New film ‘Code is Law’ explores moral quandary behind crypto hacks

James Craig and Louis Giles’ new film “Code Is Law” examines infamous crypto hacks and the moral reckoning used by the perpetrators.

“A world where ‘the market’ runs free and the ‘evil’ of government is defeated would be, for them, a world of perfect freedom.” — Lawrence Lessig, Code: Version 2.0

Recently, I got the chance to watch a preview of James Craig’s upcoming documentary “Code is Law.” The film, which debuts on Oct. 21 on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube Movies, tells two distinct but related stories of crypto hacks: the people involved and the ethos of the perpetrators.

Its position is clear, but the question deserves a deeper investigation. If code is not law, should it be?

After the 2014 Mt. Gox hack, the first hack explored in “Code is Law,”the DAO hackis probably the most famous in crypto’s history. The DAO was the first decentralized autonomous organization, becoming an eponym in the process. In 2016, when Ethereum was still young, it was one of the first decentralized applications to gain traction.

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