4 ms·

Bitcoin sent to right-wing activists before Capitol riot from foreign account

23 points by daegloe 6y ago

basicplus2 6y ago
"The source of the funding, according to research conducted by Chainanalysis, appears to be a computer programmer based in France who created an account in 2013 — and who maintained a personal blog, which was not updated between 2014 and Dec. 9, 2020, the day after the “donations.” Chainalysis researchers discovered a blog post from the bitcoin user that reads like an apparent suicide note, bequeathing his money to “certain causes and people” in light of what he describes as “the decline of Western civilization,” though the researchers were unable to confirm that the user was in fact dead"
Barrin92 6y ago
blockchain technologies like bitcoin seem to have the worst possible privacy proposition for trying to fund terrorism because it is exactly inverted. Once you tie one or a few people to their wallets you essentially have the entire history and topology of the network right there in the public. In Seeing like a State, James Scott points out that the single most important tool of statecraft is legibility. That is to say the ability to render processes transparent and readable and processable. Giving everything a name, an an address, an account, and so on. It would be funny if crypto turns out to be one of the strongest enablers of states in the future.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  Eh, you'd think. It depends who's doing the funding and whether they care about being found out. Or, you know, the terrorists can just steal the crypto. North Korea's collected over $2 billion dollars thanks to cryptocurrencies so far [1]. [1] https://www.coindesk.com/north-korea-stole-2-billion-in-crypto-and-fiat-to-fund-weapons-programs https://www.coindesk.com/north-korea-stole-2-billion-in-cryp...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- ur-whale 6y ago
  You're right that Bitcoin isn't great privacy-wise. However, this might actually be one of the reason it hasn't been torn to pieces by nation states yet. Also: there are newer cryptos that are much better when it comes to privacy/fungability/traceability, to name a few: zcash, monero, beam, grim. There are some privacy fixes in the pipeline for Bitcoin (coinjoin, taproot, some L2 innovation, etc...) but it's going to be quite a while before that gets deployed
rriepe 6y ago
After this, anyone who supports Bitcoin is in the same camp as anyone who supports Parler.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  In a way, they always have been. Bitcoin is a fun Venn diagram of ancaps, people who have been genuinely misled about the extant economic and political system, people who have been brainwashed by moon lambos, and some engineers who find the technology interesting. I suspect that the "Parler" crowd is almost a perfect subset. The problem is not Bitcoin and it's not Parler - they're both symptoms. I've been lucky enough to grow up all over the world, and spent much of my formative years in Canada - a stable, functioning democracy (give or take) with freedom and "SoCiAlISm." I've spent the last 10 years in America watching its descent into failed state territory where people board up their windows for elections, cities create authorized homeless encampments and badgeless secret police disperse gatherings nobody find a common description of. Parler is among the least surprising of recent developments. I guess what I'm saying, and maybe it's off topic, but things are pretty bad here now, man. The best contrast I can point to is that the US Embassy in Ottawa is an absolute fortress, with two rows of bollards, concrete barricades and a giant fence along Sussex Drive. [1] Sitting next to a virtually unguarded Parliament Hill. I mean, it's got a fence, I guess. [2] [1] http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Skc_MiFdts0/Sx8Gt9gBpQI/AAAAAAAAAzM/QiUXW4bmhFA/s1600-h/2261596.bin.jpeg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Skc_MiFdts0/Sx8Gt9gBpQI/AAAAAAAAAz... [2] https://www.kitchenfrau.com/canadian-poutine/img_2645est/ https://www.kitchenfrau.com/canadian-poutine/img_2645est/
  - sterlind 6y ago
    Not a perfect subset. You're forgetting people buying drugs on dark net markets. Bitcoin got big because of the Silk Road. Drug use doesn't lean left or right as much as it leans fringe (though certain drugs do, e.g. LSD on the left and meth on the right.) Given everything Bitcoin's been and continues to be used for (drugs, ransomware, investment, remittance across borders) I don't think it'll get significantly more tarnished by association with insurrectionaries.
throwitaway1235 6y ago
The Vice President elect and Fortune 500 companies can send establishment-wing activists money unmolested by the media but non-conformist activists have to receive flack for receiving bitcoin?
- weare138 6y ago
  So you would consider the Daily Stormer, a self avowed neo-nazi site, 'non-conformist activists'? That's an interesting perspective on this issue.
mhh__ 6y ago
If this ends up getting tied to some foreign agency this is going to get really ugly

