Punk in Finland

How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity
Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable. Then a grad student named Sarah Meiklejohn proved them all wrong—and set the stage for a decade-long crackdown.

Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the internet.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs and other contraband for bitcoin while flaunting its impunity from law enforcement.

This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable—that its blockchain would actually allow researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users with even more transparency than the existing financial system. That discovery would upend the world of cybercrime. Bitcoin tracing would, over the next few years, solve the mystery of the theft of a half-billion dollar stash of bitcoins from the world’s first crypto exchange, help enable the biggest dark-web drug market takedown in history, lead to the arrest of hundreds of pedophiles around the world in the bust of the dark web’s largest child sexual abuse video site, and result in the first-, second-, and third-biggest law enforcement monetary seizures in the history of the US Justice Department.

That 180-degree flip in the world’s understanding of cryptocurrency’s privacy properties, and the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, out this week in paperback.

All of it began with the work of a young, puzzle-loving mathematician named Sarah Meiklejohn, the first researcher to pull out traceable patterns in the apparent noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain. This excerpt from Tracers in the Dark reveals how Meiklejohn came to the discoveries that would launch that new era of crypto criminal justice.

https://www.wired.com/story/27-year-old ... anonymity/

Tom Morris
@[email protected]

Silicon Valley’s brightest minds have finally answered the question “what if we could have Jonestown but with WiFi?”

https://www.vitalia.city

We’re gathering 200 residents and 500+ visitors on the Caribbean island of Roatán, in and near the Próspera semi-autonomous jurisdiction:

• Healthy food available (Bryan Johnson breakfast included)
• Coworking space with Pomodoro focus areas
• Healthy habits - workouts, meditation, sauna, cold plunge (with accountability partnerships)
• Self-experimentation & clinical trials (including Follistatin gene therapy)
• Family welcome - Montessori school and childcare available
• ~100% crypto economy available

We will harbor renegade life scientists, artists, biotechnology engineers, and an entrepreneurially driven community of people who cherish life.

renegade life scientists

pigra senlaborulo wrote: ↑

18 Jan 2024, 23:15

How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity

Spoiler:

Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable. Then a grad student named Sarah Meiklejohn proved them all wrong—and set the stage for a decade-long crackdown.

Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the internet.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs and other contraband for bitcoin while flaunting its impunity from law enforcement.

This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable—that its blockchain would actually allow researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users with even more transparency than the existing financial system. That discovery would upend the world of cybercrime. Bitcoin tracing would, over the next few years, solve the mystery of the theft of a half-billion dollar stash of bitcoins from the world’s first crypto exchange, help enable the biggest dark-web drug market takedown in history, lead to the arrest of hundreds of pedophiles around the world in the bust of the dark web’s largest child sexual abuse video site, and result in the first-, second-, and third-biggest law enforcement monetary seizures in the history of the US Justice Department.

That 180-degree flip in the world’s understanding of cryptocurrency’s privacy properties, and the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, out this week in paperback.

All of it began with the work of a young, puzzle-loving mathematician named Sarah Meiklejohn, the first researcher to pull out traceable patterns in the apparent noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain. This excerpt from Tracers in the Dark reveals how Meiklejohn came to the discoveries that would launch that new era of crypto criminal justice.

https://www.wired.com/story/27-year-old ... anonymity/

linkin takana helvetin pitkä juttu

Spandau Mullet wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 15:33

https://mastodon.social/@tommorris/111804640168317842

Spoiler:

Tom Morris
@[email protected]

Silicon Valley’s brightest minds have finally answered the question “what if we could have Jonestown but with WiFi?”

https://www.vitalia.city

Piti katsoa mistä kyse ja uusi kryptosaarihan se Luulin että tällainen sekoilu oli jo lopetettu. Webbisivulta:

We’re gathering 200 residents and 500+ visitors on the Caribbean island of Roatán, in and near the Próspera semi-autonomous jurisdiction:

• Healthy food available (Bryan Johnson breakfast included)
• Coworking space with Pomodoro focus areas
• Healthy habits - workouts, meditation, sauna, cold plunge (with accountability partnerships)
• Self-experimentation & clinical trials (including Follistatin gene therapy)
• Family welcome - Montessori school and childcare available
• ~100% crypto economy available

We will harbor renegade life scientists, artists, biotechnology engineers, and an entrepreneurially driven community of people who cherish life.

