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I'm sitting here trying to understand their mindset. They had to know what kind of scrutiny would be on those coins forever. At the time of the theft, the coi

I'm sitting here trying to understand their mindset. They had to know what kind of scrutiny would be on those coins forever. At the time of the theft, the coins are worth $100M+ and they can't touch them. Even worse, anything they do with them will be monitored, researched, dug into, and everything else from law enforcement, amateur detectives, and every major tech+crime group. Fast forward to now and the coins are worth 50x that.. and now they try to move them? And all the keys are in cloud storage? But it had to be frustrating to be sitting on something so valuable without any way to use it. They had to be stressed and anxious about it. A life of crime is stupid. A life of crime for something this high profile is far beyond stupid.

duxup 5y ago
I was wondering about this. I would think the most obvious path would be to find some other criminals (now you've got new risks) who don't care about the provenance of the coins, will pay cash for some coins at a discount, and you somehow launder that cash.... Could at least get a couple bucks from it, possibly.
- tannhauser23 5y ago
  There are "local bitcoin trading" groups that do exactly this - convert bitcoin to cash at a discount. But obviously you can't do this for billions of dollars and you expose yourself to personal monitoring and capture.
  - giaour 5y ago
    I'd bet there's a non-zero chance your exchange counterparty at one of these groups is an undercover cop.
- hedora 5y ago
  On the one hand, the mob would probably be happy to buy them for 10-30% face value. On the other hand, how do you contact a reputable mob boss?
  - duxup 5y ago
    Yeah I think the odds of "how about you give me cash and I not turn you in" are ... possible. Bitfinex was offering a reward….
  - genericone 5y ago
    More importantly, how do you stop them from contacting you after this transaction.
  - salawat 5y ago
    ...If you have to ask...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- lyricx 5y ago
  .
  - duxup 5y ago
    The thing about Craigslist is now you need to meet folks / exchange ... you're only going to make so many of those transactions.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- caseysoftware 5y ago
  Or weaponize the coins. Take 10 BTC and give them to 100 groups/people you don't like. Investigators make their lives miserable for a while. For normal people, that'd be ridiculously expensive but since they didn't pay for the coins and have 100k+ more they can't use, it's "free."
  - giaour 5y ago
    Wouldn't investigators look at the provenance address for one of those 100 transactions? That seems like a dangerous prank.
    - mtoner23 5y ago
      They already knew that address though, they were waiting for them to convert the BTC to USD to find the person tied to the address. Still dangerous because the person you sent them to might give the feds your name.
  - vmception 5y ago
    haha right! I would have bridged them to the Ethereum network and sent it to everyone with an ENS registered
    - polynomial 5y ago
      Sort of like a Random Robin Hood.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
    I am genuinely surprised it has not happened already ( or maybe it did, but it did not make news ). If NK hackers wanted to get someone in trouble, connecting someone to one of the wallets listed by OFAC would be relatively effortless.
  - duxup 5y ago
    I feel like you'd just be making 100 enemies... They could easily point and say "dude I don't know who that was, here's those coins FBI".
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
majani 5y ago
One trip to Russia would have solved all their problems. Just saying
- Dma54rhs 5y ago
  How or why is that? Why would it be easy to cash in or sale 4 billion dollar worth of crypto in Russia? Russia probably doesn't extradite a person to Americans (not sure about non citizens) but there are plenty of sharks who would want to get their hands on these coins if that came to public anyway.
  - manquer 5y ago
    They have not extradited Snowden. If it is politically favorable they would grant residency. There are other few other countries who who do the same, but only one or two like Russia could withstand U.S. pressure if they harbor such a high profile figure. Of course Putin will take all the money anyway, so what is the point ? Getting the mob for support never ends well. Also to note one of them is a dual Russian citizen so it more complex than the hypothetical
  - nikanj 5y ago
    You can't have crypto problems if you're dead.
pcurve 5y ago
I thought maybe they could go to a country without any extradition treaty And has no diplomatic relationship with the U.S. Then cut a deal with the government. It's a slim picking... Iran North Korea Syria Bhutan Taiwan Azerbaijan Palestine Georgia Cyprus Western Sahara Even Russia has too much to lose. Maybe if it were $360 Billion, they might consider it.
- coolspot 5y ago
  > Iran North Korea Syria Bhutan Taiwan Azerbaijan Palestine Georgia Cyprus Western Sahara At least in half of those countries, once they found you really in control of $3.6B crypto, they would torture you until you give it all, then dispose off your body.

