What was the impressive and profitable part? The article makes him sound like a script kiddie who dicked around with some DDoS networks and formed a couple LLCs but didn't end up accomplishing much (either entrepreneurially or illegally). Not saying that makes him a terrible person, but in generation ago terms, he sounds less like a founding l0pht member and more like a Rusty n Edie's subscriber.
He's got enough hustle to get funded by a16z to build yet another blockchain scam if he so chose. You better believe he's siphoning your government records to use for his own purposes later. Ask for forgiveness, not for permission, as they say; but with this government, you don't even need to ask for forgiveness.
In context, I read that as describing the future he could have had in brighter terms to increase the contrast with the following description of the future he probably has. Like, being generous because it doesn't matter now anyway.
I do not find it impressive. It is not difficult technically. The reason others do not do this is that they have ethical and moral limitations, they wont DDoS networks because they are aware of harm. Maybe we should stop treating people who cause intentional harm as superior.
Not opening LLCs you do not know what to do with is also more of "good impulse control" sign.
Well, becoming a titan in tech industry hasn't required doing any difficult tech since... idk, at least the 1990s. Tech is just business now, and being a business titan requires a different particular set of skills, skills this guy apparently has.
He is not titan in tech industry nor on the path there. Your typical script kiddy does not become tech titan. What it takes to be tech titan is actually irrelevant to whether DDoS is impressive.
> being a business titan requires a different particular set of skills, skills this guy apparently has.
Just about the only thing he has is lack of ethics and morals. Lack of care for harm he causes. Yes, those are necessary to be a tech titan, but not nearly sufficient.
There are many low level guys without much ethics that never ever become tech titans.
You have a point. Way back when digital presence was still something new, I remember entertaining the idea of running an org that would fake reviews on Amazon and other spaces, but I dropped the idea, because it seemed unethical. I will never know what could have been, but I also know there were people who followed that path.
To your point, as a society, we have an actual filter for people like that, but that filter was not been uniformly applied.
