Nigeria, Nov. 3 -- Most computer whizzes and hacktivists are not as interesting as they make themselves out to be. Before they decided to make money and abandon any pretext to a sound philosophy about civic duty, they at least had the merit of being a useful counterpoint to state secrecy and paranoid officialdom. The focus now is on cash, exchange and systems of faux funny money, with the vultures of government also seeking their spoils. And where there is money, whatever form it takes, there will be robbers, ever watchful over the next heist.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange boasting over 300 million globally registered users, has found itself in a huge spot of bother with a hack worth US$6.3 billion that took place...