this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 91 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Crypto: “We don’t have or want government oversight.”

Also crypto: “Please, government, help us get back our made up money!”

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago

Effectively they speed run something like 400 years of banking regulation and its history.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

I mean, yes, but I can't help pointing out that all money is made up. The only difference is the purpose of the money system.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 5 months ago

And how on earth did you arrive to this arbitrary conclusion?

[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

But Code is Law! It's decentralized and trustless, I'm really disappointed with the victims for going to big government, with cryptocurrency there's no need for government, lawyers, or banks. The blockchain clearly already decided that the ETH belongs to the two brothers.

[–] nulluser 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

ETH abandoned the trustless part. Now you're supposed to trust the validators. Clearly, you can't.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

It was never "trustless", but trust in the system as a whole.

The change you mentioned is more a change of the definition of "system", since now it's effectively an oligarchy.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

In doing so, they fraudulently gained access to pending private transactions and used that access to alter certain transactions and obtain their victims' cryptocurrency,

I guess they never watched Office Space, or Superman III.

Edit: wrong Superman

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It was on the cover of that tps report.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I feel like you're jumping to conclusions

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

...have you seen my stapler?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Maybe I need to go rewatch it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

They must have fucked up some mundane detail like misplacing a zero or something.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago

I wish people would go straight to the source for these stories. No reason to link to something that only paraphrases a press release and adds some ads.

Press release (contains link to indictment):

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/two-brothers-arrested-attacking-ethereum-blockchain-and-stealing-25-million

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago

The brothers created 16 Ethereum validators and targeted three specific traders who operated MEV bots, the indictment said.

To activate 1 validator you need 32 ETH. So for the 16 validators they got, it would be 512 ETH. Prices in December 2022 for eth were around 1200$. So they "invested" in this fraud over 600,000$.

Today's eth price is around 3000$ so they'd be having over 1.5 mil, if they weren't that greedy

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

Yeah but who the fuck figured it out and how? Sounds to me like those fellows did their homework?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious to see how the cops found out who's they were to arrest them

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Bet they literally posted their deeds in discord or some shit

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah the first rule about something like this is to keep your damn mouth shut.

The second rule is to launder it slowly so it can’t be traced back to you.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Washington — A pair of brothers from New York and Boston were taken into federal custody Tuesday, accused by prosecutors of devising a novel criminal scheme to steal about $25 million in cryptocurrency from a commonly used blockchain, according to a newly unsealed indictment.

Investigators accused them of spending months plotting their theft within the Ethereum blockchain, baiting their victims and establishing shell companies to hide their illicit profits.

According to charging documents, the pair studied math and computer science "at one of the most prestigious universities in the country," which prosecutors said afforded them a unique set of skills that allowed them to carry out the first-of-its-kind endeavor in a matter of seconds.

The brothers allegedly started laying the groundwork in December 2022, engaging in what investigators called a "baiting" operation that targeted three specific victim traders on the digital Ethereum platform.

Investigators said the defendants' plot took months to plan but just 12 seconds to execute, allegedly raking in approximately $25 million from their unwitting victims.

They were arrested on Tuesday and are expected to make their initial appearances in New York and Boston federal courts on Wednesday.


The original article contains 396 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 52%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

How's that secure Proof of Stake working out?