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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.

12 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's probably in the blockchain. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 2

    It's probably in the blockchain.

    Any day now. Unless someone is willing to pay a higher transaction fee, then a couple more days.

  2. What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Between this submission and this other submission that's currently on the front page, the word "nazi" appears 8 times!

    Do you know how many times "linux" appears on the front page right now? Zero!

    Do you know how many times "programming" appears on the front page right now? Zero!

    "internet" only appears twice.

    Are Slashdot's editors just imitating the mainstream media and leftists, who have been falsely accusing all sorts of people of being "nazis" lately?

    Frankly, this kind of misuse of the term "nazi" only serves to dilute the meaning of that term.

    It's getting to the point where when people hear the term "nazi" and they just figure it's yet another false accusation made to attack a political opponent, the shrug their shoulders, and ignore it.

    1. Re:What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      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

      Americans killed by Nazis in 2017:

      Heather Heyer
      Taliesin Namkai Meche
      Ricky Best
      Richard Collins III
      Timothy Caughman
      Srinivas Kuchibhotla
      Buckley Kuhn-Fricker
      Scott Fricker

      Americans killed by anti-fascists: 0

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Re: What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And still no UTF-8 support.

  4. Fiat cash? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    1. Re:Fiat cash? by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fiat cash?

      That is money used to buy an Italian car.

    2. Re:Fiat cash? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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?

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re:Fiat cash? by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

  5. Fiat cash? by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:Bitcoin Addresses != Unique Individuals by mysidia · · Score: 3, Informative

    WHY is it stupid? Perhaps because it's too easy to steal

    It's HARD to steal, unless they are amateurish in their key management practices.

    Use dedicated hardware-wallets with optional BIP39 Passphrase + Strong PIN + Strong physical security.

    If they're concerned about insider attacks, then they can use a special procedure to generate credentials where No one person ever gains access to sufficient credentials to authorize a transaction.

    For example: Suppose the wallet is a Trezor.
    You need two items to operate the device: BIP39 Passphrase to open the wallet, and PIN number to authorize each transaction.

    You would need two items to recover or clone the device: 24 Recovery words and BIP39 Passphrase

    Person 1 will make up and personally secure the 48-character random passphrase, and give the first 16 characters to Person 2 and Person 3, AND give the next 16 characters to Person 4 and Person 5, and finally Person 8 and Person 9 will receive the rest of the passphrase.

    Person 2, Person 3, Person 4, and Person 5 begin the initialization process for the wallet and begin selecting an 8-digit PIN number.
    Person 2 and Person 3 handle choosing and entering the first 4 digits of the PIN and their share of the passphrase, then Person 4 and Person 5 handle entering the next 4 digits of the PIN and their share of the passphrase, then Person 8 and 9.

    For wallet recovery: The 24 seed words will be divided into 3 shares.
    Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3, Person 8 will write down and personally secure the first 8 words

    Person 4, Person 5, and Person 6, Person 9 will write down and personally secure the next 8 words

    Person 7, Person 8, and Person 9, Person 10 will write down and personally secure the last 8 words

  7. Re: What's with Slashdot's "nazi" obsession lately by nospam007 · · Score: 2

    "You are literally Hitler!"

      'literally' ?

    You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

  8. A fashion industry for words. by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The term of choice used to be "racist", but that's been so overused in the past year and a half that they have to switch to using another word.

    I've been following the zeitgeist of this. Until around December of last year, people would flee from the word, conceding the argument to whoever first uses the word to describe the other side. Then in December people started ignoring the word a little, then Jan/Feb people were like "meh" about it, and around March people started (note: started, not widely) embracing the word.

    Then "OK, I'm racist" started popping up, but it wasn't really attached to the *person*, it was attached to the position. One could say "OK, I'm racist" for posting an opinion about strong immigration control. Or "OK, I'm racist" for posting an opinion about limiting visas or voter ID.

    Through the summer, "racist" started to be applied to just about everything. Tigers are racist. Perfectionism is a form of racism. Two white parents having a white child is racist. I'm not making that last one up, it's "[...] one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy" - don't you know?

    Now racist has completely lost its meaning. No one online seems to pay any attention to it at all.

    Sexual assault is pretty big right now, but it's fading fast. It was a flash in the pan with people like Harvey Weinstein, but quickly got more ridiculous. You can tell it's on it's way out because Fart rape is a thing.

    (Side note: "Trump is literally Hitler" is pretty-much dead, the last nail in that coffin was recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.)

    So now they need a new word, and it's probably going to be nazis for awhile. Expect this to go on for a couple of months and get progressively more ridiculous, probably though the primaries of next year.

    Then Ramadan comes up (May 15 to June15), many terrorist actions will make the news cycle(*), and it's likely that "Islamaphobe" will be the word of the day.

    It's basically the fashion industry for words.

    (*) Just extrapolating from past years, such as last year viz. London. OK, I'm racist.