Nyt pöhistään! Tykkäsin etenkin tuosta hienovaraisesta ~-merkistä kryptoekonomia-kohdassa

Marxin Ryyppy wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:08

pigra senlaborulo wrote: ↑

18 Jan 2024, 23:15

How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity

Spoiler:

Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable. Then a grad student named Sarah Meiklejohn proved them all wrong—and set the stage for a decade-long crackdown.

Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the internet.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs and other contraband for bitcoin while flaunting its impunity from law enforcement.

This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable—that its blockchain would actually allow researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users with even more transparency than the existing financial system. That discovery would upend the world of cybercrime. Bitcoin tracing would, over the next few years, solve the mystery of the theft of a half-billion dollar stash of bitcoins from the world’s first crypto exchange, help enable the biggest dark-web drug market takedown in history, lead to the arrest of hundreds of pedophiles around the world in the bust of the dark web’s largest child sexual abuse video site, and result in the first-, second-, and third-biggest law enforcement monetary seizures in the history of the US Justice Department.

That 180-degree flip in the world’s understanding of cryptocurrency’s privacy properties, and the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, out this week in paperback.

All of it began with the work of a young, puzzle-loving mathematician named Sarah Meiklejohn, the first researcher to pull out traceable patterns in the apparent noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain. This excerpt from Tracers in the Dark reveals how Meiklejohn came to the discoveries that would launch that new era of crypto criminal justice.

https://www.wired.com/story/27-year-old ... anonymity/

linkin takana helvetin pitkä juttu

Nuo Wiredin Greenbergin pitkät historiikit noista darkweb ym. pomojen jäljittämisestä on helvetin hyviä. Jos haluaa vaikkapa iltalukemistoa niin tämä Alphabayn ratsaamisesta on ehdottomasti lukemisen arvoinen:

https://www.wired.com/story/alphabay-se ... he-shadow/

Tästä sais oikeasti jo hyvän leffan, sen verta kovaa ajoa.

Marxin Ryyppy wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:10

Spandau Mullet wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 15:33

https://mastodon.social/@tommorris/111804640168317842

Spoiler:

Tom Morris
@[email protected]

Silicon Valley’s brightest minds have finally answered the question “what if we could have Jonestown but with WiFi?”

https://www.vitalia.city

Piti katsoa mistä kyse ja uusi kryptosaarihan se Luulin että tällainen sekoilu oli jo lopetettu. Webbisivulta:

We’re gathering 200 residents and 500+ visitors on the Caribbean island of Roatán, in and near the Próspera semi-autonomous jurisdiction:

• Healthy food available (Bryan Johnson breakfast included)
• Coworking space with Pomodoro focus areas
• Healthy habits - workouts, meditation, sauna, cold plunge (with accountability partnerships)
• Self-experimentation & clinical trials (including Follistatin gene therapy)
• Family welcome - Montessori school and childcare available
• ~100% crypto economy available

We will harbor renegade life scientists, artists, biotechnology engineers, and an entrepreneurially driven community of people who cherish life.

Nyt pöhistään! Tykkäsin etenkin tuosta hienovaraisesta ~-merkistä kryptoekonomia-kohdassa

Joo, kiinnostais tietää mitä tuo "suunnilleen vaikka sata" nyt oikeasti meinaa

Käänteinen kastijärjestelmä wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:11

Marxin Ryyppy wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:08

pigra senlaborulo wrote: ↑

18 Jan 2024, 23:15

How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity

Spoiler:

Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable. Then a grad student named Sarah Meiklejohn proved them all wrong—and set the stage for a decade-long crackdown.

Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the internet.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs and other contraband for bitcoin while flaunting its impunity from law enforcement.

This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable—that its blockchain would actually allow researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users with even more transparency than the existing financial system. That discovery would upend the world of cybercrime. Bitcoin tracing would, over the next few years, solve the mystery of the theft of a half-billion dollar stash of bitcoins from the world’s first crypto exchange, help enable the biggest dark-web drug market takedown in history, lead to the arrest of hundreds of pedophiles around the world in the bust of the dark web’s largest child sexual abuse video site, and result in the first-, second-, and third-biggest law enforcement monetary seizures in the history of the US Justice Department.

That 180-degree flip in the world’s understanding of cryptocurrency’s privacy properties, and the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, out this week in paperback.

