Bitcoin Forum

There are reports that new hackers group called Darkside donated some of the stolen Bitcoins to charity organisation like Children International and The Water Project after they reportedly stole millions of dollars worth Bitcoins.
They are acting like modern day crypto Robin Hood sending 0.88 BTC to both of the charities.

Children International replied that they will not be keeping received Bitcoin if it is connected to hackers.
What are they going to do? Send them Bitcoin back or what send it to police :)

Hackers also use Unitade States service called The Giving Block that is used by 67 non-profit organisations worldwide.
https://www.thegivingblock.com/

BBC also tried to donate, and they are wondering why there is no kyc verification....
Why would you ever need KYC for donation?!  ::)
Is The Giving Block next in line for some crazy punishment?
I think all world is gone crazy...

https://i.imgur.com/HxNj8Y0.png https://i.imgur.com/ERV134Z.png
Read the source for full information report (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54591761)

It looks like the hackers are only trolling or looking for fame. Although 0.88 BTC [$10,000] is a big amount to most, it's nothing to how much they have extorted from companies they attacked. They could have used a mixer too and not announce that they sent it to a charitable organization if they were serious.


Hehe. The Giving Block already said they will be returning the amount donated to the rightful owners so no punishment for them. I believe Children International will do the same. The authorities will probably act as intermediaries in the distribution but I wonder if the companies will be happy to receive a thousand dollars each.

I don't trust charities anymore, especially those big charity like Red Cross, Green Peace and anything of that sort. The donation is pocketed by the high ranking members of the said charity organization. I get that you need to get paid when you are organizing but if you look at the money they earn then you will see what I mean. The only real charity that I can back with are those organized by pure volunteers or just individuals that wants something to do with their time. I get that the group tried the robinhood approach but I feel bad for the money that will not be reaching those who truly need it.

These charities will get into hell lotsa trouble in case they accept donations from these hackers. Iff the hackers wanted to donate they could have just handed over cash anonymously. Why the drama?????

Few days back I read in the newspaper headlines:
Christian community raised enough money to get a person who shot a black man out of jail, whereas satan's worshipers were distributing masks and such.

We cannot name a man, we cannot name a community.

If hackers decided to do that , that were aware that :
1. This can be used against them , their addresses can be traced and thus they will be in trouble

See , hacking and illegal activities are never right ofcourse, but I believe they are just trying to take a lesson from Money heist and trying to make people like them.

-The problem is they want the whole community to know that they are donating
-so it's not just a matter of donation but a matter of morals too
- they might be doing something good but at the end it's negative eventually for the people who would be involved with this money
-if you want to do something good but illegally , "be quiet"

This is a funny situation but I believe they should just accept the money and encash, send over the address from which they received to the police if they are too worried but at the end help the kids !

Probably to the police. They can simply ask the police to hold an auction, the one that's held to unmark those Bitcoins that are marked as hacked, so either way, they'd still receive support from the money they got. That, or they can simply just surrender it to the police, though I'd prefer it honestly if it was the former. From hackers or not, a donation is still a donation after all. It's like blaming the currency for being used by hackers or something, which is plain stupid.

A donation is still a donation imo, whether it be for the purpose of fame or fun. Let's be real, how many politicians actually donate out of the kindness of their hearts right? That's why it's probably stupid to judge a donation based on what the motives are, a donation is still a donation imo, which can still prove to be helpful for those that are in need.

I don't believe in this mafia style social work. They are not just hackers but criminals who used extortion to obtain the funds they are donating with.
Such activities and people should not be encouraged. Though they are acting as the good person here, they have done more harm to people.
Anonymous donations should not be stopped just because some criminals tried to send in donations. It would be better if that fund be used to compensate the victims of the Darkside hackers extortion.

I saw the news on other sources too, and I can confirm it because I it saw myself. This can have two sides, Many hackers and scammers whom steal huge amount bitcoins they are scared to getting traced and tracked buy the government because unlike monero, bitcoin is transparent and you can track any transaction from bitcoin blockchain on block explorer, so even if you use a mixer there is still a chance for you to get tracked, that's why in order to do some money laundry, they will donate bitcoin and give bitcoin for free to some people. In the other side of the story, some hackers try to make other people think they are so generous, respectable and kind so they will use a little part of the stolen bitcoins for donating.

i was wondering what will they do with the stolen bitcoin will the charities hold it and transfer it to the police which we might not know what will they do to it. i know it's not good what hackers did but still they didn't forget to do good thing but still it won't be a good thing if they started it wrong buy hacking.

