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A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

jpkoning.blogspot.com

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Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#21

Post by londons_explore »

An evildo-er wanting to hide bitcoins has many routes to do so:

* A Mixer

* gamble on one of many online casinos

* buy physical darknet goods with them

* Hack someones account on an exchange and use it.

* The above, but use the coins to 'pump-n-dump' a tiny altcoin. Be one of many 'investors' making money out of the change in altcoin price.

* Go margin trading with them, but make sure to loose them all in a margin call. Do it on a small altcoin so you can be on the other side of that margin call.

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#22

Post by lawn »

kzrdude wrote: post #17
lawn wrote: post #7

This is why Bitcoin's traceability is a problem for it's money status. If people are actively pursuing the stolen bitcoins, regardless of who's currently holding them, then Bitcoin's fungibility will break as some coins will be worth more than others. The only cryptocurrency that comes close to solving this is Monero, which isn't traceable. If the attackers were smart, this is what they would've done: Send them to Bi…

Why not z-cash?

Because, like with mixing services, ZCash shielded transactions are opt-in and can easily be detected. So exchanges could decide to ban coins with mixing in their history or require extensive KYC information.

Yes it's a little different from the problem described in the post, but it's another facet of the fungibility issue.

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#23

Post by ramraj07 »

If Bitcoin isn't granted money status, that would suck. We can't hold downstream buyers accountable for the money.

However, I still see this as a good thing; if the hackers did sell 96 Bitcoin to one single buyer, then we can now start a paper trail (or physical evidence) on what the single buyer gave them in return (paper money transfer?)

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#24

Post by derefr »

lawn wrote: post #7

This is why Bitcoin's traceability is a problem for it's money status. If people are actively pursuing the stolen bitcoins, regardless of who's currently holding them, then Bitcoin's fungibility will break as some coins will be worth more than others. The only cryptocurrency that comes close to solving this is Monero, which isn't traceable. If the attackers were smart, this is what they would've done: Send them to Bi…

Greenbacks seem to do fine despite the existence of marked bills.

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#25

Post by pjc50 »

FDSGSG wrote: post #11
lawn wrote: post #7

This is why Bitcoin's traceability is a problem for it's money status. If people are actively pursuing the stolen bitcoins, regardless of who's currently holding them, then Bitcoin's fungibility will break as some coins will be worth more than others. The only cryptocurrency that comes close to solving this is Monero, which isn't traceable. If the attackers were smart, this is what they would've done: Send them to Bi…

You can write down the serial numbers of paper money you hold, but that's not going to help you recover the money if someone steals the money and spends it at a shop. Traceability doesn't need to be a problem.

Steal a banknote, nobody's going to find it.

Steal enough banknotes and the bank will go to great lengths to find you. The Northern Bank robbery stole a significant fraction of all NB notes in circulation, so the bank re-issued them, relying on the impossibility of the criminals laundering them before the swap deadline.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/the...

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#26

Post by samatman »

ramraj07 wrote: post #23

If Bitcoin isn't granted money status, that would suck. We can't hold downstream buyers accountable for the money. However, I still see this as a good thing; if the hackers did sell 96 Bitcoin to one single buyer, then we can now start a paper trail (or physical evidence) on what the single buyer gave them in return (paper money transfer?)

"We" absolutely can.

If one were to sell a sports car in exchange for a pile of marked bills taken from a bank robbery, one would rapidly find oneself in hot water. Receiving stolen goods is a crime.

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#28

Post by shkkmo »

dylkil wrote: post #16
lawn wrote: post #7

This is why Bitcoin's traceability is a problem for it's money status. If people are actively pursuing the stolen bitcoins, regardless of who's currently holding them, then Bitcoin's fungibility will break as some coins will be worth more than others. The only cryptocurrency that comes close to solving this is Monero, which isn't traceable. If the attackers were smart, this is what they would've done: Send them to Bi…

bitcoin related privacy features are getting much better [1] as are ethereums [2] [1] https://news.bitcoin.com/how-to-obscure-bitcoin-cash-transac... [2] https://medium.com/@tornado.cash/introducing-private-transac...

How are CashFusion or tornado.cash different from other mixers?

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#29

Post by CallMeMarc »

dylkil wrote: post #16
lawn wrote: post #7

This is why Bitcoin's traceability is a problem for it's money status. If people are actively pursuing the stolen bitcoins, regardless of who's currently holding them, then Bitcoin's fungibility will break as some coins will be worth more than others. The only cryptocurrency that comes close to solving this is Monero, which isn't traceable. If the attackers were smart, this is what they would've done: Send them to Bi…

bitcoin related privacy features are getting much better [1] as are ethereums [2] [1] https://news.bitcoin.com/how-to-obscure-bitcoin-cash-transac... [2] https://medium.com/@tornado.cash/introducing-private-transac...

[1] is about Bitcoin Cash, not Bitcoin. [2] is basically a Tumbler/Mixer based on a smart contract which there are plenty of available (at least non-smart contract ones)

Re: A 96 Bitcoin ransom payment ends up on Bitfinex

#30

Post by gwbas1c »

blakesterz wrote: post #2

I know soooo very little about crypto currency, but his idea here makes sense, at least to me, but what do I know. Is it possible to create a registry like this, or is this never going to work? "Given bitcoin traceability and the ease of getting an injunction, one can imagine that it might make sense for insurers, bitcoin exchanges, and over-the-counter traders to build some sort of private "ransom registry". The mom…

The problem with all schemes like this are political: Who defines what is "good" versus "bad?" What happens when the hackers use social engineering to muck with the people running the registry?
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