23 points by daegloe 6y ago

"The source of the funding, according to research conducted by Chainanalysis, appears to be a computer programmer based in France who created an account in 2013 — and who maintained a personal blog, which was not updated between 2014 and Dec. 9, 2020, the day after the “donations.” Chainalysis researchers discovered a blog post from the bitcoin user that reads like an apparent suicide note, bequeathing his money to “certain causes and people” in light of what he describes as “the decline of Western civilization,” though the researchers were unable to confirm that the user was in fact dead"

Barrin92 6y ago

blockchain technologies like bitcoin seem to have the worst possible privacy proposition for trying to fund terrorism because it is exactly inverted. Once you tie one or a few people to their wallets you essentially have the entire history and topology of the network right there in the public. In Seeing like a State, James Scott points out that the single most important tool of statecraft is legibility. That is to say the ability to render processes transparent and readable and processable. Giving everything a name, an an address, an account, and so on. It would be funny if crypto turns out to be one of the strongest enablers of states in the future.

arcticbull 6y ago
Eh, you'd think. It depends who's doing the funding and whether they care about being found out. Or, you know, the terrorists can just steal the crypto. North Korea's collected over $2 billion dollars thanks to cryptocurrencies so far [1]. [1] https://www.coindesk.com/north-korea-stole-2-billion-in-crypto-and-fiat-to-fund-weapons-programs https://www.coindesk.com/north-korea-stole-2-billion-in-cryp...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
ur-whale 6y ago
You're right that Bitcoin isn't great privacy-wise. However, this might actually be one of the reason it hasn't been torn to pieces by nation states yet. Also: there are newer cryptos that are much better when it comes to privacy/fungability/traceability, to name a few: zcash, monero, beam, grim. There are some privacy fixes in the pipeline for Bitcoin (coinjoin, taproot, some L2 innovation, etc...) but it's going to be quite a while before that gets deployed

rriepe 6y ago

After this, anyone who supports Bitcoin is in the same camp as anyone who supports Parler.

arcticbull 6y ago
In a way, they always have been. Bitcoin is a fun Venn diagram of ancaps, people who have been genuinely misled about the extant economic and political system, people who have been brainwashed by moon lambos, and some engineers who find the technology interesting. I suspect that the "Parler" crowd is almost a perfect subset. The problem is not Bitcoin and it's not Parler - they're both symptoms. I've been lucky enough to grow up all over the world, and spent much of my formative years in Canada - a stable, functioning democracy (give or take) with freedom and "SoCiAlISm." I've spent the last 10 years in America watching its descent into failed state territory where people board up their windows for elections, cities create authorized homeless encampments and badgeless secret police disperse gatherings nobody find a common description of. Parler is among the least surprising of recent developments. I guess what I'm saying, and maybe it's off topic, but things are pretty bad here now, man. The best contrast I can point to is that the US Embassy in Ottawa is an absolute fortress, with two rows of bollards, concrete barricades and a giant fence along Sussex Drive. [1] Sitting next to a virtually unguarded Parliament Hill. I mean, it's got a fence, I guess. [2] [1] http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Skc_MiFdts0/Sx8Gt9gBpQI/AAAAAAAAAzM/QiUXW4bmhFA/s1600-h/2261596.bin.jpeg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Skc_MiFdts0/Sx8Gt9gBpQI/AAAAAAAAAz... [2] https://www.kitchenfrau.com/canadian-poutine/img_2645est/ https://www.kitchenfrau.com/canadian-poutine/img_2645est/
- sterlind 6y ago
  Not a perfect subset. You're forgetting people buying drugs on dark net markets. Bitcoin got big because of the Silk Road. Drug use doesn't lean left or right as much as it leans fringe (though certain drugs do, e.g. LSD on the left and meth on the right.) Given everything Bitcoin's been and continues to be used for (drugs, ransomware, investment, remittance across borders) I don't think it'll get significantly more tarnished by association with insurrectionaries.

throwitaway1235 6y ago

The Vice President elect and Fortune 500 companies can send establishment-wing activists money unmolested by the media but non-conformist activists have to receive flack for receiving bitcoin?

weare138 6y ago
So you would consider the Daily Stormer, a self avowed neo-nazi site, 'non-conformist activists'? That's an interesting perspective on this issue.

mhh__ 6y ago

If this ends up getting tied to some foreign agency this is going to get really ugly