So much for enthusiasts championing the decentralization of cryptocurrencies:
One of the prominent developers behind the bitcoin blockchain said he has asked the FBI to assist him in recovering $3.6 million worth of the digital coin that was stolen from his storage wallets on New Year's Eve.
Luke Dashjr is a developer of the Bitcoin Core, an app that runs 97 percent of the nodes making up the bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Core derives from the software developed by the anonymous bitcoin inventor who uses the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. That software was called simply Bitcoin but was later changed to Bitcoin Core to distinguish it from the coin. Dashjr has been contributing to the Bitcoin Core since 2011 and has long championed the concept of decentralization that the cryptocurrency was founded on.
[...] Dashjr said the wallets compromised were both hot—meaning accessible over the Internet—and what he believed were cold—meaning they were hosted on a device not connected to the Internet. He didn't elaborate, but it appears he was theorizing that one or more computers he used was infected and that the hackers could then obtain the funds stored on them. It's hard to make sense of that, however, since a wallet stored on an Internet-connected device is, by definition, hot.
[...] There's still a lot that doesn't add up to the events Dashjr has reported. Without more details, it's hard to come to any firm conclusions. One takeaway, however, is clear, as evidenced by one of the most influential bitcoin developers calling on law enforcement to recover his stolen digital coin: The notion that cryptocurrencies provide a decentralized platform that cuts out established authorities is nothing short of a pipe dream.
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When Canadian developer Peter Todd found out that a new HBO documentary, Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, was set to identify him as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, he was mostly just pissed. "This was clearly going to be a circus," Todd told WIRED in an email.
[...]
The mystery has proved all the more irresistible for the trove of bitcoin Satoshi is widely believed to have controlled, suspected to be worth many billions of dollars today. When the documentary was released on October 8, Todd joined a long line of alleged Satoshis.
[...]
Since the documentary aired, Todd has repeatedly and categorically denied that he created Bitcoin: "For the record, I am not Satoshi," he alleges. "I think Cullen made the Satoshi accusation for marketing. He needed a way to get attention for his film."
[...]
The search for the creator of Bitcoin has dragged into its orbit a colorful cast of characters, among them Hal Finney, recipient of the first ever bitcoin transaction; Adam Back, designer of a precursor technology cited in the Bitcoin white paper; and cryptographer Nick Szabo, to name just a few. Journalists at Newsweek, The New York Times, and WIRED, among others, have all taken stabs at solving the Satoshi riddle. But irrefutable proof has never been unearthed.
[...]
The case for Sassaman was first outlined in 2021 by Evan Hatch, founder of crypto gaming platform Worlds. Whenever speculation about Sassaman bubbles periodically to the surface, the spotlight is thrown on his widow, software developer Meredith Patterson, who believes the theory is unfounded."People used to be really fucking nosy and entitled. I'd get people writing me with a two-page list of dates and locations, asking where I was at such and such a time or place," says Patterson. "Where do you get off? A complete stranger walking up to a widow and trying to interrogate her. It's like, fuck off Sergeant Joe Friday."
[...]
"I was relieved for myself and my family that they named Peter Todd," says Patterson. "But I feel sorry for Peter Todd. Frankly, nobody deserves getting a target painted on their back."
[...]
Todd expects that "continued harassment by crazy people" will become the indefinite status quo. But he says the potential personal safety implications are his chief concern—and the reason he has gone into hiding.
[...]
Hoback sees things very differently. Though there have been cases where violent extortionists have targeted crypto holders, plenty of people have been unmasked as Satoshi before—and nothing terrible is known to have happened to them, he argues. "I think the idea that it puts their life [at risk] is a little overblown," says Hoback.
(Score: 5, Funny) by r1348 on Tuesday January 10 2023, @03:43AM (1 child)
He should call the decentralized police.
(Score: 2) by helel on Tuesday January 10 2023, @03:55AM
I don't think his local PD has the resources to help him.
(Score: 2, Redundant) by darkfeline on Tuesday January 10 2023, @04:31AM (2 children)
One day, we will get news articles that actually understand the goal of Bitcoin rather than use Twitter and memes as trustworthy sources.
Stealing BTC is as much a crime as stealing a baseball card worth a lot of money (or fat stacks of cash). Law enforcement may get involved similarly.
Unlike with traditional digital finance, the government cannot just freeze a baseball card, fat stacks of cash, or BTC. They would have to physically raid and retrieve the item by force (assuming the BTC private key in question is stored in a hardware wallet). They would have to pry it from your cold dead hands. Which they could certainly do, but it's rather more effort and headache than sending a chat message to your friend over at Wells Fargo et al. People who have experienced fascism/authoritarianism (or studied and remember history) see the advantages.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday January 10 2023, @09:13AM (1 child)
Exactly this.
He theorizes that someone hacked his computer and stole his PGP key. They then used that key to commit theft. It doesn't matter that they stole BTC, which so many techies currently love to hate. It's theft, and the theft of $3.6 million should get attention from law enforcement.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Tuesday January 10 2023, @06:36PM
the theft of $3.6 million should get attention from law enforcement.
The theft of $3.6 million in imaginary money should get attention from imaginary law enforcement. Bitchcoin is no more an investment than shooting craps in a casino is an investment. The casino owner (guy who wrote the code) is the investor, the guy playing the slot machine is just gambling.
Cash, stocks, bonds, all have their basis in reality. You own something real and concrete; a part of Fort Knox, a part of a business, a loan to a business. Bitchcoin has its basis in hopes and dreams only.
Why do the mainstream media act as if Donald Trump isn't a pathological liar with dozens of felony fraud convictions?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday January 10 2023, @06:12AM (5 children)
i.e., not anonymous at all
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday January 10 2023, @11:50AM (4 children)
Then what is the name of the person(s) who operated under the name, Satoshi Nakamoto? What's that? You don't know because they published and communicated all that stuff anonymously under a pseudonym?
Welcome to the English language used as intended.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday January 10 2023, @02:39PM (3 children)
A pseudonym.
It's not anonymous, though--anonymous means you have *no* name. There's a name right there, "Satoshi Nakamoto."
You use the name "khallow" here, but you wouldn't consider yourself an anonymous coward, right?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Tuesday January 10 2023, @02:55PM
"You use the name "khallow" here, but you wouldn't consider yourself an anonymous coward, right?"
I got bridge in Brooklyn to sell you if you truly expect logical thinking in some internet posting...
"Cervantes definitely was prescient in describing a senile Don fighting against windmills." -- larryjoe on /.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 10 2023, @10:01PM
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Tuesday January 10 2023, @10:23PM
The obvious rebuttal is who is that? A name without an identifiable person is what makes it genuinely anonymous.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Dr Spin on Tuesday January 10 2023, @11:35AM
Actually. beyond the words "spilled milk", I was unable to translate what his granny said, owing to limited language skills,
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 10 2023, @03:10PM
Quite the opposite - it's doing *exactly* that.
And the down side is that it lacks any of the centralized safeguards that would greatly reduce the risk of theft, make international jurisdiction-hopping theft more difficult, or otherwise allow for reparations prior to actually catching the criminal.
There's still central authorities that deal with theft - but they've always been fairly useless for both cyber crime and cross-border crime. Add in a system specifically designed to make their job as difficult as possible and, well, welcome to the wild west, where if your money is stolen you can always try to steal it back.