Bitcoin Forum

The FBI managed to retrieve most of the $4.4 million cryptocurrency ransom payment in Colonial Pipeline hack.

Can they also confiscate YOUR crypto funds if they wanted to??

What do you guys think about this...

Everything you need to know: https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/1402179970277982210

I must admit, it's a bit worrying to see so many people talking about this subject. It just shows how most of the community is just here for the money and has no clue about how bitcoin actually works.

This is nothing more than FUD which is now of course being used to drive down the price. The FBI got hold of the private key and was able to pull the funds, as could any other person who gets their hands on the PK.
Nothing was "hacked" nor could Bitcoin be "cracked". Here is an article with some background information about this, where you can also read speculations how this could happen:

How A New Team Of Feds Hacked The Hackers And Got Colonial Pipeline's Ransom Back (https://www.npr.org/2021/06/08/1004223000/how-a-new-team-of-feds-hacked-the-hackers-and-got-colonial-pipelines-bitcoin-bac?t=1623172017550)

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This.

I agree with your post. Even the title is misleading. Bitcoin can't be hacked for heaven's sake. It is your wallet that is susceptible to hack. And if you take the most basic security precautions, then I believe that 99% of the hacking attempts can be prevented and your coins will be safe and secure. And regarding the retrieval of coins by the FBI, I don't think that they have hacked in to any of the wallets. According to Adam Back, the coins were recovered after FBI took over the cloud server.

Following the same train of tought:

The tax authorities force widows/widowers to open safe deposit boxes with any banks after their spouse dies in order to take a big chunk in inheritance tax => "BANKSAFES CRACKED BY TAX AUTHORITIES... A SAFE DEPOSIT BOX IS NO LONGER SAFE"

The judge forces drug dealers to hand over the key(s) to their car(s) that were bought with the proceedings of drug dealing => "CAR SECURITY SYSTEM CRACKED BY JUDGE, CARS NO LONGER SAFE"

A robber forced a family to drive with him to the ATM machine and forced the father to give his pincode so the robber could withdraw the family's funds => "PINCODE CRACKED BY ROBBER, ATM's NO LONGER SAFE"....



I'm always flabbergasted how much damage a single reporter can do if he's unable/incompetent/unwilling to check his facts and write factual correct articles

yes it is like that, if you see now many people think that by buying bitcoin they will get rich instantly but in fact it is not like that and who think like that I think they are too naive because they are more concerned with profit in a short way without wanting the process to lived. it's true that bitcoin can increase wealth in my rough sense, but you also have to know what the process is like, don't just join in on fomo because I think it's not good and makes you greedy. I totally agree with your post

Do not be gullible when they say that they can take your crypto funds even if you're staying at home and doing nothing. There has to be some methods they did to recover it and they've done that because that amount is dirty for the hackers.

But if you do not do anything bad and you're just the regular guy buying and selling bitcoin or chose to keep and hold it, why worry?

You need to understand that Bitcoin can't be hacked. If you don't believe me, you can research it.

Bitcoin uses cryptography to secure it transactions, the transactions are recorded in a Blockchain. Which makes it difficult for someone to hack. Bitcoin can only be stolen from a Bitcoin owner digital wallets, and that require the hacker having access to it. Which basically means, if we keep our digital wallets safe, our cryptocurrency in it will also be safe.

Bitcoin has never been hacked in its entire life. It is hack-proof. Bitcoin was prone to a 51% attack when it was too young, but not now when it is already more than 10 years old, and impossible in the future. Every single day that Bitcoin is not hacked is another reason why it will not be hacked in the future.

Your funds could be hacked though, but that is not because Bitcoin itself could be hacked but most often because of your storage.

They didn't hack bitcoin, the hackers got sloppy and so they did the stupidest thing they can do as a hacker, be sloppy with their digital footprint. Bitcoin can't be hacked, others have already tried doing that.

How about doing some research before you make a complete idiot of yourself?  BTC can't be hacked.  Leaving BTC in a non custodial account can be accessed though. 

