The FBI has issued a subpoena for details about a meeting of Bitcoin Core developers due to an ongoing probe into the disappearance of $3.6 million in Bitcoins belonging to Luke Dashjr. This investigation aims to identify any attendees who may have been involved in the theft.
FBI Requested One Year Silence on Subpoena
Mike Schmidt, a high-ranking executive at Brink, the company that sponsors open-source developers financially, announced in an email on X that he had received a subpoena from the FBI and was obligated to comply with their investigation.
During the probe into Luke Dashjr’s alleged theft of Bitcoins, I received an FBI subpoena asking for details about attendees at the October 2022 CoreDev Atlanta conference. My legal counsel advised me to comply with the request.
Schmidt previously had to keep the subpoena a secret for over a year due to legal requirements. But now that this time limit has passed, he felt it was necessary to inform the concerned individuals.
The Brink Director stated that the FBI initially requested a significant amount of data from him. But after some resistance, they reached a compromise for only sharing limited information. Consequently, Schmidt handed over the participants’ GitHub usernames, full names, and emails to the FBI.
Schmidt merely notified the recipients about the subpoena and hasn’t disclosed any information regarding the ongoing investigation. He concluded the email with an expression of regret.
“I’m sorry I inadvertently shared your private info with you. Feel free to reach out to me via email if you require any clarification.”
On January 1, 2023, Dashjr made a post on Reddit (X) expressing his concern that “a significant amount” of his Bitcoins had been stolen. In a subsequent post, he lamented that “almost all” of them were taken. Binance‘s co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), responded by offering assistance and vowing to freeze the tokens should they appear on Binance. The FBI is currently looking into this matter following Dashjr’s cry for help.
The Bitcoin Theft From Dashjr’s Wallets
In his initial post, Dashjr described how a thief could have gained unauthorized access by breaching his PGP key. He shared that he utilizes this key to safeguard his downloads of Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots applications, preventing any potential malware interference. Bitcoin Core is the most widely-used app for running Bitcoin nodes, with over 17,800 nodes currently in operation as per Coin Dance statistics. Bitcoin Knots, an alternative Bitcoin protocol implementation, comes in second place with 135 nodes, significantly fewer than Core.
The theft from Dashjr’s wallet is more alarming because both hot and cold assets are reportedly missing. Hot wallets can be accessed online, while cold wallets use offline storage devices for added security. This raises the possibility that hackers gained direct access to his devices, possibly during the 2022 DevCore event.
Sadly, certain questions remain unanswered due to the ongoing investigation. Yet, the available information indicates that hardware wallets might demand greater security measures as hackers continue to explore potential vulnerabilities.
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2024-04-11 14:13