We ended on a cliffhanger last week, with the infamous DAO hack having hit Ethereum and its community hard. So, how did they deal with it and what did it all mean for Ethereum?

With millions of dollars worth of ETH having been stolen by a hacker who had spotted a flaw in the DAO’s smart contract, Ethereum’s developers and community were faced with some tough decisions. Do nothing, or take action? And if so, what sort of action to take? And what would the implications of their possible actions be? Could Ethereum survive this? We’ll see how the whole saga proved to be one of the most dangerous - and important - episodes in Ethereum’s history.

As we saw with Bitcoin, a successful cryptocurrency project arguably needs to endure more than a little hardship in order to prove itself. The DAO hack - and subsequent attacks on the network - proved to be the trials by fire that Ethereum needed to undergo in order to show that it was robust enough to survive.

Happily, Ethereum managed to do just that and, once it had, better and more prosperous days lay ahead. In 2017 the ICO boom began and Ethereum found itself at the centre of a frenzy of investment and excitement as crypto began to go crazy. The potential that Ethereum had long promised was finally unleashed. 

For more information and especially more detailed descriptions of what went down during the DAO episode, check out those two excellent books on Ethereum we mention in the episode:

The Infinite Machine (2020) by Camila Russo 

The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze (2022) by Laura Shin

*NB - this episode contains strong language. Blame Mike for that.*

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeart Media: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult