Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

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What's going on, guys? It is Sunday, May 23rd, and that means it's time for long read Sunday. Today we've got a fun one.

It's actually a two-parter. The first essay I'll be reading is from new CoinDesk permac columnist

and former fortune writer David Z.

Morris. It's about the colonial pipeline hack and what something like that would mean in the

context of a completely digital U.S. money infrastructure. The second is from former Libra executive

Dante Desparte, who's now at Circle, and it is about why the U.S. shouldn't emulate the Chinese

model of central bank

digital currencies. Let's start with David Morris' What if somebody hacks the money pipeline next?

The Colonial Pipeline saga illustrates what may be a vulnerability with digital currency

issued by central banks. A revealing new detail has emerged in the saga of the colonial

pipeline. The key gasoline distribution link was shut down for six days following a hack, causing

gas shortages across the southeast United States. According to a CNN report, though, the main

target of the hack wasn't pumps or switching stations or other physical pipeline infrastructure.

Instead, the hackers went after the money. Quote, the company halted operations because its billing

system was compromised, sources told CNN. The pipeline's operators, quote, were concerned they

wouldn't be able to figure out how much to bill customers for the fuel they received.

The colonial shutdown is just the latest in a drumbeat of examples of the rising

threat of cyber attacks. Ransomware attacks are rapidly approaching crisis levels,

while cyber espionage between nations also continued to accelerate. Most recently, the reportedly

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