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Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

nytimes.com

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Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#101

Post by tromp »

lambda wrote: post #91
whynotmaybe wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And transactions can take 30 minutes or more to settle >Fees have historically gone up above $100 per transaction So it's cheaper to use Paypal ?

They've since added some hacks to enable it to handle more transactions and bring the price down. Effectively, the network had hit its limit on the number of transactions it could fit in a block, so you had to pay high fees to get accepted in a block, the miners simply couldn't accept all transactions; but they've added ways of fitting more transactions into a block that have helped drive prices back down again. So n…

High tx fees are an essential goal in Bitcoin's design: in the long term, when the block subsidy becomes insignificant, Bitcoin's security will rely almost entirely on tx fees.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#102

Post by VirusNewbie »

lacoolj wrote: post #94

Contrary to a lot of comments here, the only way to use bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) without tracking is to mine it yourself, and even then... Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it? What else did the person with that wallet do? If the answer is "mined", even then, you have to actually do something with it, right? Buy something? Where is that something shipped? At worst you'll have to p…

I mean, I can meet you in an ally, transfer some satoshis from my wallet to yours, you hand me a wad of cash/jewels/MtG/collector funkos and you might not even know my name.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#103

Post by datatrashfire »

hilliardfarmer wrote: post #41
chihuahua wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the #1 use case for crypto was ransomware, followed by shitcoin rug-pulls, and the ability to commit theft without recourse. Sending money to Iran is just a minor edge case.

What a deeply troubling and cynical comment. As far as I know, nowhere in the Bitcoin white paper or the original code base. Does it say anything about what you seem to think it's use cases are. Bitcoin has one main use, digital cash, that can be sent instantly and for free or a very low fee. Edit: I would agree though, that anything other than that is probably a scam.

the problem is as a means of cash it’s inferior to existing systems in pretty much every dimension. more expensive, slower, more risk, higher volatility. the cash story for crypto is not good.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#104

Post by basilikum »

paxys wrote: post #18
garrettgarcia wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clearly not untrackable. It's never been untrackable. That's how they know it went to Iran.

Only because in this case they used a centralized exchange. The amount of actual circulation to countries like Iran and North Korea is likely many orders of magnitude higher that what is knowable.

Bitcoin is traceable by design. That's how a public ledger works. It is merely pseudonymous. But it leaves complete public money trail. If your Bitcoin ever associate with your real identity, which they tend to do when you actually use them, your anonymity is gone.

There is a reason why Monero exists.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#105

Post by cs702 »

paxys wrote: post #6

Isn't this like the #1 use case for crypto? Everyone wants an untrackable unblockable currency that is out of government control until the day it is used for things they don't like, then suddenly "government please control this!"

It's also the #1 use case for $100 US dollar bills. Most US $100 bills, in fact, are not even in the US.[a][b]

US $100 bills are the currency of choice for small-time crooks and evildoers around the world.

They are also the currency of choice for big-time crooks and evildoers. Briefcases of US $100 bills have long been used for illicit payments, as depicted in numerous books and movies.

Just because crooks and evildoers use US $100 bills doesn't mean they are not useful and valuable to honest people too.

What Binance did was wrong, no doubt, but Binance ≠ crypto.

--

[a] https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/oct/innocent-...

[b] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/04/12/177051690/most...

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#106

Post by beAbU »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #102
lacoolj wrote: post #94

Contrary to a lot of comments here, the only way to use bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) without tracking is to mine it yourself, and even then... Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it? What else did the person with that wallet do? If the answer is "mined", even then, you have to actually do something with it, right? Buy something? Where is that something shipped? At worst you'll have to p…

I mean, I can meet you in an ally, transfer some satoshis from my wallet to yours, you hand me a wad of cash/jewels/MtG/collector funkos and you might not even know my name.

True, but this does not happen for large transactions, due to being vulnerable to the $5 wrench attack (1)

For big transactions where something of actual value is exchanged, both parties will want an escrow, and this is where a public exchange comes in.

1 - https://xkcd.com/538/

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#107

Post by lavezzi »

paxys wrote: post #19
LunaSea wrote: post #11

Remember that the CEO of Binance was pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to financial fraud.

It's more than just that. > President Trump granted a pardon to Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, who had spent four months in federal prison in 2024 for his role in the firm’s crimes. The Trump family’s crypto start-up, World Liberty Financial, has forged close business ties with Binance, and Mr. Zhao was a guest this month at a conference at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Fla.

it's more than just that:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2026/02/09/trump-st...

> Binance holds about 87% of USD1, the stablecoin issued by a Trump family crypto venture—a greater concentration than any other major stablecoin has at a single exchange, roughly $4.7 billion of the $5.4 billion total supply.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#108

Post by carshodev »

paxys wrote: post #6

Isn't this like the #1 use case for crypto? Everyone wants an untrackable unblockable currency that is out of government control until the day it is used for things they don't like, then suddenly "government please control this!"

Unblockable yes, untrackable no. Also portable is the main ability of crypto.

The reason that this could be found out is because every transaction is recorded so it can be linked back through the chain once it hits another exchange that is KYC'd.

If I have a gold watch and I wear it through the airport go to turkey melt it down and give it to an iranian, then buy a fake watch and return home noone will every know that this transaction took place.

This would be 100% impossible to track in any reasonable manner. If I went to an exchange transfered bitcoin to a person then they spent this bitcoin in a way that linked it to their identity this would provide a full audit trail that would link me to that person. Also this audit trail could NEVER be removed or altered.

There are ways to use bitcoin in an untracable manner just like gold, you can have a cold wallet and transfer the keys to someone else. The cold wallet password could be only memorized and thus have no physical trace and no transaction record could take place whatsoever, but this is the OPPOSITE of what an exchange does.

Also cash and bank systems are not as resistant, they can fail, be hacked, be altered, people can use shell companies and fake identities.

Some cryptos like monero try and hide the transaction path but even this crypto has some vulnerabilities making linking it to people possible in some cases.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#109

Post by bko »

paxys wrote: post #6

Isn't this like the #1 use case for crypto? Everyone wants an untrackable unblockable currency that is out of government control until the day it is used for things they don't like, then suddenly "government please control this!"

> Everyone wants an untrackable unblockable currency

What are you talking about? Crypto is defined by its trackability (immutable, permission-less, verifiable ledger of every transaction in history). Please refrain from commenting on things you're unfamiliar with.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#110

Post by carshodev »

rwmj wrote: post #59
chihuahua wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the #1 use case for crypto was ransomware, followed by shitcoin rug-pulls, and the ability to commit theft without recourse. Sending money to Iran is just a minor edge case.

That's a rather narrow view of crypto's uses. What about subverting democracy by bribing the President?

Has the lack of crypto ever stopped this from happening? Look up cases of gold bars being found in senators houses, those are actually MUCH less tracable.

Shitcoins and Shitstocks(some SPACs) do allow of a legal way to "give" others money through the transfer of value in a way that is technically legal. This again is not crypto specific though.

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