Bitfinex hacker gives away 1000 BTC
Yesterday (3rd of August 2016), at exactly 01:58:35 PM GMT, what seems to be the most growing bitcointalk.org thread of all times has been created by a user named rekcahxfb under the title 1000 BTC GIVEAWAY! From your friend rekcahxfb. At first glance this seems as a hype post with nothing behind. However the user's post displays a proof of funds, a signed message and a signed nlocktime transaction (dead man's switch) in case something happens to them.
Some comments further, after being asked about the source of their funds, rekcahxfb gives a hint about their identity:
reverse my name
And the reversed name is ... wait for it :) ... bfxhacker.
The giveaway is open for one week, and the terms, as stated by rekcahxfb, are:
Post your address below. Random winner will be selected 1 week from now. No alts/sockpuppets
Some participants suggested that it would be better if there were 100 winners of 10 BTC each or 1000 winners of 1 BTC each.
In the time of writing, the topic has 126 pages and 2515 posts (the vast majority of them being participants' bitcoin addresses).
Knowing the identity of the giver does not seem to dissuade users from participating. I mean, these are stolen funds. Some may consider rekcahxfb a Robin Hood. As far as I know, Robin Hood stole from the fraudulently rich to feed the starving poor. I think nobody knows for a fact how people who lost their funds did earn them, for all we know these are hard-earned bitcoins. Of course all the other scenarios are possible ...
The thread is growing at an incredible rate and it is less than one day old. It will probably have gathered two or three more pages by the time I post this :).
Such a giveaway won't probably do any good to Bitcoin's market price, I don't really know if donating 1000 BTC would affect the price though.
I genuinely do not support such a giveaway and don't advise anyone to participate, unless the winner returns the funds to their rightful owners.
I am now realizing that some readers might be tempted to participate after reading this post and I hope this won't happen. The aim of this post is to relay what seemed to me, an important and unexpected piece of news.
I'd be more than happy to read your thoughts about this event, whether you support it or not, are okay with it or not, all opinions are welcome.
Oh! I almost forgot the link to the thread on bitcointalk.org :).
Upvoted, bookmarked and waiting for your updates.
Although my first impulse is not to believe him. Cant we see if any of the stolen coins went to this address?
Thank you :) (you only need to share it now :p). Tracing back the transactions on the blockchain, the address used for proof of funds addr1 received the funds from addr2 which received them from addr3, These last two addresses are grayed out, I don't even know what it means ... Anyway I think that if you know your way around the blockchain you can make it very hard to trace a transaction. Concerning the legitimacy of the giveaway, some comments said that the user already gave 10 BTC (in some other giveaway) and everything seems to indicate that this is really true.
I found something interesting and I'd like to share it!
This address contained little over 1000 BTC since 2013-07-10
https://blockchain.info/address/13tikBdmMVkyuykDVNmv3tTr8YkVN3Xrut
and he sends the coins to
https://blockchain.info/address/1Hy1rceh2EaKnAQhGZocTFUGnKFFD3mNG5
on 30th July 2016 who again sends the coins to
https://blockchain.info/address/1BfxSuxJqXuizBbTcP238JZY9DT4eqvzJG
on 3rd August, 2016. If I'm not wrong Bitfinex was hacked about 2 days ago i.e. on 2nd August!
Even if we consider that Bitfinex was hacked on 30th July the funds were in that wallet since 2013 and havent been moved until now which clearly indicates that he's lying about the source of that money. It could be stolen money from MTGox though, just a hunch.
Oh! I didn't notice the dates of the transactions, nice find ;).
Technically rekcahxfb didn't say anything about the source of the funds. They just said
which implies they are the author of the Bitfinex hack, maybe that is not true ... rekcahxfb is apparently using funds which do not come directly from the stolen funds, this is not contradictory with them being the hacker.
Thanks!
You have a valid point too. Let's wait for the outcome.
Just hoping that whoever wins, returns the money back to the owners.(if rekcahxfb keeps his promise)
Nice detective work guys. Crazy times.
I saw the grayed out Address, it's because the address sending the funds is also used to receive the change.
Source
It looks difficult to trace back but I'm still gonna try now.I've added my address there Let's see what happens.
I didn't :). I just hope you'll return the funds if you win ;).
That's crazy! He's online now, this is going to be interesting to watch!
Seems pretty shady for sure. I mean, anyone could make up that shit. But interesting article.
Yes, anyone could, anyway the funds are there and the dead's man wish is set, we'll see how this ends by the 10th of August. But that thread is growing at an insanely staggering pace.
rekcahxfb is now asking for 0.001 BTC to be sent to one address for participating in the giveaway (which is no longer one) pretexting there are too many comments with the same addresses. The bitcointalk account has probably been hacked ....
Update #2:
The thread has been locked by moderators because rekcahxfb announced that their account has been compromised.
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Great post!