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I would be very surprised if mining was the sole source of the funding simply because mining hardware is so expensive, and it would take a long time to mine $90

by craigc 8y ago

I would be very surprised if mining was the sole source of the funding simply because mining hardware is so expensive, and it would take a long time to mine $90,000. The Bloomberg article says > the defendants conspired to launder the equivalent of more than $95,000 through a web of transactions So while they may have done some mining, I think the majority came via other sources. That is certainly an interesting perspective though – that the increase in hash rate is due to people wanting to evade traditional currency systems to fund their illicit activities. It would not surprise me at all if some governments were involved in this too.

lancewiggs 8y ago
from the indictment [1], statement 62: The Conspirators funded the purchase of computer infrastructure for their hacking activity in part by “mining” bitcoin. Individuals and entities can mine bitcoin by allowing their computing power to be used to verify and record payments on the bitcoin public ledger, a service for which they are rewarded with freshly-minted bitcoin. The pool of bitcoin generated from the GRU’s mining activity was used, for example, to pay a Romanian company to register the domain dcleaks.com through a payment processing company located in the United States. 63. In addition to mining bitcoin, the Conspirators acquired bitcoin through a variety of means designed to obscure the origin of the funds. This included purchasing bitcoin through peer-to-peer exchanges, moving funds through other digital currencies, and using pre-paid cards. They also enlisted the assistance of one or more third-party exchangers who facilitated layered transactions through digital currency exchange platforms providing heightened anonymity. https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download
- craigc 8y ago
  Okay cool so that confirms what I said that mining was not the sole source of the funds

by craigc 8y ago

lancewiggs 8y ago

from the indictment [1], statement 62: The Conspirators funded the purchase of computer infrastructure for their hacking activity in part by “mining” bitcoin. Individuals and entities can mine bitcoin by allowing their computing power to be used to verify and record payments on the bitcoin public ledger, a service for which they are rewarded with freshly-minted bitcoin. The pool of bitcoin generated from the GRU’s mining activity was used, for example, to pay a Romanian company to register the domain dcleaks.com through a payment processing company located in the United States. 63. In addition to mining bitcoin, the Conspirators acquired bitcoin through a variety of means designed to obscure the origin of the funds. This included purchasing bitcoin through peer-to-peer exchanges, moving funds through other digital currencies, and using pre-paid cards. They also enlisted the assistance of one or more third-party exchangers who facilitated layered transactions through digital currency exchange platforms providing heightened anonymity. https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download

craigc 8y ago
Okay cool so that confirms what I said that mining was not the sole source of the funds