Where Did WikiLeaks' $25 Million Bitcoin Fortune Go? (thedailybeast.com)

Everyone from early investors to cybercriminals has benefited from the huge spike in the value of bitcoin in the past few weeks. It's a boon for one other outfit that has likely racked up tens of millions of dollars' worth of the cryptocurrency: WikiLeaks. Joseph Cox, reporting for The Daily Beast: The transparency organization may be sitting on a stockpile of bitcoin valued at around $25 million, and has likely exchanged several other large cryptocurrency caches for fiat cash, according to two sources who independently analyzed WikiLeaks's bitcoin transactions. "Last wallet looks like his piggy bank," John Bambenek, a security expert who has previously tracked Neo-Nazis' use of bitcoin, told The Daily Beast, pointing to a specific bitcoin address believed to be linked to WikiLeaks. Since at least 2011, WikiLeaks has allowed supporters to send bitcoin donations. As noted by James Ball, a journalist and former WikiLeaks staffer, whoever is in control of this address -- presumably WikiLeaks -- moved around 3,000 bitcoin, worth $800 each, into a series of other accounts on one day in December 2013.

Comments

Re: What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately

[Anonymous Coward]

And still no UTF-8 support.

Fiat cash?

[smooth wombat]

exchanged several other large cryptocurrency caches for fiat cash

The term is real money. Using the term "fiat cash" makes the author sound like a pretentious ass who's trying to be oh so leet.

No one in normal, every day usage uses the term, "fiat cash". If we're going down that route, we should use a term such as electronic markers to describe bitcoin and the like.

Re:Fiat cash?

[bill_mcgonigle]

In the US, real money is defined as gold or silver, as is similar in the Constitutions of several states and the Bretton Woods Agreement.

Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time, but this may be the first time any of them were accused of being 'leet' rather than 'nerds'.

Why do you have a burr up your ass about a particular economic term?

Re:Fiat cash?

[religionofpeas]

No one in normal, every day usage uses the term, "fiat cash"

Because in normal every day usage, that's implied.

But in a discussion where you talk about non-fiat money, it becomes useful to make the distinction explicit.

Fiat cash?

[Okian Warrior]

In the US, real money is defined as gold or silver, as is similar in the Constitutions of several states and the Bretton Woods Agreement.

Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time, but this may be the first time any of them were accused of being 'leet' rather than 'nerds'.

Why do you have a burr up your ass about a particular economic term?

In addition, he's attacking the author (he sounds pretentious!) and not the substance of the article, or even the reliability of the information given.

Re:What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately?

[ScentCone]

That's because linux users aren't as likely to kill anyone, and they're much less fun to punch.

The good news is that the imaginary armies of killer Nazis roaming your neighborhoods don't actually exist. The bad news is that violent leftist thugs actually do form groups specifically to go out and hurt people and destroy things, and then actually do it, and get applauded by their sponsors for doing it.

The other good news is that people are waking up to the reality of the situation's phony narratives. The bad news is that you approve of preemptive violent assault as a form of political expression.