A few days back dormant blockchain address which said to be sleeping from the time of satoshi's era has donated some significant amount like 9.99 BTC to charities.

Even though hackers donated 0.88 BTC to charities it won't change the fact that they are bad and they have done a big crime, those 0.88 BTC is not that too high compared to the money they have stolen from the companies. I get the point that they refused the money from the hackers because it comes from the wrongdoings but that money that has stolen is not possible to be recovered, it would be great if they just accept the money and give it to the people who need it. They should be practical because we are still have the pandemic.

Well, this isn't palatable IMO because of it negativity toward the organization that actually receive the donation from these hackers. Hackers; that's the darkside hackers aren't doing the right thing because those stolen Bitcoins when donated to the charity organizations can easily be trace and the government can impose sanctions against the organization, so, why put some organization into a big trouble?.

It is not a charity if they brag about it ("No matter how bad you think our work is, we are pleased to know that we helped changed someone's life. Today we sended (sic) the first donations.") So funny, they knew that the donation will not reach those in need.
more likely just show off or probably test the deep of the water, whether their transaction could be tracked to the root or the authority will find out, the transaction linked to a mixing service.

This is strange, if hackers actually wanted to donate those money, they would have kept it secret. It's clear that they had some ulterior motive - maybe they wanted to boost their own reputation or maybe they wanted to harm Bitcoin's reputation, or maybe the charities were the actual target?


They'll probably give the coins to the police, who will try to investigate from whom these coins were stolen, and if that won't work, they'll probably auction the coins.

Hackers are not all bad some of them act this way as Robinhood does. but this isn't right at all because, in this way, there will be some people who suffer, and stealing is not really the best way to help those in need quickly. Just like what happened to this guy here, when he got caught he paid for his sin with his life but overall he is happy about his ending. I don't know if it is true or not but such kind of hacker might exist out there.

https://factly.in/wp-content/uploads//2019/10/HamzaBendelladj-Fb-Post.png

What do you think guys? is it legit or not?

We really don't know what is their agenda for doing that and for posting that donations over the net for sure the only thing they want is to be known. Since if they got reputation about this for sure they can use it for extortion or maybe on illegal things that we can't imagine.

But we really don't know the on point reason about this so expect more talks about those happenings will continue to flow.

They will probably send the donated Bitcoin to the proper authorities. If they believed the same is really obtained illegally, it is absurd to give them back to the criminals. However, I doubt the stolen Bitcoin would still end up to their rightful owners even if it is turned over to the police. The amount is but a very tiny portion of what was probably stolen.

Personally, I would think it is better for this tiny amount to just serve a better purpose such as charitable works. But, of course, huge charitable institutions such as Children International wouldn't risk their reputation over 0.88BTC. 

I have mixed reviews for this situation.  On 1 hand the hackers are giving money to good causes in The Water Project and Children.  But they are giving away stolen funds so its a red flag.

Good for Children International to do the right thing and want to return the stolen coins but who gets them?

KYC for donations is rubbish-  this should not be required.  

To be able to do that, obviously, they would actually need to sell the bitcoin for them to be able to have the cash. Whereas doing so could potentially expose their identity. And even if they coinjoin the coins and sell them through P2P platforms, there's still a lot of room for error.

It's pretty safe to assume that it's not worth the risk on their side. That, or they simply just wanted the publicity like some have mentioned.

For me, doing something bad just to help others won't make it any good or better because you helped in the wrong way. Even if we say that those hackers are doing it to help charities, it's not an ideal way to help and it would be a dilemma for those charities to accept funds that were acquired in illegal activities. Charities will either turn a blind eye and just accept that bitcoin or report it to the authorities and if they do, would they benefit from it?

Total rubbish, I agree.

Why don't they fix all the fiat/dollar money scams, hacks, fake donations and illegal activities like it was recently discovered with German banks and monkey laundering?
When they fix that then they can back and talk more about bitcoin, and not just doing kyc for everyone and everything on the planet.

