core developers and around a hundred contributors to the core code. The five core developers are like Linus Torvalds of Linux. They decide what changes are made to the core code. One of the five is the lead developer, Wladimir, and one is the Chief Scientist, Gavin.
>
> Gavin, Wladimir and Cory (an important contributing developer) were being paid out of a non-profit organization called the Bitcoin Foundation. A few weeks ago, it "blew up" when one of the board members declared the foundation "bankrupt". ( https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/index.php?/topic/1284-the-truth-about-the-bitcoin-foundation/ ) Many organizations scrambled to step into the vacuum created by the foundation and "take control" of the developers. We moved quickly talking to all of the various stakeholders and the three developers decided to join the Media Lab. This is a big win for us.
>
> According to the WSJ Blog:
>
> http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/04/24/bitbeat-tackling-bitcoin-price-swings-with-eye-on-emerging-markets/
>
>> It's official, more or less: MIT's famed Media Lab has become the principal home and funding source for the small team of developers responsible for maintaining and improving bitcoin's core software.
>>
>> Gavin Andresen, who bears the title of Chief Scientist for the six-person core development team, announced on his blog Wednesday that he and two other core developers, Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Fields, had moved to the MIT Media Lab's new Digital Currency Initiative, ending their previous status as
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026360
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