A Manager of the Exmo Bitcoin Exchange Has Been Kidnapped In Ukraine (bbc.com)

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A Manager of the Exmo Bitcoin Exchange Has Been Kidnapped In Ukraine (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday December 28, 2017 @10:00PM from the lost-and-found dept.

CaptainDork shares a report from BBC: A manager of the Exmo Bitcoin exchange has been kidnapped in Ukraine. According to Russian and Ukrainian media reports Pavel Lerner, 40, was kidnapped while leaving his office in Kiev's Obolon district on December 26th. The reports said he was dragged into a black Mercedes-Benz by men wearing balaclavas. Police in Kiev confirmed to the BBC that a man had been kidnapped on the day in question, but would not confirm his identity. A spokeswoman said that the matter was currently under investigation, and that more information would be made public later on. Mr Lerner is a prominent Russian blockchain expert and the news of his kidnapping has stunned many in the international cryptocurrency community.

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obligatory XKCD by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:06 · Score: 1, Insightful

https://xkcd.com/538/
1. Re:obligatory XKCD by Ash-Fox · 2017-12-28 22:09 · Score: 1
  
  I am sceptical he could recite all those 18 character wallet private keys.
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Someone should inform the kidnappers... by Gravis+Zero · 2017-12-28 22:07 · Score: 4, Funny

this is not how ransomware works. ;)

--
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
1. Re:Someone should inform the kidnappers... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:14 · Score: 1
  
  maybe, but given the funds he likely has access to this may be far more profitable than ransomware!
2. Re:Someone should inform the kidnappers... by Joce640k · 2017-12-29 03:16 · Score: 1
  
  The fun part is what's about to happen to the price of Bitcoin.
  
  --
  No sig today...
3. Re:Someone should inform the kidnappers... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-31 04:34 · Score: 0
  
  Go up? What is EXMO exchange? Nothing. You are clearly one of those morons who knows nothing about cryptocurrency.
Kidnapping will be back in style by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-12-28 22:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

This traditional form of crime has fallen out of favor in modern societies because of the increasing difficulty of making an untraceable money drop. Ransoms in cryptocurrency eliminates this problem. Now we can expect to see kidnapping's comeback in the US and Europe.
1. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by ffkom · 2017-12-28 23:05 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Cryptocurrencies do not make "untraceable money drops" more easy - on the contrary, if you transfer such money from some legitimate account to that of a criminal, every future use of that money is recorded in detail in the "distributed ledger", ready to be used for investigation now or in 30 years.
  
  So unless your goal as a criminal is to some day die with $$$$ in some unused Bitcoin account, you have exactly the same problem of money laundering as with every other currency. Any non-criminal merchant, whether it is an sports car seller or a pizza delivery, will not have any reason to help you with hiding your association with some Bitcoin account number.
  
  So all police needs to do is to follow back the chain of transactions from the first such legitimate merchant back to the first legal entity who would not want to reveal the source of the money, and jail them, either for money laundering, or for the theft of the money.
2. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-12-28 23:33 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Cryptocurrencies do not make "untraceable money drops" more easy - on the contrary, if you transfer such money from some legitimate account to that of a criminal, every future use of that money is recorded in detail in the "distributed ledger", ready to be used for investigation now or in 30 years. .
  If this were true, then why would there be a ransomware problem? Now that entire national healthcare systems are getting hit, intelligence agencies have a strong interest in tracing the path of ransomware payments so that the perpetrators can be quietly strangled with their own intestines as an example to their cohorts.
  No, apparently all you have to do is 'tumble' coins through a few exchanges and that blockchain of custody no longer functions as a tracer.
3. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by cfalcon · 2017-12-28 23:35 · Score: 1
  