I don't think that is real, and I think it is not related to this topic of Bitcoin donations.

Yes, and Robin Hood is always a good thing for advertisement ;)
Take from the rich - give to the poor and needy.

I know how kindness of Robin Hood by take from the rich and giving to the poor but is not good attitude, I think have good way how to get donate without hacked some website or stole money for giving to the poor. You can make donation and as giving from the rich to donate their money without hacked and stole from them. I know many richest person will donate and make foundation to help each other and separate half their money to build foundation or institution like donate to UNICEF, UNHCR and many bigger world foundation to help many children and people not lucky in the world.

Basically this shouldn't be an issue if stolen Bitcoins are or were mixed before they are sent out to the charity. The darkside hackers should ensure to mixe those  stolen bitcoin which will make them untrace from security officers, them not going through this process should be a concern on the part of the recipient. I urge them to always get the stolen bitcoins through mixer before send to beneficiaries.

I have personally donated to TheWaterProject a couple of times already in the past, and no; KYC is definitely not a requirement.

https://i.imgur.com/vqQvLR1.png

Well, either they are just trying to justify their crime here or they'd go back to the charity organisation to get the funds back.
It's better the organisation the what's appropriate by sending the BTC back or reporting to the police.

They are surely getting the attention and wanted this action to spread out, the amount of donation is too small from the
actual amount that been said they hacked.


The fact that it's been known that the money came from illegal deeds, the donations is just a part of trolling around to get
some good attentions from people who've read the news.


Again, they purposely done it to get the attentions, they knew where the money came from and
sending it to charities can be done without any publicities if they really doing it in good faith.

Would have been nice if the hackers used some tools to mask their donations at least, like used some other available crypto for the donation and just be done with it. It seems like they are just trying to sway the hearts of many with these small things that they’re doing, but ultimately it doesn’t accomplish much and it just led to the funds being wasted, and possibly being spent by some dudes in the middle.

As for KYC on charities.m, why does it need to get implemented? That’s bs. If people want to donate anonymously then let them do it. Most genuine people like to help without being publicized anyway, so I don’t get why organizations need to know who donated.

Giving into charities is a good thing that hackers could do donating to children's. But Hacking and scamming is still illegal and stealing. Stealing millions of dollars worth of bitcoin and then donating a small piece of it to the charities is easy maybe the hackers just don't want to feel bad so donating could help him to get rid of that feeling. Requiring KYC for a donation? I think KYC is not suitable and not necessary at all, there is no need for sensitive information if you just want to donate.

At least they are sharing some of their earnings(LOL) and those organization could really use it well.
I wonder how the government would react to it would they confiscate it knowing that it came from a group of hackers or would they ignore it and let the organization use the money to help others?

I also think that these hackers are just trolling around when they made a donation to these two charities.  If they really wanted to help, they can give a larger amount than a considered "dust" in proportion to the hacked amount. 

Or if not, they are possibly trying to fish some sentiment from other people to make them look good at least.  Just how the article portrayed them as "Mysterious Robin Hood".

The charity probably won't accept it because it will surely cause trouble on their end. If they've surrendered it then that's a good thing because it's a good way to catch those hackers. As we all know, good deeds can't save us and those hackers have committed a mistake and they should still pay for it no matter where they used their stolen crypto. They should still pay for their depth. 

we are also have charity threads on bitcointalk.
these threads got 1 btc of donation each.
another robinhood? I hope it came from a good way.
   
Project Covid-19 : A Financial Aid - Only for Bitcointalk users!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5246208.0
spreadsheet link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112dk74xnUlgMHSREP4Ny0kqwrRSEUSAHrGjMJVwXQfY/edit#gid=1160771654

Bitcointalk Charity Program - Give Hope To Everyone!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5124375.msg54515978#msg54515978

I think it's more than that although they did send it anyway but the report said that the charity itself won't accept/touch the donated Bitcoin when it's connected to the hackers. The only question left me hanging is what are they gonna do with those Bitcoin anyway? And the hackers just sent a dime of all the total of what they hacked so I guess they are just trying to test something or is it only just a show? Who knows what are they thinking. ::)

To call these hackers the modern day cryptocurrency Robin Hood i would like to know how much they looted over all and then donating a small amount could not be considered as a big charity as there are several user funds that are robbed because of the inability of the exchanges to keep the funds safe.

