Jack Laurence

So I said, yeah, okay, no problem.

That would be very interesting.

However, before he ups and grabs his passport and toothbrush to jet off to North Korea, he actually decided that he should probably check to make sure this isn't going to get him in any sort of trouble.

Kind of ironic, really.

So what I did then is I thought, right, well, I'm not entirely dumb.

So I thought, right, I'll message the British embassy and say, hey,

planning to come to this conference.

What's your take on it?

And they said, look, we don't recommend you coming to North Korea, but there's nothing illegal about you doing it.

So I was like, okay, fine.

Obviously, looking back, hindsight's a wonderful thing, right?

Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do, but off we went.

Anyway, so 2019, hopped on a plane to China.

It was April, I believe.

Got my visa at the North Korean embassy in Beijing.

and then sort of met this random group of people that had been assembled that wanted to attend.

One of the people is now obviously someone who at the time was obviously quite famous in the crypto world, but is now globally infamous, a man called Virgil Griffith.

Virgil Griffith, unlike Chris, is a bit of a computer genius, having studied cognitive science at university and graduating with honours.

Looking at his background, he's certainly had a colourful past in the world of tech, but he's mostly known for his work with the cryptocurrency Ethereum.

Virgil had actually done something similar to Chris prior to leaving the United States.