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Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

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Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#591

Post by tradertef »

make_it_sure wrote: post #492
conductr wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“True crypto believers” seems like a loaded phrase these days because I feel like most crypto believers are riding it’s wave to legitimacy. And things like this push it further towards that goal. I don’t see how anyone could really still believe in the original ideals behind Bitcoin. They made something but not what they wanted.

Most crypto believers, believe in crypto because they have money invested on it and want to get rich. If you remove that variable of getting rich, very very few remain.

I mostly agree. But those very very few are the ones who made Bitcoin what it is and they are very influential.

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#593

Post by Mizza »

bostonsre wrote: post #286
paulpauper wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just unreal. this guy was living a double life of being the greatest criminal ever. So among our community was a $4 billion hacker, just nonchalantly posting. I don't think he will be commenting anytime soon again if this really is him https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=il like your neighbor being a serial killer or something

I don't understand why he wouldn't move to somewhere that doesn't have an extradition policy with the US. If you go down that path, it seems like you should probably be willing to abandon your life. It's the same with Ross Ulbricht, seems like it would be terrifying living with that sword of damocles hanging over your head absolutely constantly.

I wish people would stop saying 'non extradition country' like that's a real thing.

Brokep moved to Cambodia for that reason. They still got him anyway. If the powers want you, they can find away to get you. The only options I can imagine are publicly embarrassing the US government to the delight of Vladimir Putin or making a very large donation to the Cuban government.

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#594

Post by benreesman »

tyrfing wrote: post #225
danso wrote: post #3

The statement of facts is linked to from the press release, and describes generally how the Feds were able to trace the stolen funds (they found a file listing private keys, after gaining access to the suspect's cloud storage) https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470186/downl... > The 2017 transfers notwithstanding, the majority of the stolen funds remained in Wallet 1CGA4s from August 2016 until January 3…

> they found a file listing private keys, after gaining access to the suspect's cloud storage That's backwards. It's how they wrapped it all up. The real trail is pretty clearly AlphaBay 2016/2017 transactions (under gov control around that timeframe), to KYC-flagged accounts at an exchange, with a web of accounts with real info linked together past there.

I mean, for a recent example of how this works in practice: Polygon got whacked for like 650MM last August, but all the fiat and even stablecoin exchanges blacklisted the addresses and the guy got like 5MM “bug bounty” or whatever.

There might be prestige in some circles for taking down some dumbass Solidity coder, and some people seem to be getting some money out still (e.g. Wormhole).

But overall I’m short Trail of Bits consulting rate.

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#596

Post by voldacar »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #417
cobookman wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he instead started to draw NFTs, and sell it from his KYC account to his dirty wallet, could he still be convicted? What if only one out of every 100 NFTs his dirty wallet purchased was from his KYC account? Or what if he decided to create his own crypto-currency and it just so happened that his dirty wallet was an early investor of ETH to his fund. Seems like he could have done more to distance himself.

> Seems like he could have done more to distance himself. On a value system with an inherently public ledger that eventually has to hit a fiat off ramp with KYC/AML requirements? Nah. Everyone has quality opsec until they don't, and the record of your criminal activity is immutable and highly durable.

You can just sell the bitcoin for monero, then sell the monero for btc.

also, as time goes on, the proportion of btc that are "dirty" approaches 1, so these chainalysis strategies become less effective, assuming you aren't stupid enough to do some criminal act then cash out at a kyc exchange the next day from the same wallet

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#597

Post by tradertef »

mrkramer wrote: post #375

>Hackers Move $3.55B Worth of Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30162085 So government was moving bitcoins not hackers. Like I said in that thread it is easier to launder cash than bitcoins because bitcoins are on chain forever and cold cash can be laundered in numerous ways.

Thanks for sharing this. Hilarious comments :)

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#598

Post by champagnois »

phs318u wrote: post #514
champagnois wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Reddit.com/r/worldnews can have Ghislaine Maxwell (of the epstein case) as a moderator (u/maxwellhill) -- then Ycombinator gets its own billionaire criminal.

Did you mean to say Ghislaine?

100% that is what I meant to say. thanks.

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#599

Post by tootie »

TTPrograms wrote: post #191
fxtentacle wrote: post #4

Shouldn't all true crypto believers hate this news? It's the government trying to enforce their opinion of who should own those Bitcoins, thereby taking power away from the owner that the network has decided on, which would be "whoever has the cryptographic keys".

Obvious no-true-scotsman. Believing that the goal of crypto is to circumvent laws regarding possession and theft is at most a fringe belief. The fact that this is at the top of HN demonstrates how devoid of merit crypto discussion here is.

Not OP but I think the true Scotsman isn't that laws don't apply, it's that the ledger is infallible and authoritative.

Re: Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

#600

Post by rlt »

hnburnsy wrote: post #584
pshc wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a hardware wallet is good, although for a billion dollars, 100 hardware wallets would be better. Could even go so far as to split a private key into seven horcruxes using Shamir's Secret Sharing and bury them in locations around the world. Memorizing a seed phrase leaves you vulnerable to a $5 wrench attack, I wouldn't recommend it.

The famous Bitcoin family reportedly spread their hardware wallets across the globe. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/11/bitcoin-family-hides-bitcoin...

The article suggests each location contains 100% of the key, not using Shamir’s Secret Sharing.

> Taihuttu is trying to put a crypto cold wallet on every continent so it’s easier to access his holdings.

I hope it’s at least encrypted with an additional passphrase, otherwise it’s only as strong as the weakest bank’s security.

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