It is a good decision by these charity organisations to return the funds from these exploits.

How can you ask this when the image you linked comes from factly, from this URL:
Hamza Bendelladj is still alive. The person in the photo is not him (https://factly.in/hamza-bendallaz-is-still-alive-the-person-in-the-photo-is-not-him/)
So, not only was he not executed but also there is zero evidence of him donating a penny.


Yeah, really pathetic to brag about this, you extort millions and you donate 10 000 and you consider yourself a hero, there are banks who are donating more percentage-wise and maybe even some of the companies they've extorted. Not to mention that it took them 9 sweet months to do from their first case.


Or maybe they're testing the waters for money laundering, set up 10 NGO's and distribute some of the coins as "donations".
Even if they are donating a few dollars let's not forget that those guys have started the whole deal with extortion so you could assume the worse from them.

As for anyone considering them Robin Hood, taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor, let me ask you this:

Those 1000 people who have been left without a job, in which category do they fall in?

For me, I know that hackers helped in the wrong way but what if the money that they stole was from a corrupt politician? The bright side of this is hackers serves as a blessing in disguise to help those who are in need. If ever that they will surrender those bitcoins to the authorities we will never know if it will be returned to the previous owner of bitcoin or if it will be safe in the pockets of somebody. If I were in that place and charities are really in need that time I will accept it and be thankful.

Wut? You must have seen too many movies of guys robbing banks while killing people and giving a portion of the money to the innocent poor and thought it was cool hehe. I can't think of other reasons why you'd see the act as "helpful" even though you knew it was stolen and someone else has to suffer or already suffering because of the "donor". They don't get a pass just because dirty politicians are also doing it for fame.

Although the source of the stolen BTC by the hackers was not stated, had it been the stolen BTC is from a corrupt source like politicians or money meant to develop their countries and embezzled by the corrupt people I fully support such a money to be given to charity organizations.
Charities have to be cautious of receiving donations from sources that are suspicious so as to avoiding having problem with security authorities, betterstill the hackers should have gifted the BTC to a trusted person and implore  that person to transfer the fund to the charities.

We are giving different images to the people we called as the hacker again there is a different variation of hackers

The black hat hacker is ly responsible to commit a crime.
The white-hat hacker is one of the goods in the security

Also, they can change their path too if they want because they all aim for humanity and during this pandemic, it's too hard to help so why not use the bitcoin.

It's better to share things we have with the people who can't bear to this situation.

Sometimes it’s not all the hackers that are bad guys, some of them are just doing it to punish the elites who are the real world villains. This is not the first time I’m seeing stories like this, I’ve seen people who indulge in activities like this as a way to get something out from these stingy rich guys and use it to help the poor people.

Although sometimes it’s bad because some innocent people get caught up in the situation and lose their own money. All we need is a better world and nothing more. But I wouldn’t care if the bad elites are the only ones being affected, except the good ones that are fighting for a better cause.

I believe there is no need to reject the donation made by these hackers. For a charity, it shouldn't make any difference who sent them the money. In fact, if you begin to deeply understand who could be the owner of this or that money, it may turn out that at a certain stage practically any money could participate in some illegal schemes, but this does not prevent us from receiving change every day in the store with this money. Therefore, I see no problem for them to accept this money.

They are only trying to look good so their illegal works will be covered and this is how i see this action and i hate it ,Fooling people to make your works Good but in the back is evil is not a good thing for me.

Hoping that these hackers will still be put in jail once they are being pointed.

Because they are still taking funds from other people and this is not tolerable.

Well, I wouldn't accept donations from people I don't know not to talk of accepting from people who steal from others. If you steal from the rich to give to the needy, it's still evil/immoral. I think the only one that can be justified is taking back exactly what was stolen from you and denoting to the needy.
By the way, I never really like the idea of donating money to organizations that help people in need, unless they very transparent and use all the donated funds for exactly what they are donated for. Prefer to give directly and physically.

It is not their fault though.

They needed the money and they are just added in the expression since the hackers donated to their charity. I think it is safe to say that they will not be accepting or using that donated Bitcoins and might just give it to the police. Is this the hacker's plan or just their doing to say that they are good and they are the robinhood of this worst year?