  The blockchain may be an immutable ledger, but it still appears easy enough to launder cryptocurrencies. Whether this laundering is fully effective, I have no idea- but clearly the bad guys believe it to be so, which is all you need for malicious behavior to manifest.
4. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 23:39 · Score: 0
  
  bullshit, to start with the authorities were behind on the tech with this. We are now regularly seeing ransomware writers caught or at least identified (sometimes they are in countries where it isn't possible to arrest them). Tumblers do no remove the tracability, especially with many of them coming under the scrutiny of the authorities themselves for not providing adequate tracking information.
5. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by TheRaven64 · 2017-12-28 23:56 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If this were true, then why would there be a ransomware problem?
  Several reasons. The first is that you don't need anonymity for ransoms, you need the perception of anonymity. Ransom demands are possible when the criminal believes that they can receive the payment anonymously, there is less of a requirement that this belief be well founded.
  The second is that you actually don't really need anonymity for ransomware at all, you just need to be able to get the money past law enforcement boundaries. If, for example, I were in North Korea and released ransomware, then it wouldn't matter that everyone could see where the money went to, I'd still be safe from anyone arresting me.
  The third is that tracking the money is only part of the problem. If a law enforcement organisation determines that money sent to a bank account was illegal, then they can freeze the account and they can reverse the transaction. There is no way for a third party to freeze a bitcoin account, so you can watch everything that the criminal spends money on, but you can't stop them spending it (unless you can somehow persuade everyone not to accept money from that wallet).
  Finally, even without cryptocurrencies in the mix, money laundering is a thing. Bitcoin makes this relatively easy: I can send my bitcoins to an exchange, turn them into some other currency, and then take that money to another bank account and then back to an exchange and turn it into Bitcoin. Now there's no record in the public ledger that the money that I withdrew and put back on the block chain are the same. Money went into a pot and then came out again. You can avoid even that with mixer services, where you deposit an amount in bitcoin and withdraw the same amount (or a fraction less). All that the blockchain then knows is that 1,000 people each put 1 bitcoin in and 1,000 people each got 1 bitcoin out (in a different wallet, if they weren't idiots) and so there's no easy way of tying the individual money trails together. If you can get the records associated with the mixers, then you can recreate this, but there's no guarantee that they even keep useful records.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
6. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by geekmux · 2017-12-29 00:28 · Score: 2
  
  So unless your goal as a criminal is to some day die with $$$$ in some unused Bitcoin account, you have exactly the same problem of money laundering as with every other currency.
  Since when has the "problem" of money laundering been a valid deterrent? One would think this fact would have been rather obvious to anyone looking back over the last century of crime.
  
  Any non-criminal merchant, whether it is an sports car seller or a pizza delivery, will not have any reason to help you with hiding your association with some Bitcoin account number.
  Again, look at history. People who launder money get paid for taking that risk. They do it for the same greedy reasons anyone from petty criminals to big bankers (Wells Fargo) do unethical and illegal shit; because it's often worth it.
  
  So all police needs to do is to follow back the chain of transactions from the first such legitimate merchant back to the first legal entity who would not want to reveal the source of the money, and jail them, either for money laundering, or for the theft of the money.
  The ransomware problem is not shrinking because they've made some miracle breakthrough in law enforcement. Death by 1,000 cuts was effective in growing ransomware into a multi-billion dollar enterprise because a $300 ransom makes law enforcement give a shit about as much as reporting a stolen cell phone. The same thing will continue to happen with other crimes because there's never enough law enforcement resources. This fact will establish monetary give-a-shit thresholds that will be abused.
  There's also the obvious problem of legal jurisdiction, which will become a loophole as big as Ireland, a country known for hiding trillions from taxation (funny how no one wants to fix that criminal activity). If other crimes continue, it won't be long before bitcoin finds or establishes its "Ireland."
7. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-12-29 00:50 · Score: 2
  
  Your last paragraph precisely echoes my point, and explains why ransomware works. If you tumble coins through a few fast swaps of one currency for another, the blockchain no longer operates as a tracer and you can get away with whatever form of laundering you want.
8. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:15 · Score: 0
  
  In the past few decades, kidnapping someone and demanding cash was stymied due to ATM limits.
  With Bitcoin having actual value as opposed to fiat currencies, coupled with the fact that once a transaction is done, it cannot be called back, makes physical kidnapping and extortion quite lucrative.
  The BTC's blockchain will show what ID perp's wallet has. However, with how easy it is to move that currency to other places, be it an exchange for tumbling, into anonymous other cryptocurrencies and back, or selling the wallet on the black market and letting the buyer handle the fact that the coins are tainted... it really doesn't matter. This is part of why BTC is only going up, up, and up. China, and other countries realize that it bypasses a broken, manipulated banking system and thus are putting a lot of real value into the currency.
  Don't forget the economy is starting to slide. Come a recession, crimes start happening, especially in the US where having the latest NFL stadium is built and kept polished, over police protection and funding. So, it would be no surprise to see actual kidnappings start again.
  Oh, don't forget the fact that it is easy to find where someone is at all times with all the leaked. Hack Waze, and now you can just get your van, duct tape, and other necessities, and just be ready to go at the mark's location, at your convenience.
  Hmm, even though I am shilling for Bitcoin, I wonder if it might cause people to value privacy if they knew that their GPS location might be used against them should kidnappings start becoming more common.
9. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:16 · Score: 0
  
