Bitter for “Crypto-Valley Swiss”: Zuger Bitcoin ATM stolen
Zug, respectively the resident “Crypto Valley”, cause a worldwide sensation. Here is one of the few Swiss Bitcoin machines since 2014. Or better: stood. Currently one is here without a machine, in a night and Nebelaktion the device was stolen. Does the culprit now generate cheerful bitcoins in the cellar at home?
A bitcoin automaton model BitXatm weighs around 90 kilograms. So it’s not really a device you just put under your arm and walk around. But just such a Bitcoin machine was stolen on October 20 from the Lakeside Business Center in Zug. Frank Kleiner, media spokesman for the Zug police, confirms the information available at the moment. It was reported to a stolen machine. “The case is still ongoing,” the perpetrator fleeting, he adds.
A BitXatm from the manufacturer BitXatm Technology from Munich can be purchased for about 4,000 francs. No cardboard handle also for the BITC Sàrl and Bity SA.
The company from Tavannes in the Bernese Jura was the operator of the machine in Zug. And not, for example, Värdex AG, Switzerland’s largest Bitcoin ATM network, with headquarters in Zug (centralplus). Nuno Pinto, CEO of BITC Sàrl, would not like to comment on the issue in detail. He points out that the case is currently in the hands of the police.
The automat should be replaced long ago
According to Pinto was planned to replace the machine already shortly after the loss. However, the delivery is delayed. In the next few weeks it should finally be ready. Long should the Crypto Valley train so no longer have to do without Bitcoin ATM. Whether the stolen device was insured, Nuno Pinto will not reveal.
We asked Christian Mäder from Bitcoin News Switzerland how lucrative such a robbery could be. “It depends on the model, if such a theft is worthwhile. All I know is the machines from the Lamassu company. ”
Bitcoins from the machine, that’s how it is in Lucerne.
There it is so that the thieves did not reach the private keys of the Bitcoins. “This is because not all the key is stored locally in the device, but only part of it. I think that’s no different with model BitXatm, “says Mäder. “And even if the key is local on the Android tablet, which is in most ATMs, it is still heavily encrypted.”
It attracted the cash
Did the thieves know that they would not be able to access the private keys? “I think they did not know that. Or, what is more likely, they only wanted the cash they contained, “suspects Mäder.
“Depending on the model, there is a more or less large cash container in the device. In any case, the two-way automatic change machines, as produced by BitXatm. With this device, you can not only buy Bitcoins, but also sell and then receive cash from the machine.
Theft was not a easy walk
Another question is how difficult it is to steal a Bitcoin ATM. One who needs to know is Mathias Ruch. He is a managing partner of Lakeside Partners AG and emphasizes that the theft was anything but a walk.
“In the pictures of the surveillance camera you can see that the perpetrator was at work for hours until he had loosened all the cables and got the machine free. So if someone has the feeling that you can just walk in, clamp the machine under your arm and run out again, then he has a completely wrong picture. ”
At least three doors broken
The thief had invaded the garage and broke at least three doors. “The Lakeside Business Center has thus incurred considerable financial damage,” says Ruch. The office building was completed electronically and even the garage needed badges. “In our view, the building is already very safe,” says Ruch. But in an office building, you always get in somehow, if you want. And if it is with the crowbar.
Until the new Bitcoin machine finally finds its way to Zug, the soft irony remains that of all the much-cited Crypto Valley train for months without Bitcoin machine stands. By comparison, there are five in Zurich alone. There are around 20 in Switzerland