I really do not know why these hackers decided to actually announce their donations:) I mean, if they truly wanted to give it to charity, why did they not do it? Are they maybe afraid they are close to getting caught and just trying to use this as a way to show they are actually good guys? I like steal from rich and give to poor too, but usually Robin Hood does not announce it;)

In addition to this^, if you recieve donation from someone online, it would be good to go through the person's posts history or internet activities and probably have his/her real identity recorded somewhere  openenly, or privately (if he/she chooses to be anonymous/private) before accepting it. If the donor has questionable/immoral characters or posts, you send back or reject the donation with reasons. If your donor has no post/internet history, you research or ask some questions while his/her donation remains untouched. If the answers aren't satisfactory, you return the fund back.
This ^ should well best on well decentralized network

We can take this into different perception. It is upto the receiver and the sending authority. From the hackers point of view it can be send to charities to wash away the sins of stealing. Another thing it might be a way to establish their identity as they're a new group of hackers. From the receiver point of view they feel guilty of using it, but in my view it is good to use it. Because,if the funds haven't been send for a good cause now this could've been used for something else.

It said that the hackers looted millions worth of Bitcoin and then they just give or donate 0.88 BTC whats the heck! that was nothing compared to the stolen amounts, But still its better than nothing after all 0.88 BTC is already liquid so it can buy food and supplies.

that one organization were already given free money and they arent willing to accept it ? they should be thankful and accept it because they arent the one ( the reciever or officials ) that will use but its a big help to the children under this charity . dont tell me they are hoarding the money but if they do , they are also picky and wants clean money but how do will know if other donators are donating clean money  .  the problem of the hacker donators is that they dont donate anonymously but they want the world to know that they are not pure evil

The money will not reach anyone as the organizations are returning that money to their rightful owners which is as it should be, if they had no way to know the source of the funds then they could have accepted it but it seems the hackers went out of their way to not mix the coins and for everyone to know they were donating some of that money to charities, so I do not think that legally they have another choice.

Now about charities in general, it will always be more effective that whatever money you want to donate is given to the persons that you think need it, the moment you use a charity then a part of that money will have to go to sustaining the charity itself, however there are charities in which the majority of their income goes to sustaining themselves and paying their employees big salaries so I understand your point when it comes to those charities.

must either say a crime or a good in what they do.
donating 0.88 Bitcoin to a foundation does have a positive value, but the bitcoins they get are illegal bitcoins and the result of other wallet breaches. The donations given were also only a small amount, only 0.88 BTC, while the ones they gave away were worth millions of dollars. Whether this is just a way to trick the police, but this method is not right.

Those charities are indeed just afraid for them to be sued or accused something since they are receiving funds that do really came from hackers.
Why they cant just accept? I dont see a reason for them to be sued out or would face up charges since those funds came out from nowhere.
Its just giving out some good vibes that hackers are still minding off in humanity on helping out those in need even though it came from theft
or from other people but i cant really just avoid not to be impressed on that kind of doing.

This proves bad people like Darkside hackers still have a good side, therefore they try to do good thing by donating to two charities.
Although it is not justified to make donations from the proceeds of crime. And I appreciate what Children International have done,
which plans not to accept Bitcoin that has been sent from Darkside hackers. Whereas 0.88 BTC is a very large amount in my opinion.
It makes no sense to impose KYC for donations. Because there are some people who want to do good thing, but don't want others to know.
That's why the KYC procedure is not required for donations.

Being a thief wouldn't change you even if you help other people, at the end of the day you are still a thief. These guys must be making good things from the bad things they would do but that will not change anything. They still hacked the bitcoins they have, obviously some charity would not accept that since police might involve them to hwat happened.

Vigilante justice is never needed and unnecessary but is definitely appreciated. There are certain instances where violence will be the last resort. Nevertheless, if it's from bitcoin where a lot of innocent people trade, I'm not so sure this can be justified as you're basically stealing from a poor to give it to another poor.

My mother always told me that there is no good in helping if the money that you help came was stolen. It is not a reason to help others from others money. If you want to help, you have to help from your own thing. You are not good just because you are helping, you will become good for not violating laws nor harm somebody else. I don`t salute that kind of thinking because it just shows the dilemma wherein you will think if it is bad a good.