  But laundering real money is even easier. Just walk into any large national bank and say "I'd like to launder a billion dollars". They are more than happy to break criminal racketeering and even anti-terrorist laws because they know the fines they pay will pale in comparison to the profit they'll make.
10. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:36 · Score: 0
  
  all depends on the end point that you use to convert the bitcoin back to regular currency
11. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:47 · Score: 0
  
  You've obviously never laundered a billion dollars. Only a beginner would mention money laundering. There must be plausible deniability on both sides. If after the preliminary courtesies you start off with, "I'd like to deposit one billion dollars", any subsequent questions from the bank will carefully avoid any questions of legality.
12. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Khyber · 2017-12-29 02:31 · Score: 0
  
  "With Bitcoin having actual value as opposed to fiat currencies"
  That's a fat lie, which is why you posted as AC. Bitcoin appeared out of nothing. Fiat currencies at least have something backing them, be it gold, oil, or some other usable tradeable commodity.
  
  --
  Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
13. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Hognoxious · 2017-12-29 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  People who launder money get paid for taking that risk.
  
  Sometimes the payment is not getting shot.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
14. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:46 · Score: 0
  
  I'm really curious, which exchanges get the most ransomware loot traffic.
  Is one of them in Ukraine by any chance. If so I have little compassion for the guy.
15. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  I guess you never heard of a tumbler?
16. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:54 · Score: 0
  
  Ok. So who exactly knows which Bitcoin account belongs to him at the moment? Do you really believe that he is supposed to be released? They would just silence him in this case forever. Broken bones, cut fingers, heroin and he will tell all the passwords to his accounts. After that transferring money out and cashing them, is not a big deal. Nobody will ever search for them.
17. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Hal_Porter · 2017-12-29 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  A billion dollars would challenging to launder, unless you can buy T bills with it as a foreign government like they do with China. I bet they don't worry too much about whether that money is legal or not.
  http://ticdata.treasury.gov/Pu...
  For a few million just head to Zurich, buy a portfolio of watches, put the watches in a safe deposit box, come back a year later, sell the watches and take your cash.
  You can't put money in a Swiss bank unless you can prove where it came from, but you can put property in a safe deposit box. And when the time comes to sell you get cash with a bunch of receipts. So when you go to another bank you just say "I got the money from selling my dear old Dad's watch".
  I'm sure that's the reason people like IWC make $30-$50,000 watches in limited batches so the price will likely increase.
  A million dollars worth of IWC perpetual calendars would easily fit in a safe deposit box.
  https://www.deployant.com/revi...
  NB none of this applies if you're a US citizen - the Swiss banks won't let you be a customer.
  I wouldn't do any of this personally of course, because I am as honest as the day is long - the longer the day is, the less I do wrong!
  
  --
  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
18. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by reanjr · 2017-12-29 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  Because ransomware takes advantage of jurisdictional hurdles by operating from foreign countries. You can't kidnap someone who's in another country.
19. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by reanjr · 2017-12-29 04:14 · Score: 1
  
  Really? What's the tradable commodity backing the USD?
20. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 04:38 · Score: 0
  
  Even better and more liquid, rare coins. I once had a a suspicious transaction with a post office box just inside the United bordering Mexico. He sent the money and I sent the proof trade dollar. The trouble is, I sent the wrong coin--one worth much less. I immediately tried to contact him to swap coins but could never reach him. And never complained.
  Just a single coin in your pocket could look like just any ordinary pocket change but worth $50,000 anywhere in the world.
21. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-12-29 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, but then look at all the cases of ransomware that have no discernable geographic destination.
22. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 05:28 · Score: 0
  
  China.
23. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 05:46 · Score: 0
  
  Really? What's the tradable commodity backing the USD?
  Taxes, or in other words freedom. You can pay US taxes with USD. This allows you to keep your freedom if you are an American. With Bitcoin you can only become liable for taxes (if the IRS watches the blockchain and sees you buy them at one price and then sell them at another) but you can't pay off those taxes.
24. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Hal_Porter · 2017-12-29 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm, I didn't know what a 'proof trade dollar' was. Turns out you can get a lot of value into a small amount of space
  http://www.ebay.com/bhp/proof-...
  
  --
  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
25. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by TXG1112 · 2017-12-29 06:07 · Score: 1
  
  A multi trillion dollar military defense complex.
  
  --
  I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own.
26. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 08:38 · Score: 0
  
  I disagree. I can move/shapeshift coins to other cryptocurrencies, tumble them with a trusted (hah!) exchange, perhaps visit a place like Joinmarket or ZeroLink. At an extreme, I can sell the wallet anonymously.
  In reality, people really don't care where the dosh comes from. If I did even a half-ass job at moving the currency to and from another format, then run the coins through ZeroLink to my "clean" wallet, which happens to be the one accepting donations on my website, I'm home free.
  Money laundering, especially in this economy of deregulation is trivial. Even with the taxman, I'd set aside a chunk from my tax bracket, say it is from donations from my website, and laugh my way to the bank.
27. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by Khyber · 2017-12-29 19:29 · Score: 1
  
  This person's never heard of the petrodollar. That's fucking rich coming from someone with a lower UID than mine.
  
  --
  Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
28. Re: Kidnapping will be back in style by inking · 2017-12-30 00:22 · Score: 1
  
  The Fifth Fleet, silly.
29. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-30 09:46 · Score: 0
  
  ... ready to be used for investigation now or in 30 years.
  You're morbidly optimistic about this cryptocurrency fad.
30. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by CaptainDork · 2017-12-30 15:39 · Score: 1
  
  President Trump, who knows more about taxes than any CPA, will sign an executive order mandating that ransom payment blocks embedded in the chain be coloured blue.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
31. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by CaptainDork · 2017-12-30 15:46 · Score: 1
  
  Of course, science informs that high energy particles from the Sun sometimes alters parts of the blockchain, forming a mutation called a fork.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
32. Re:Kidnapping will be back in style by CaptainDork · 2017-12-30 15:51 · Score: 1
  
  Kidnapping is OK as long as you don't post it on the Intertoobz.
  Then it becomes a sex crime.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Exchange failure by Ash-Fox · 2017-12-28 22:07 · Score: 0

With so many Bitcoin exchanges failing to exchange and making it extremely difficult, it comes at no surprise to me that something like this would happen.

--
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:11 · Score: 1

a good way OUT OF the ukraine, so he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
1. Re:Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Ash-Fox · 2017-12-28 22:15 · Score: 1
  
  a good way OUT OF the ukraine, so he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
  You could just drive or take a flight out of Ukraine (a friend of mine returned from Ukraine yesterday)?
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
2. Re:Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 00:16 · Score: 0
  
  An oh-so-interesting detail:
  "...dragged into a black Mercedes-Benz by men wearing balaclavas."
  There may be some more to this than Bitcoins. Review the history of Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, and especially Balaklava.
  Into the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred.
  On the other hand, if they were wearing Cardigans...
3. Re: Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:00 · Score: 0
  
  I heard they were wearing Wellingtons.
4. Re: Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Hognoxious · 2017-12-29 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  Found the American!
  (FWIW, at least one person had raglan sleeves).
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
5. Re: Getting kidnapped from the ukraine sounds like by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 04:53 · Score: 0
  
  It's a galling point with them, and as we know, all gall is divided into three parts, after Washington was defeated by Wellington in Jersey, while wearing a sandwich and eating a pickled merkin.
"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:43 · Score: 0

Why do people give their money to these? I'm really curious.
1. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:46 · Score: 1
  
  "Goldman Sachs" investment bankers.
  Why do people give their money to these? I'm really curious.
2. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by nomadic · 2017-12-29 01:57 · Score: 2
  
  They're regulated by a first-world country.
3. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by war4peace · 2017-12-29 02:48 · Score: 1
  
  ...which makes me even more wary of dealing with them.
  
