Newsletter Get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box every day. Submit Privacy Policy Sign in Shop News Books & Culture Fiction & Poetry Humor & Cartoons Magazine Crossword Video Podcasts Archive Festival Subscribe Subscribe Daily Shouts By Tom O’Donnell March 31, 2014 I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief. “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.” “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?” “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.” The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulatio...