BitCoin Related Site Shut Down

[Burzmali]

Details are starting to trickle out about how Silk Road was located:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/ ... blogs&_r=0

Including a warrant served on the US-based backup host JTAN:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/210635486/JTA ... ch-Warrant

There still isn't any information as to how the FBI cracked through the TOR network, but it seems that the FBI somehow located the main server overseas first, obtained an image of that, and used it to track down the us-based version which they used to identify the sysop.

Just a swag, but I'm guessing that there are no official documents that detail exactly how the FBI located the overseas server, only a request from the FBI to their foreign counterparts and whatever passes as a warrant in the foreign country that uses the FBI's interest as sufficient probable cause to image the server.

I still find it odd that it went down in that order, as it seems that that is the hardest way they could have caught him. Ulbricht wasn't a model of infosec, anyone looking for the sysops of Silk Road should have found him long before cracking a tor hidden service. Likewise, since the FBI ran a bunch of transactions through Silk Road, they could have followed the bitcoin trail from the transaction fee until they landed at JTAN or some other US-based business.

[Burnaby49]

On a related note the inventor of Bitcoin may have been uncovered;

If this is indeed the real Satoshi Nakamoto, it seems he has eluded identification until now in part because he changed his name at age 23 from “Satoshi Nakamoto” to “Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto” and now goes by “Dorian S. Nakamoto.” The full story, in which Nakamoto is described as both “brilliant” and “an asshole” by people close to him, is well worth your click. Among the fascinating tidbits: Nakamoto's second wife suspects he may have created bitcoin in part because he was frustrated by the bank fees and exchange rates he faced when wiring money to buy model trains from overseas.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense ... n_los.html

[Jeffrey]

DailyTech's Michael Mick reports that MtGox's CEO had a history of legal problems including an unclear arrest in his youth over some sort of financial fraud.

http://www.dailytech.com/Bitcoin+King+M ... e34442.htm

I do think perhaps the $500 million number should have a big asterisk next to it. The half a billion figure being used is the product of taking the number of bitcoins x the highest sale price bitcoins had at one point $1,200. If you were to try to cash all of them in however, each sale would cause the price to drop, you'd never get anywhere near $500 million for those coins.

[notorial dissent]

Gee, now there is a concept. A guy with a PRIOR history of financial fraud??? running a multi-million dollar??? alternate currency site, that mysteriously goes up in smoke(figuratively speaking) with all bitcoin, and it is suspicious???

The point about a large sell off affecting the value of the other bitcoin is problematic since the theft caused value to drop as well, so stable currency????

I think about now, that if I had bitcoin in an "exchange" or "bank" I'd be thinking about getting it out real fast.

[webhick]

I now laugh every time I hear "bitcoin" on Almost Human. It's off to rocky start for something that will become standard fare in the future. It leaves me with little hope for the sex bots. ::sigh::

[Jeffrey]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... WU20140310

(Reuters) - Mt. Gox, once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in Dallas late Sunday, a move that will temporarily halt U.S. legal action against the Japanese company.

[notorial dissent]

An AP article indicates that two FL men were arrested in Feb on money laundering charges for using Bitcoin for selling Bitcoin to undercover officers who claimed they were going to use it to purchase stolen credit card information. A lot will depend here on whether the charges actually hold up in court.

[Dai Kiwi]

An AP article indicates that two FL men were arrested in Feb on money laundering charges for using Bitcoin for selling Bitcoin to undercover officers who claimed they were going to use it to purchase stolen credit card information. A lot will depend here on whether the charges actually hold up in court.

Interesting. Will it stand up in Court? When it comes to Court will that be any different than offering to pay in unsequential US banknotes or Krugerrands?

[notorial dissent]

On a related note it appears that China is also going to start cracking down on Bitcoin as well as it goes through their banks.

[Burzmali]

An AP article indicates that two FL men were arrested in Feb on money laundering charges for using Bitcoin for selling Bitcoin to undercover officers who claimed they were going to use it to purchase stolen credit card information. A lot will depend here on whether the charges actually hold up in court.

Bah, it's federal, it'll never see the inside of a courtroom. Word is that the only issues remaining is exactly what he will plead to.

[Jeffrey]

Got a bit of a surprise in the mail this week. A letter from the Japanese firm handling the MtGox bankruptcy concerning the thing blah blah blah assets.

So now I'm scratching my head because I never used MtGox, I liquidated all my bitcoins over a year ago, so how they hell they have my home mailing address has me puzzled.

[Arthur Rubin]

Got a bit of a surprise in the mail this week. A letter from the Japanese firm handling the MtGox bankruptcy concerning the thing blah blah blah assets.

So now I'm scratching my head because I never used MtGox, I liquidated all my bitcoins over a year ago, so how they hell they have my home mailing address has me puzzled.

Clawback? Perhaps the holder of your bitcoins had your address, and they were involved with MtGox?

[notorial dissent]

Or their record keeping is just that good!

[Jeffrey]

I used Dwolla to cash out my Bitcoins but the Bitcoins went from my wallet to Dwolla, I don't think they went through MtGox as an intermediary.

Not only that but only Dwolla had my information so why would MtGox have it.

And not only that, if the whole point of Bitcoin was supposedly Anonymity, how the hell is it Anonymous when random Japanese law firms know what the hell my bitcoin transactions were and have my full name and mailing address.

[webhick]

Could be a phishing scam.

[notorial dissent]

True, could be a phishing scam, but usually they don't have real information to start with.

What are the attorneys wanting or saying in their letter? That has my curiosity up.

[Jeffrey]

https://imgur.com/a/cMRQO

Someone else posted the letter he got to imgur and Reddit. Mine is identical.

I didn't have any bitcoins or money in MtGox anyways so I'm not going to respond.

[Jeffrey]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33745611

Good news

Japanese police have arrested the CEO of the failed company MtGox, which was once the world's biggest exchange of the virtual currency, bitcoin.

[Jeffrey]

Does anyone even check this thread anymore?

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/01/technol ... silk-road/

A second former federal agent in the Silk Road case has admitted to stealing $820,000 worth of bitcoins while hunting for the Dread Pirate Roberts, federal prosecutors say.

Anyways, just further bitcoin fallout.