  --
  ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
4. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by crimson+tsunami · 2017-12-29 03:06 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, and they all went to prison for their role in the biggest and most expensive banking scandal/crisis ever.
  Oh no they didn't, carry on.
5. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Joce640k · 2017-12-29 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  Why do people give their money to these? I'm really curious.
  Simple: The Bitcoin network can only handle 3 transactions per second.
  People are setting up 'exchanges' so that people can pretend to buy/sell bitcoins in real time instead of waiting several days/weeks for their transactions to be processed.
  
  --
  No sig today...
6. Re: "Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by reanjr · 2017-12-29 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  Days or weeks? That's FUD. Add a proper fucking fee, you cheap bastard.
7. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Hognoxious · 2017-12-29 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  They're regulated by a first-world country.
  
  What? I thought their main branches were in London & New York.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
8. Re: "Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 05:42 · Score: 0
  
  Good idea. Just spent $50 in buttcoin to pay back my friend $10 for lunch since the sandwich shop doesn't accept butts.
9. Re: "Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 09:09 · Score: 0
  
  Or use the Lightning Network where you don't have to worry about "tipping" some miner as much.
10. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by nomadic · 2018-01-01 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  Being involved in a "scandal/crisis" isn't necessarily a crime. A lot of what they did was immoral, but it wasn't illegal.
11. Re:"Exmo" Bitcoin Exchange by crimson+tsunami · 2018-01-01 16:39 · Score: 1
  
  Of course it's not a crime when you have enough money to throw around to say otherwise.
  That is beside the point, you mentioned being regulated as a reason your money wouldn't be swindled, but it didn't help.
  Causing the crisis is a bit different to 'being involved in' one too.
Just another day in Ukraine by guacamole · 2017-12-28 22:43 · Score: 1

Nothing to see here.
How to make money out of bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:45 · Score: 3, Interesting

1) Set up a bitcoin selling site
2) Collect enormous amounts of money
3) Claim you have been hacked, kidnapped by gunmen/aliens/ZOG etc.
1. Re: How to make money out of bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:45 · Score: 0
  
  Itâ(TM)s a good thing hardware ledgers exist then.
2. Re: How to make money out of bitcoin by Joce640k · 2017-12-29 03:31 · Score: 1
  
  The whole point of a Bitcoin exchange is to skip the global blockchain (which is too slow for most people).
  
  --
  No sig today...
3. Re: How to make money out of bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 07:45 · Score: 0
  
  Which is why you only upload the amount you're willing to buy/sell. If you want to buy/sell your whole portfolio at once, well, um, good luck with that.
Some days you get the bear by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:45 · Score: 0

And other days the bear gets you.
VPN Honeypot by mentil · 2017-12-28 22:47 · Score: 1

Instead of terminating his VPN access, Exmo should redirect his logon to a separate honeypot server whose wallet database only has a handful of keys that add up to a few dozen bitcoin. Lerner can lie and say "yep that's everything, we covered it up due to embezzlement" or say "they must've revoked access to the database except for this one old backdoor database they forgot about" and hopefully they'd let him off with that. And of course the other exchanges have been notified ahead of time to blacklist those wallets and the chain of downstream transfer wallets. They'd pretty much have to also blacklist wallets downstream of a coin tumbler, for that to actually work, unless the cybercriminals are particularly dumb (I wouldn't count on that.) Might just have to settle for the guy being released and a few bitcoins being swiped.

--
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
1. Re:VPN Honeypot by GrumpySteen · 2017-12-29 00:44 · Score: 2
  
  Might just have to settle for the guy being released and a few bitcoins being swiped.
  Or the kidnappers might settle for killing the guy because a few bitcoins isn't worth the risk that he could identify them.
2. Re: VPN Honeypot by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 03:35 · Score: 0
  
  Wow.
  That's how you get killed.
  Why are all bittards idiots like this? Is it the autism?
Expect battle royale as soon as coin tulips wither by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 22:57 · Score: 0

