How a Bitcoin Evangelist Made Himself Vanish

Nathaniel Popper, writing for the New York Times, explains the extreme steps Jameson Lopp took to hide his personal information. An interesting piece, it reminded me of a great article Evan Ratlif wrote for Wired in 2009 titled Gone Forever: What Does It Take to Really Disappear?. I also rediscovered the interview with Matt Sheppard that Evan mentioned at the end of his article, as well as his follow-up piece where he attempted to disappear and offered a $5,000 bounty for his sighting. These articles sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole, into the world of faked deaths and mysterious disappearances. Some of the best pieces I found: Here’s the Best Way to Fake Your Death, by Mack Lamoureux on Vice; How I faked my own death, by Dean Balsimini on the New York Post; and The hardest part about faking your own death is staying dead by Paige Nick on The New York Times Live. With Gerald Cotten’s sudden disappearance, we may have a recent example of this happening again. Trista Kelley has a good writeup over at Business Insider. I find all of this fascinating.