
Police investigating stolen laptops discover Bitcoin heist - microwavecamera
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/bitcoin-theft-theodore-price-montgomery-bucks-20170724.html
======
hsod
They bust the guy for pawning a laptop he stole from his girlfriend's father
for 150$. He claims to have $34.6 million in stolen BTC.

The article addresses this contradiction superficially-- the police say he
couldn't access his BTC without being caught because the blockchain is public,
and he didn't have time to "tumble" the coins.

But that doesn't really make a ton of sense. He didn't have the time or risk
appetite to cash out any of his $34.6M but he had no problem breaking into his
girlfriend's parent's house and pawning their laptop?

Oh also he was planning to fly out of town on a private jet with Jeremy
Renner's passport?

I predict a retraction incoming.

~~~
covercash
Philly.com is garbage. It has no business being on HN.

Source: I live in Philly.

~~~
microwavecamera
Sorry, it had the most detailed write up I could find. Here's a few other
links about the story:

[http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/pennsylvania-
police-h...](http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/pennsylvania-police-
hunting-for-stolen-laptops-say-they-stumbled-on-dollar40-million-bitcoin-
scam/ar-AAoJifL?li=BBnbfcL)

[https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/111212-2/](https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/111212-2/)

[https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/hacker-h...](https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/hacker-
heads-trial-claims-stealing-50-million-worth-bitcoin/)

------
wolco
This seems like a person looking for fame and validation. Arrested for such a
minor crime why admit to major crimes. The fact that the specific charge is
withdrawn tells me the facts may not backup his claim.

~~~
microwavecamera
They may be using the local theft charges to hold him while they investigate
it at the federal level. There's some other details I found on a msn.com
article, not a good source I know, but it seems like he was trying to make the
claim that he was working with or for someone else. Probably just a way to
deflect attention but would also constitute a conspiracy charge if true and
would have to be investigated:

"But within a few moments, Price switched his story, according to the
affidavit. “Price stated that people hire him to do things for their
companies,” the document stated. “Price elaborated stating he would write
Trojan software to penetrate network systems.” He also told investigators “he
had been hired by numerous foreign governments to develop penetration
software.”

[http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/pennsylvania-
police-h...](http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/pennsylvania-police-
hunting-for-stolen-laptops-say-they-stumbled-on-dollar40-million-bitcoin-
scam/ar-AAoJifL?li=BBnbfcL)

------
aresant
Paraphrasing previous comment - I get the "see cryptos are too insecure / it's
a pyramid / it's a bubble / ICOs are scams / etc" arguments.

But holy shit turning a world currency into the wild west - for better or
worse - is going to be disruptive, period.

I can only imagine the debacles that we have to look forward to, and I say
that in full support of and as a long term believer in both blockchain and
cryptocurrencies.

~~~
dboreham
There will emerge a "CryptoCurrency+ruleOfLaw" that will succeed in the
evolutionary race.

~~~
function_seven
All Ethereum contracts will incorporate the entirety of the relevant national,
state, and local laws into their code.

~~~
serhei
I certainly don't look forward to auditing a Solidity contract with the
complexity of the federal tax code.

------
Thriptic
Guy gets caught on a low grade theft charge and just blurts out that he
committed a litany of far more serious federal crimes? Someone sitting on 40
million dollars of bitcoin is out stealing cheap laptops from people he has
relationships with? Someone with this degree of technical competence doesn't
know to encrypt their devices or move assets to somewhere where they don't
live? I call bullshit.

------
djmips
No they didn't discover a $40 million Bitcoin heist. It's all talk. Not a
story.

------
adamnemecek
The possible "value density" I.e value/physical matter of cryptocurrencies is
unprecedented.

~~~
miguelrochefort
The value of Bitcoin relies on the entire network, which includes thousands of
machines.

If you take that into account, then the value/physical matter of some bank
account credentials is just about the same.

~~~
adamnemecek
It's not because the credentials themselves are worthless, they dont have an
inherent value. It's like value semantics vs reference semantics. And you can
use bitcoin irl too.

~~~
miguelrochefort
Bitcoin has no inherent value. A private key has no inherent value.

~~~
adamnemecek
It does in contrast with account info.

~~~
miguelrochefort
Your bank account credentials and your Bitcoin private keys are exactly the
same.

~~~
adamnemecek
Not really no. The hash has value on it's own. If you lose the bitcoin, you
are fucked. If you lose your credentials, they might be recovered. Therefore
bitcoin does store the value.

------
ryanmarsh
Legit explanation of bitcoin

 _Bitcoin is a digital currency, tied to no government, that can be exchanged
for U.S. dollars and other national currency. It consists of a public ledger
of all bitcoin in circulation and the transactions in which they are used. To
own bitcoin, a user must possess two codes; a public key that identifies
individual bitcoin, and a private key akin to the signature needed to write a
check. To carry out transactions, those codes are passed between bitcoin
wallets, where they are stored by users._

~~~
flashmob
Let's have a look...

> and a private key akin to the signature

Nope, a private key is not akin to a signature. It's akin to a... key? Or
perhaps a special pen / wax-seal that you use for signing? I don't think there
is an exact analogy?

> To carry out transactions, those codes are passed between bitcoin wallets

Lol, nope. Private keys are not passed around. Neither the public keys
(assuming they mean 'addresses' here), which are actually hashes of the public
key.

~~~
ryanmarsh
Ordinary folk think it takes a signature for a check or credit card receipt to
be valid. As far as they're concerned it's the same as a private key. It might
sound ridiculous to you but it's closest from their perspective.

------
clubm8
The article mentions "bitcoin tumbling" \- is this actually effective? Does
anyone know of any good resources to read up on the theory behind it?

It seems to me like it wouldn't work - you're basically just adding a single
hop between the stolen coins and you...

~~~
olegkikin
No, cryptocurrency tumbling is usually not "a single hop".

Even if you consider the simplest case, address A (clean) and B (stolen) put
their money into address C, and then split them into addresses X, Y, Z, you
already can't tell where the stolen money went.

Now do that multiple times with randomly generated address, random amounts, it
becomes indistinguishable from regular transactions. Everything blends
together.

~~~
clubm8
Cool. I guess what I'm missing is why is there a need for the Tumbler service?

If I understand correctly, you can spin up many bitcoin wallets.

Wouldn't it be possible to create a bunch of Bitcoin wallets that would trade
money amongst themselves?

(Or did I just re-invent the tumbler?)

~~~
olegkikin
Because

1) You need "clean" money to mix with, as in different from stolen.

2) Tumbler service is more fee-efficient, because they do it on a large scale,
and can do many transfers in one transaction.

------
JohnJamesRambo
This all seems really fishy. Sounds like "Jeremy Renner" is just delusional.

------
nipponese
What is the name of the wallet software he compromised?