When the crypto-coin "tulip craze" bubble collapses people will be poured into concrete Hoffa style. The organized crime and some rogue kim regimes have poured tends of billions of dollars into the delusion of untraceable e-currency and when price falls from 19K to 19c, all that wealth "will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
Except hardened criminals and genocidal dictators are not the grieving kind of posse, rather they will try to find out where the funds went and they sure have info sources, from prositutes to corrupt cops. They'll try to regain their "hard-earned" money with cold steel, jacketed lead, poison and even hot polonium, if necessary. Expect geeks impaled by the roadside Vlad Dracul style and hanged from overpasses according to mexican custom just for deterrent effect and Markov-chains of vendettas to follow for years.
I'm fairly sure they will even find out about the hideout of "Satoshi Nakamoto", have him buried shoulders deep in the ground and make music with a bamboo saw on his neck Clavell's Shogun style.
It just boggles the mind that people consider a pseudo-money scheme designed "ab ovo" for use by the most dangerous criminals as a safe way to get rich? If you join an occult cabal like the masons or illuminati to get rich and super influential, you understand at least that you yourself is likely to be ritually sacrificed sooner or later and it's not a safe venture to strike a pact with the Devil.
Re: Expect battle royale as soon as coin tulips wi by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 23:25 · Score: 1, Insightful

I'm guessing your day job is fiction writer
How they are paid by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 23:50 · Score: 0

If the kidnappers demand that the ransom gets paid in Dollars or Euros, I'd be very concerned if I had BitCoin.
Then again, the kidnappers may be going all Swordfish on the guy right now and he's getting a blowjob with a gun to his head while he breaks into an exchange get $100 Billion in bitcoin.
And after mixing two movie references, I now see Halle Berry's naked breasts on Doctor Evil.
ENOUGH PINKO COMMIE CHIT! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-28 23:52 · Score: 0

If I wanted to hear about Trump cockholstering Putin I'd watch Fox and Fiends.
1. Re:ENOUGH PINKO COMMIE CHIT! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 03:29 · Score: 0
  
  Working for Sharia Blue this week or just pretending to have something important to say? You're a dhimmi slave.
Re: Expect battle royale as soon as coin tulips wi by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 00:50 · Score: 0

OP is exaggerating, but criminals are investing heavily into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way to avoid law enforcement attention and to evade sanctions.
And when a gun-running or drug-smuggling organization buys $10,000,000 in Bitcoins through your exchange, only to have it lose 50% of its value the next day, what do you expect them to do to those exchange managers?
Personally, I'd prefer to avoid "thank you" notes from those sorts of people.
not surprised by FudRucker · 2017-12-29 01:07 · Score: 1, Funny

go messing with the monopoly that the global central banking system has on the world's fiat currency and bad things are going to happen, look what happened to Lincoln for his green-backs, and JFK for executive order 1111, it was for trying to wrestle control of the monetary system away from the banking cartel that runs the world's currencies

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Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Stunned? Why? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 01:27 · Score: 0

>> ...and the news of his kidnapping has stunned many in the international cryptocurrency community
Maybe they were stunned because this hasn't happened sooner.
1. Re:Stunned? Why? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:08 · Score: 0
  
  Exactly. People smell money and this is what should be expected. Such is the avarice of man...
Re: Expect battle royale as soon as coin tulips wi by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:07 · Score: 0

He plans to leave his mom's basement when he gets that job writing anime.
This is Bitcoins Achilles Tendon by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 02:47 · Score: 0

Super, so you say that Bitcoin money are anonymous :-)
So of these balaclava guys squeeze bitcoins out of him, nobody would ever know about it :-)
time consuming but not very hard by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 03:03 · Score: 0

http://www.austrac.gov.au/site... If the police try to block your account due to terrorist fears or somesuch, the bank will helpfully give you a 30 day heads up to move your money some place else.
Welcome to the Ukraine by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-29 13:20 · Score: 0

A modern democracy where there is even Starbucks,
DIY Cryptocurrency Mining by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-01 06:06 · Score: 0

If you want to get in on the cryptocurrency mining scene, you need a good motherboard that allows for multiple GPUs: ASRock H110 Pro BTC+, ASUS B250, Biostar TB350-BTC, or GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A.
DIY Cryptocurrency Mining by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-01 06:14 · Score: 0

If you want to get in on the cryptocurrency mining scene, you need a good motherboard that allows for multiple GPUs: ASRock H110 Pro BTC+, ASUS B250, Biostar TB350-BTC, or GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A.