The same day of Coinbase IPO
Maybe figured that coinbase IPO would dominate crypto news for the day and any reporting on this would be drowned out, possibly?
$7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
211–220 of 281 posts
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure how the scammers and thieves operate, but wouldn't they (likely) be laundering the money the same way they've always been doing it? I.e, exploiting things like identity theft, countries and exchanges with little oversight, mules, gambling, etc.
If they want to launder the funds all they have to do is used a decentralized exchange to convert the bitcoin into something like monero. Monero has an encrypted blockchain and a bunch of other anonymization features. So once you convert it to monero, poof, the funds simply disappear into the ether just like that without a trace. They can then convert it back into bitcoin if they want as well.
But what exchange (in its right mind) would take those bitcoins? They're permanently tainted, and are likely very hard to convert into fiat currency, and therefore have, I expect, near zero value.
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure how the scammers and thieves operate, but wouldn't they (likely) be laundering the money the same way they've always been doing it? I.e, exploiting things like identity theft, countries and exchanges with little oversight, mules, gambling, etc.
If they want to launder the funds all they have to do is used a decentralized exchange to convert the bitcoin into something like monero. Monero has an encrypted blockchain and a bunch of other anonymization features. So once you convert it to monero, poof, the funds simply disappear into the ether just like that without a trace. They can then convert it back into bitcoin if they want as well.
Wouldn’t they have some trouble getting it into an exchange to change it to XMR?
I assume that even if they moved some portion of it, say 10 BTC, to N different wallets, those transactions would be traceable to the exchange?
I’m not sure how XMR works but then the exchange would know at least which wallet the XMR was sent to.
I’m also not sure of the law surrounding a P2P transfer (IE receiving stolen property) but I’m guessing you might be SOL if you did a trade with them on a P2P platform as well...
Very interested if someone in the know would like to chime in
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
This fails to account for the fact that IRS currently (and maybe this changes in the future) has a hard time doing serious audits on any significant amount of wealthy people; and that the agency has pretty much been gutted over the years. [0] https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted [1] https://www.propublica.org/series/gutting-the-irs [2] https://www.gq.com/story/no-irs-audits-for-the-rich
all it takes is for one president in 2030s to create a new branch of gov that pays Google style salaries. would attract the best and brightest to write some powerful tools for all that, no?
Obama was that forward thinking, charismatic, enlightened leader that people wanted to work for. The White House Digital Service was by any metric a resounding success. But the pay did suck.
The problem with the government paying "Google salaries" is who gets them? Is an IRS auditor really worthy of half a million a year in comp? What about the DEA agent deep under cover and risking his life, much more deserving... right?
So you create a new branch of the government where keyboard warriors bang out solutions to government problems. Why is one of these hot-shots making what an entire department of inspectors is paid at the USDA? The resentment from other agencies will be a hard barrier to overcome. They also have no incentive to help your new Rockstar Agency to get access to all the data they need so they can put government employees out of work.
Not to mention, is it really beneficial to the tax payer to try and compete with tech companies? If FAANG companies start to suffer a talent drain, they will just re-up and double whatever the government offers.
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how many bitcoin people understand the history of banking regulations. Banks do not want to be accessory to crimes. They make plenty of money legally. So when the government says we know that you helped someone steal billions of dollars so we are going to shut you down, the banks will quickly offer to track and report and block people.
Banks are the most law breaking entities in the United States. They constantly have to make enormous settlements for the insane number of laws they break. These are just the settlements for Bank of America: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/01/the-comple... A better summary wouldn't be "they make plenty of money legally." It would be they make plenty of money illegally after paying the settlements.
Yeah but they break those laws for their own gain, not for you.
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
all it takes is for one president in 2030s to create a new branch of gov that pays Google style salaries. would attract the best and brightest to write some powerful tools for all that, no?
Obama was that forward thinking, charismatic, enlightened leader that people wanted to work for. The White House Digital Service was by any metric a resounding success. But the pay did suck. The problem with the government paying "Google salaries" is who gets them? Is an IRS auditor really worthy of half a million a year in comp? What about the DEA agent deep under cover and risking his life, much more deserving... r…
This makes me wonder, was pay competitive for rocket scientists during the space race, or was the mission so compelling that nobody cared if they were making less than they might have at a defense contractor?
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Banks are the most law breaking entities in the United States. They constantly have to make enormous settlements for the insane number of laws they break. These are just the settlements for Bank of America: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/01/the-comple... A better summary wouldn't be "they make plenty of money legally." It would be they make plenty of money illegally after paying the settlements.
None of these fines are about laundering money. Also, showing these fines is a long way from "the most law breaking entities". I do believe Wells Fargo got in trouble for helping launder money - and they spent a LOT of money to help fix it.
HSBC then.
> HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines to U.S. authorities for allowing itself to be used to launder a river of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe-idUSBRE8BA05M2...
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obama was that forward thinking, charismatic, enlightened leader that people wanted to work for. The White House Digital Service was by any metric a resounding success. But the pay did suck. The problem with the government paying "Google salaries" is who gets them? Is an IRS auditor really worthy of half a million a year in comp? What about the DEA agent deep under cover and risking his life, much more deserving... r…
This makes me wonder, was pay competitive for rocket scientists during the space race, or was the mission so compelling that nobody cared if they were making less than they might have at a defense contractor?
A friend of mine is an electrician, an in-demand skilled job. He can make +/- 10% working for the government directly, at Lawrence Livermore, or in the private sector. Each has tradeoffs like how interesting the work is or the hours, but in the end the government isn't really less competitive.
Now imagine Facebook steps in and wants to hire all the electricians and is willing to pay $750k/yr. Obviously the entire system becomes fucked and the government (or even "normal" businesses) won't be able to find electricians.
Don't get me wrong... I like my tech salary. But inserting a player into any market or economy with effectively unlimited resources breaks it.
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Banks are the most law breaking entities in the United States. They constantly have to make enormous settlements for the insane number of laws they break. These are just the settlements for Bank of America: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/01/the-comple... A better summary wouldn't be "they make plenty of money legally." It would be they make plenty of money illegally after paying the settlements.
None of these fines are about laundering money. Also, showing these fines is a long way from "the most law breaking entities". I do believe Wells Fargo got in trouble for helping launder money - and they spent a LOT of money to help fix it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/ubs-may-u...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico...
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54597256
I could keep Googling but that should cover your complaints about laundering money.
Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
all it takes is for one president in 2030s to create a new branch of gov that pays Google style salaries. would attract the best and brightest to write some powerful tools for all that, no?
Obama was that forward thinking, charismatic, enlightened leader that people wanted to work for. The White House Digital Service was by any metric a resounding success. But the pay did suck. The problem with the government paying "Google salaries" is who gets them? Is an IRS auditor really worthy of half a million a year in comp? What about the DEA agent deep under cover and risking his life, much more deserving... r…
IRS agents are easy to calculate pay.
Base living wage ($70-$90k)
+ 1-5% of each amount recovered
Incentivize pursuing the biggest evaders, and the problem may solve itself.