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posted by martyb on Monday September 30 2019, @01:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the It-would-be-a-shame-if-something-happened-to-your-ICO dept.

Ethereum 'ICO architect' arrested over alleged $12M cryptocurrency extortion

Two individuals in the US, including a former advisor to various blockchain projects including Ethereum, ETH have been arrested for their alleged role in a series of multi-million dollar cryptocurrency extortion.

According to a Department of Justice statement, former Ethereum advisor Steven Nerayoff and Michael Hlady were arrested after supposedly threatening to "destroy a startup cryptocurrency company if they were not paid millions of dollars" worth of Ethereum.

"As alleged, Nerayoff and Hlady carried out an old-fashioned shakedown, to be paid off with 21st century cryptocurrency," United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in the statement.

The targeted company was an unnamed Seattle-based startup that uses cryptocurrency to reward customer loyalty. The unnamed company makes blockchain-based products for those looking to generate and reward user traffic.

The allegations are being lodged against Maple Ventures, an offshoot of Alchemist LLC, a blockchain consultancy founded and headed-up by Nerayoff, CNBC reports.

It's also worth noting that Nerayoff was pivotal in constructing the legal architecture behind Ethereum token offerings. On his own website he claims to have been called the "Architect of the ICO." One of his most recent ventures, – which he co-founded – CasperLabs, debuted its scalable, proof-of-stake blockchain on its testnet earlier this year.


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  • (Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday September 30 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)

    by epitaxial (3165) on Monday September 30 2019, @11:28PM (#901033)

    The value is in what someone is willing to pay. Your land isn't worth shit if nobody is interested in it. Since you see no value in "secret numbers" I'll gladly take any you happen to have laying around. The darknet markets all take crypto so how do you explain that? Are they giving away real product for "secret numbers"?

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 01 2019, @02:09AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday October 01 2019, @02:09AM (#901089)

    Your land isn't worth shit if nobody is interested in it.

    That's where you're missing the point of: intrinsic value.

    Even when nobody (with money, or anything to trade) is interested in land, if you hold title to quiet enjoyment of the land, there is value there. Throw on a cow, it can eat the grass and you can sell the shit, literally, for fertilizer. Without land to graze on, the cow won't be making shit for long.

    Since you see no value in "secret numbers" I'll gladly take any you happen to have laying around.

    Here's a secret number:

    436f7773206561742067726173732c20636f7773206d616b6520736869742c20736869742073656c6c7320666f7220636173682c206861766520736f6d65207368697420666f7220667265652e

    Tell me what value you get for it.

    The darknet markets all take crypto so how do you explain that? Are they giving away real product for "secret numbers"?

    And grocery stores take Visa, and casinos take chips - it's a mutually agreed method of exchange. Neither my Visa card, nor a stack of poker chips have any intrinsic value.

    --
    Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end