duxup 5y ago

I was wondering about this. I would think the most obvious path would be to find some other criminals (now you've got new risks) who don't care about the provenance of the coins, will pay cash for some coins at a discount, and you somehow launder that cash.... Could at least get a couple bucks from it, possibly.

tannhauser23 5y ago
There are "local bitcoin trading" groups that do exactly this - convert bitcoin to cash at a discount. But obviously you can't do this for billions of dollars and you expose yourself to personal monitoring and capture.
- giaour 5y ago
  I'd bet there's a non-zero chance your exchange counterparty at one of these groups is an undercover cop.
hedora 5y ago
On the one hand, the mob would probably be happy to buy them for 10-30% face value. On the other hand, how do you contact a reputable mob boss?
- duxup 5y ago
  Yeah I think the odds of "how about you give me cash and I not turn you in" are ... possible. Bitfinex was offering a reward….
- genericone 5y ago
  More importantly, how do you stop them from contacting you after this transaction.
- salawat 5y ago
  ...If you have to ask...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lyricx 5y ago
.
- duxup 5y ago
  The thing about Craigslist is now you need to meet folks / exchange ... you're only going to make so many of those transactions.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
caseysoftware 5y ago
Or weaponize the coins. Take 10 BTC and give them to 100 groups/people you don't like. Investigators make their lives miserable for a while. For normal people, that'd be ridiculously expensive but since they didn't pay for the coins and have 100k+ more they can't use, it's "free."
- giaour 5y ago
  Wouldn't investigators look at the provenance address for one of those 100 transactions? That seems like a dangerous prank.
  - mtoner23 5y ago
    They already knew that address though, they were waiting for them to convert the BTC to USD to find the person tied to the address. Still dangerous because the person you sent them to might give the feds your name.
- vmception 5y ago
  haha right! I would have bridged them to the Ethereum network and sent it to everyone with an ENS registered
  - polynomial 5y ago
    Sort of like a Random Robin Hood.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
  I am genuinely surprised it has not happened already ( or maybe it did, but it did not make news ). If NK hackers wanted to get someone in trouble, connecting someone to one of the wallets listed by OFAC would be relatively effortless.
- duxup 5y ago
  I feel like you'd just be making 100 enemies... They could easily point and say "dude I don't know who that was, here's those coins FBI".
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

majani 5y ago

One trip to Russia would have solved all their problems. Just saying

Dma54rhs 5y ago
How or why is that? Why would it be easy to cash in or sale 4 billion dollar worth of crypto in Russia? Russia probably doesn't extradite a person to Americans (not sure about non citizens) but there are plenty of sharks who would want to get their hands on these coins if that came to public anyway.
- manquer 5y ago
  They have not extradited Snowden. If it is politically favorable they would grant residency. There are other few other countries who who do the same, but only one or two like Russia could withstand U.S. pressure if they harbor such a high profile figure. Of course Putin will take all the money anyway, so what is the point ? Getting the mob for support never ends well. Also to note one of them is a dual Russian citizen so it more complex than the hypothetical
- nikanj 5y ago
  You can't have crypto problems if you're dead.

pcurve 5y ago

I thought maybe they could go to a country without any extradition treaty And has no diplomatic relationship with the U.S. Then cut a deal with the government. It's a slim picking... Iran North Korea Syria Bhutan Taiwan Azerbaijan Palestine Georgia Cyprus Western Sahara Even Russia has too much to lose. Maybe if it were $360 Billion, they might consider it.

coolspot 5y ago
> Iran North Korea Syria Bhutan Taiwan Azerbaijan Palestine Georgia Cyprus Western Sahara At least in half of those countries, once they found you really in control of $3.6B crypto, they would torture you until you give it all, then dispose off your body.