Charities are only the front line of the scammers. They just being good to the people who they helped but its a doom for other people which they stole the money even directly or not. Helping is really needed nowadays, but scamming to other just to lend your arms to the poor is the same as the politician who snatched money from the treasury of the people. And helping it again to them just to gain sympathy as well as popularity.

I can't believe how the main creator of this article assumes that the donations came from the group "Darkside Hackers". Because in the first place, these hackers will not transact using the address where they first sent the hacked bitcoins before, they will use mixers to already mix the bitcoins and send it to their own address. The only reason this could be possible is when these hackers' intention in the very beginning is to donate to charities. But if the hacking incidents took place way back years ago. I can't believe this story. No one would ever donate too much of bitcoins especially today, as it has way better value than before.

Why would they even bother to do a KYC on donation?
For me it is just a waste of time and some donators wants to keep their information private and doesn't want to be known just like those hackers.
I am also curious on how much did those hackers stole and what's their purpose on donating some amount on random charities?

Well, it is not actually stated how much but based on the article the OP has provided, these Darkside hackers had extorted millions of dollars from companies and it is also said that now they wanted to make this world a better place that is why they posted these two receipts of $10K worth of Bitcoin to two charities. Don't know if that is their actual intention though.

They want to stir things up. I don't think it's a legit donation by them. It's just such a small amount for them and they aren't trying to donate to a lot of charities just poking here and there to see themselves in the news.

It may ba an attempt to give Bitcoin a bad name because the charities might get scared and disable their Bitcoin donations or they might spend the money and then the hackers will say it's no longer dirty theft money if it can help a cause.

Are they playing robin hood and trying to clear their names saying it was all to help others? No way. I'd have to see them donate it all to believe and I can bet it's not going to happen.

why should it be announced, like there is a fraud about this incident. i don't know what's the point in telling everyone about hackers donating 0.88 BTC. If a hacker wanted to donate to a charity I don't think they would tell everyone that the bitcoins they donated came from stealing other people's bitcoins.

I do not believe that these charities can return the bitcoin that this Robin Hood sent.
If the intention of the group of hackers was to extort companies that earn a lot of money and do not share some of their profits with the charities. This is not the best way to act. I also disagree with any illicit activity. Why claim authorship of donations? Another unsuccessful hacker activity, I hope the funds reach those most in need.

If they take donations they must have a wallet access or do it directly through a processor that exchanges it and sends them the money. In first case they can return it without problems, in the second they'd have to buy bitcoin first, which would generate losses for them now that the price went up a lot.
The hackers probably hope that the charities don't hold coins but immediately sell them for fiat and the stolen coins will get mixed with "clean" coins. It's their way of saying "we're still here" to the world.

let us not fall from this trap,I'm sure they are using the good image to hide their real motive and that is to hack more and pretend that they are the good guy here.

Just like robinhood,even How good His motive was yet what He is doing is wrong in the eye of Government and in the Eye of Good people.

Anyway they wanted to be in trend lol.

Modern day Robin Hood huh. Nah, I will nit buy it. It is clear here that they did something wrong and doing a little bit good won't change it. For me they are just trying to lessen the guilt they are feeling after stealing millions of money that's why they are donating.

It only proves that they are really new in the business of doing evil lol because if they are not then they will not do such thing at all, isn't it? Greed is not yet eating their whole personality. And on that being said, I do believe that they still have chance for a change.

People who have huge holdings of wealth can donate millions of dollars to a charity.  Donating on that amount of Bitcoin is just dusts compared to what I stated.  If you read the article, it is just a small amount in proportion to the amount they had hacked. 

If you believe that Bitcoin is traceable then you should believe that the addressed used by the hacker is probably tagged thus the writer of article can trace those addresses.  I think that those donations are just for show.

more then likely just for a show by these Darkside hackers. from the article mentioned by the OP, it says that the gang posted this receipt on the dark web. so I dont think debonaire read the article.

https://i.imgur.com/4uF8XUy.png

the hackers themselves exposed their transactions to these 2 charities. so maybe gaining attention from the community. because that amount is really dust compared to what they stolen. they created blog for this particular "charitable transaction"
curious how those institutions will send back the funds??? or better use it for good purposes instead