Bitcoin Hitman Sample Email BitcoinWhosWho received multiple independent reports of a new bitcoin ransom email threatening people with “I’ve got an order to remove you” circulating.
BitcoinWhosWho.com started receiving reports of a mass email attempting to blackmail recipients out of bitcoin about a month ago. The hilariously worded text always closes with “sorry for misprints, I am foreign”. Rudimentary block exploring shows at least some of these scam addresses are being consolidated on the Russian wallet service Matbea.com. Continue reading Blackmail Scam Run on Russian Wallet Matbea→
WannaCry Ransom NoteUPDATE: WannaCry Ransomware Attack up to 14.08007493 BTC on 92 payments as of 11:30am ET May 13. Balances more than doubled in 12 hours.
Today’s widely reported WannaCry ransomware attack is extensive, growing and has already yielded ~USD$12k in profits according to a quick analysis of the BTC addresses involved. On May 12 the 3 bitcoin addresses known to be receiving extortion payments show receipt of 6.49372428 BTC in 39 separate transactions with ransom varying between .15 to .30 BTC each. None of the balances have been moved to new bitcoin addresses since receipt.
The transaction originated from 73 multisig addresses. The final balance is now 135,439.82159613 BTC or USD $106.5 million (assuming a $786 exchange rate).
3Nxwenay9Z8Lc9JBiywExpnEFiLp6Afp8v is one of only 3 addresses with a balance of more than 100,000 BTC according to bitinfocharts.com. What happened to bitcoinrichlist?
Lost coins only make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.
– Satoshi Nakamoto
There will eventually be 21 million bitcoins mined however that will never be the true number in circulation. The distinction is important if you want to precisely measure bitcoin value and market capitalization which is setting new records. Not all bitcoin addresses can be spent. The genesis block can never be spent. Likewise any bitcoin sent to a “burn” address are also forever unspendable. A bitcoin burn address is like an impossible vanity address. There is no private key to a burn address and one would be impossible to generate. These are not merely ‘zombies‘ but truly gone forever. How many bitcoins have been “burned” exactly? Continue reading Lost Forever 26.04 BTC Burned In 2016→