
The quest to liberate $300k of Bitcoin from an old zip file - mod50ack
https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin-from-old-zip-file/
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guiambros
Duplicate:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22774057](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22774057)

The original article has a lot more technical details. Also here's the
firsthand account by the author in April:

[https://twitter.com/metaweta/status/1246166302688808960](https://twitter.com/metaweta/status/1246166302688808960)

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XiS
Completely unrelated to this article. But can anyone explain why my
WH-1000MX3's (Bluetooth on Android) volume lowers for a few seconds loading
this article? Seems to restore to normal volume after the cookie wall
disappears.

~~~
csande17
Fingerprinting scripts often use the Web Audio API (see
[https://audiofingerprint.openwpm.com/](https://audiofingerprint.openwpm.com/)).
Sometimes, they use enough of the Web Audio API that the OS thinks they're
trying to play audio, and it temporarily reduces the volume of other audio
sources, sort of like when it makes your music quieter so you can hear GPS
directions more clearly.

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1f60c
[https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin-
from-o...](https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin-from-old-zip-
file/) is the original source

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superasn
> The Guy paid about a quarter of the original price tag.

Cool story but this line doesn't make sense to me? So did he just pay them
$25k instead of $100k as agreed. Am i missing or misunderstanding something?

~~~
mosselman
The line read something like 'he thought he'd have to charge 100k' so he made
an estimation of the required costs of infrastructure and hours worked I
think. He probably communicated the 100k more as a 'I cost this per hour and
the machines would likely cost so-and-so would you agree to pay this or can we
call it off?'.

~~~
superasn
Oh okay. That does make sense.

I got the idea that the 100k was a flat fee for decrypting, like 1/3rd of the
bitcoin if he could do it. For someone who is about to lose all the moeny that
too doesn't sound like a bad deal.

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ergwwrt
How did the bug originate and what about the timestamp fixed the problem?