All of it began with the work of a young, puzzle-loving mathematician named Sarah Meiklejohn, the first researcher to pull out traceable patterns in the apparent noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain. This excerpt from Tracers in the Dark reveals how Meiklejohn came to the discoveries that would launch that new era of crypto criminal justice.

https://www.wired.com/story/27-year-old ... anonymity/

linkin takana helvetin pitkä juttu

Nuo Wiredin Greenbergin pitkät historiikit noista darkweb ym. pomojen jäljittämisestä on helvetin hyviä. Jos haluaa vaikkapa iltalukemistoa niin tämä Alphabayn ratsaamisesta on ehdottomasti lukemisen arvoinen:

https://www.wired.com/story/alphabay-se ... he-shadow/

Tästä sais oikeasti jo hyvän leffan, sen verta kovaa ajoa.

Tracers in the dark on kirja mistä noi artikkelit on ja on hyvä kirja lukee se.

Spandau Mullet wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:13

Toi oli vielä joku ikuisen elämän saavuttamiseen tähtäävä techbro-viritys, vohooiii

A Colorado-based pastor for an online church accused of pocketing $1.3 million through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme told followers in a video statement that the Lord told him to do it.

Eli Regalado and his wife marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement Thursday.

INDXcoin raised nearly $3.2 million, the Securities Division said. At least $1.3 million of that went directly to the Regalados or was "used for their own personal benefit," said a complaint filed Tuesday in Denver County District Court.

The Regalados could not be reached for comment. In a video statement to his followers last week, Eli Regalado said the charges that they pocketed $1.3 million "are true."

“Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do," he said in the video.

The couple also allegedly spent their investors’ funds on a Range Rover, luxury handbags, jewelry, an au pair, boat rentals and snowmobile adventures, according to the complaint.

The couple were charged with violating anti-fraud provisions under the Colorado Securities Act.

Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said she filed the civil fraud charges after she was approached by people who invested and lost money through INDXcoin.

“We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies,” Chan said in a statement.
'Illiquid and practically worthless'

Regalado claimed that God told him investors would become wealthy if they put money into INDXcoin, promoting it as a low-risk, high-profit investment pegged to the average value of the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the Securities Division said.

In reality, INDXcoin was "illiquid and practically worthless," the Securities Division said in its release. The cryptocurrency was available only in Kingdom Wealth Exchange, which the Regalados shut down. It can no longer be sold anywhere.

"We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit," Regalado in his video address Friday. "What we're believing for still is that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector."

In the comments on Regalado's video, dozens of people continue to reassure him that God will "turn the situation around."
Faith-based marketing

Regalado was 22 and serving a prison sentence for “boosting cars” when his faith called him to become a pastor 20 years ago, he said in a YouTube live podcast. He began preaching for the online-only Victorious Grace Church, where he and his wife are listed as the only two employees.
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Regalado, who had no cryptocurrency or exchange background, said divine inspiration called him to launch INDXcoin and Kingdom Wealth Exchange.

“It was last October [20]21 that the Lord brought this cryptocurrency to me. He said, ‘Take this to my people for a wealth transfer,’” Regalado said in a video update to INDXcoin followers in August 2022.

Regalado advertised INDXcoin through presentations at his church and at others he found through other pastors, according to the legal complaint. From June 2022 to April 2023, the cryptocurrency raised nearly $3.2 million by selling unregistered securities, it said.

In videos on INDXcoin’s YouTube channel, Regalado quotes Bible verses, telling investors to expect a “miracle” as they wait for “God’s plan” to unfold.

Regalado also told investors they would "tithe" and "sow" in causes helping widows and orphans, but the funds primarily went into their own pockets, according to the complaint.

“They specifically went out to the Christian community, and there’s a lot of references to scripture and faith. He cloaks himself in that to get people to give their money to him,” said Chan, the securities commissioner. “That’s really heartbreaking for the people who trusted him.”

Eli Regalado, his wife and his three companies are charged with securities fraud, unlicensed broker-dealer activity, selling unregistered securities and imposition of constructive trust.

They are scheduled to appear in Denver District Court next week, according to the court docket.

Chan urges others who have invested in INDXCoin to contact the Colorado Division of Securities.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/co ... rcna135143

pigra senlaborulo wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2024, 22:43

a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do

Spandau Mullet wrote: ↑

23 Jan 2024, 16:13

Toi oli vielä joku ikuisen elämän saavuttamiseen tähtäävä techbro-viritys, vohooiii