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posted by janrinok on Monday February 04 2019, @07:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the wanted:-one-ouija-board dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A cryptocurrency exchange in Canada has lost control of at least $137 million of its customers' assets following the sudden death of its founder, who was the only person known to have access the the offline wallet that stored the digital coins. British Columbia-based QuadrigaCX is unable to access most or all of another $53 million because it's tied up in disputes with third parties.

The dramatic misstep was reported in a sworn affidavit that was obtained by CoinDesk. The affidavit was filed Thursday by Jennifer Robertson, widow of QuadrigaCX's sole director and officer Gerry Cotten. Robertson testified that Cotten died of Crohn's disease in India in December at the age of 30.

Following standard security practices by many holders of cryptocurrency, QuadrigaCX stored the vast majority of its cryptocurrency holdings in a "cold wallet," meaning a digital wallet that wasn't connected to the Internet. The measure is designed to prevent hacks that regularly drain hot wallets of millions of dollars (Ars has reported on three such thefts here, here, and here.)

Thursday's court filing, however, demonstrates that cold wallets are by no means a surefire way to secure digital coins. Robertson testified that Cotten stored the cold wallet on an encrypted laptop that only he could decrypt. Based on company records, she said the cold wallet stored $180 million in Canadian dollars ($137 million in US dollars), all of which is currently inaccessible to QuadrigaCX and more than 100,000 customers.

"The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the Companies' business is encrypted, and I do not know the password or recovery key," Robertson wrote. "Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere."

The expert, she added, has already accessed Cotten's personal and work email accounts and is now trying to gain access to an encrypted email account. Cotten also used an encrypted messaging system, but the chances of successfully reading the communications appear dim because, the expert has reported, "messages would disappear from the encrypted messaging system after a short period."

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @07:59PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @07:59PM (#796249)

    Finally! You can take it with you! Downside: its cryptocurrency, not actual money.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday February 04 2019, @08:36PM (4 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday February 04 2019, @08:36PM (#796267) Journal

    But you can't use it in heaven, because they still lack an internet connection.

    BTW if you chose cremation you can take actual bank notes with you. :-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday February 04 2019, @09:04PM (1 child)

      by richtopia (3160) on Monday February 04 2019, @09:04PM (#796280) Homepage Journal

      Give it a few years and Heaven will be connected:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation) [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:11PM

        by Freeman (732) on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:11PM (#796802) Journal

        Assuming, you're going with that, we've already had Satellite for a really, really long time. The cool new thing about Starlink is that it will actually be a lot closer to the Earth, so actually much farther from "the heavens".

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday February 04 2019, @10:05PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Monday February 04 2019, @10:05PM (#796299) Journal

      No, you'll probably be the victim of a man in the middle attack: the mortician/embalmer will take it from you.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday February 05 2019, @03:13AM

      by driverless (4770) on Tuesday February 05 2019, @03:13AM (#796464)

      But you can't use it in heaven, because they still lack an internet connection.

      Neither does hell, but then again you don't need one because all of Pornhub is already there with you, or will be eventually.

  • (Score: 2) by DeVilla on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:13AM

    by DeVilla (5354) on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:13AM (#797539)

    I know one religion that's been offering triple your money back if you don't achieve "eternal salvation". So, it's hell, but you'll have some spending money.