Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by basilikum » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:11 PM UTC

ericbuildsio wrote: post #40

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!"

Could someone explain to me where the myth of "crypto = untrackable" comes from, and why it's still being perpetuated? Storing a record of every single transaction on a publicly accessible blockchain sounds trackable by design

Bitcoin ist pseudonymous. If you never attach your real identity to your Bitcoin you remain pseudonymous. Now that's a very big if and why states heavily try to enforce KYC for exchanges.

The reality is a lot more messy. Different chains have different properties. Things like CoinJoins for Bitcoin or TornadoCash for Ethereum exist which aim to break the money trail. Mixers are a thing which are a trusted entity doing the same on a "trust me bro" basis.

Monero seeks to be untracable by design using zero knowledge proofs and ring signatures over multiple possible sources for every transaction.

Even with standard Bitcoin it's more complicated. One time change addresses make tracking harder. Say I send you 1 BTC in a transaction. Now you want to spend 0.5 of these Bitcoin. However with Bitcoin you can only ever use an incoming transaction in full. Every transaction has a number of inputs (a previous incoming transaction) that it spends and a number of outputs. An output can only be unspent or spent. The amount of the outputs must match the amount of inputs. So what you do is you use that input of 1 BTC and create two output of 0.5 BTC each. One is to the recipient address and one is to an address of your own (the change address). If you create a new change address for every transaction nobody but the recipient can know which output belongs to the recipient and which is your change address.

In reality that is a weak defense and there are many usage patterns (e.g. one output being a round number and the other one not) that can give away which one the change address is.

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

#122

Post by boplicity » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #45

boplicity wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please understand that circumventing copyright makes it more difficult for journalists to make a living.

Copyright isn't being circumvented - the content of the website is made available for the public and the website just grabs what is publicly available.

Redistributing copyrighted content is the literal definition of copyright infringement. Using it for your own purposes, without distribution, is another story.

This link was posted with intent to facilitate the distribution of copyrighted material. The person who posted it justified posting the link by saying some people don't have a subscription.

I understand that some people think copyright shouldn't exist, but it clearly is being circumvented here.

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

#123

Post by selridge » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:22 PM UTC

liamconnell wrote: post #10

stevofolife wrote: post #5

The article title doesn't say "Fired". The HN title is kind of misleading.

I think NYT uses multiple titles for some articles. I had copy pasted it

This is correct. They will A/B test titles AND update the title w/o warning over time, often 3-6 times per article post publication.

They used to change the URL a bunch of times after publication! Seems crazy because it is but they did. Caused a whole problem on Wikipedia because “title + day + work + url” suddenly wasn’t stable.

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

#124

Post by boplicity » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

chihuahua wrote: post #35

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!"

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.

Money laundering has always been a core feature of cryptocurrency, not an edge case.

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

#125

Post by joe_the_user » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

chihuahua wrote: post #35

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!"

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.

Not that snark isn't warranted in this situation but you have to consider that the ability to turn energy into globally accepted (but notably not-actually-untraceable) cash-equivalent is a key piece of the corrupt bitcoin puzzle. It offer opportunities to everyone from third world oligarchs and pariahs to those who happen to be able to tap an electrical grid. Technically, this is indeed "theft without recourse" but you're reply seems to imply this kind is marginal.

Moreover, the chances are the reason Binance nixed the investigation of bitcoin going to Iran is because so much of the bitcoin economy is driven by entities like Iran (google AI say they have 4.5% of global mining plus random search link [1]).

Edit: Iran also wants bitcoin sent to it because bitcoin isn't actually untraceable so getting clean money for dirty matters.

[1] https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/iranian-crypto-activity-geo...

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

#126

Post by cs702 » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:26 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #120

cs702 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 evildo…

There's a major distinction, however, in that it's a heck of a lot harder to safely and reliably lug briefcases or suitcases full of $100 bills from Chicago to Tehran, than it is to click and transfer some Bitcoin. Which is the whole point.

Yeah, crypto is a safer, more reliable alternative for many use cases, including those that are fundamentally honest. For instance, if you're an honest person trapped as a citizen in a despotic authoritarian state that doesn't respect your property rights, crypto may be the safest, most reliable alternative for storing and transferring your hard-earned savings.

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

#127

Post by wat10000 » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #71

wat10000 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to extremely rich people, "political prosecution" generally means that the behavior was absolutely criminal, but that it's usually something they let rich people get away with.

It can also mean it's political. Famously (whether you think he's guilty or not) John Kiriakou pled guilty because he knew John Brennan was going to throw the entire might of the justice system at him. When he talks about the experience, his decisions are made with consideration to the fact the president's inner circle wanted him in jail and he wasn't fighting a fair battle.

I'm not sure how that's relevant, since John Kiriakou does not appear to be particularly wealthy.

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

#128

Post by idop » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

carshodev wrote: post #112

datatrashfire wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is incorrect, bitcoin is slower and more expensive, but bitcoin should not be used as cash, coins like stablecoins which direclty track US dollars or altcoins with lower fees should be used, the lightning network also is useful for transactions. Bitcoin CAN be used as a store of wealth and the slowness actually makes it better as the slowness is part of the same process that makes it safer, harder to hack/takeov…

[flagged]

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

#129

Post by nine_k » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

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.

Hmm, doesn't this work equally well with a wad of $10 and $20 notes? I mean, yes, notes could be clandestinely marked. But aren't bitcoins also traceable after the first transaction?

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

#130

Post by himata4113 » Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 10:33 PM UTC

beAbU wrote: post #106

VirusNewbie wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Except that there is a huge trusted network for this. The world does not revolve around americas and europe. Not everyone has issues cashing out millions of crypto from a bank. This has been especially prevelant with countries that host a lot of Russian immigrants ever since the SWIFT ban, the regulation is extremely lax and there is minimal data shared to western institutions.

I have heard from friends who are in these countries observing transactions that go into the millions of dollars that are being cashed out (not even laundered) like it's just another day. Nobody asks questions, nobody cares either and if you bring it up you will likely lose your job in few months or so.