I was worried after knowing the news because somehow hackers always have a way to gain access. honestly this will continue or is it FUD to scare crypto users. please give me reassurance that this kind of thing can be avoided and not dealing with hackers.

General rule of thumb: if a headline or subject topic ends with a question mark:

• Clickbait
• The answer is NO

It's crazy how much misinformation is perpetuated about them getting the bitcoin back.

First off, great for them for getting most of the ransom money back, hopefully all criminals who use bitcoin are this stupid.

Obviously bitcoin was not hacked, it can't be hacked. I saw an article in I think it was some major newspaper in the past couple days that was saying that this shows that Bitcoin, like anything, can be broken given enough time. Such bad reporting.

I also just saw a headline in a major newspaper saying that the Pipeline investigation shows that Bitcoin is traceable....so you mean it's a thing that everyone knows it is and literally has been a feature of bitcoin since the moment it came online? Jesus!

The bitcoin network is safe. It was never hacked. Threads and titles like yours are the ones that spreads FUDs and rumors. A quick google search and reading a news from an authentic source might have answered your question. The FBI probably seized the wallets with the private keys. Not hack them.
No they can't confiscate your funds as long as you don't give them your private keys. But if you store your coins on a custodial wallet, the organization that has access to your keys might give it to the FBI for legal reasons.

Yeah, the truth is in the tweet. Why don't people bother reading it before they start posting everywhere that BTC got hacked. BTC has not been hacked!!!! Stop spreading FUD, read the source properly...

And it shows how uninformed not only the average Joe that hasn't touched on satoshi yet is but people who have been around for years!

Veterans here are always screaming this is FUD, how are you that stupid to not understand but at the same time they forget that 99.9% of the people on this planet haven't spent 0.01% of the time they had on researching bitcoins. The majority has bought after clicking on ads and reading on Twitter, what do you expect from them, to understand from one line everything about bitcoin? Oh, do your own research, let be honest here, how many of you hold shares in companies you don't have a clue where their factories are or what is the name of their CEO?

This is the normal thing, once something goes mainstream don't expect the people that come in the last wave to spend that much time as the first generation, just look how things were with everything, at the beginning the small circle of enthusiasts knew almost everything, and it was the same with cars, computers, smartphones, everything.

As for the money thing, are you genuinely surprise by that?  ;D

Very well explained on this tweet. All things that you need to know is on this tweet with the recent event about FBI/bitcoin.

Well in general terms, some newbies might say that their bitcoins have been hacked. But the actuality of it is that, it is their wallets got hacked or the exchanges wallet got hacked.

I think so, many people want to know how the can make money from bitcoin, some even want to know how they can make it in an illegal way, I have a friend asking that if someone sends him money can the track him if the person sends him through bitcoin, I really don't care who is sending him money, but I had to let him know he can be tracked and even fished out.
People mustn't be encouraged to use bitcoin because of how they shouldn't be caught when they try to use it illegally, it's also  characteristic of them to convert the bitcoin or crypto-currency to Fiat.

If they wanted to they can, it's easy as they write a letter to the exchange where our coins are with a gov order to freeze that money, shouldn't be a big deal for them to do it. But if the bitcoins are under our wallet then it would be a lil harder for them because they have to get access someway to our machine to access to the private keys of the coins.

The FBI has some advanced tools and zero days to access any device. So, if they want to get your coins they will be able to do it.

They don't need to do that, it was an abuse of authority if that be going to happen unless if there is a report in regards to illegal activities. but what I can say this is just a FUD, many people had spread the news like this trying to create attention and panic for the community. So if we know that we don't violate any and we secure our keys, we have no problem with that and our funds remain safe.

Question of whether Bitcoin is hackable is quite difficult to answer. Yes, there are ways to reduce the complexity to crack an address but it is mathematically still implausible currently due to the amount of resources required.

It is the kind of questions that you won't really know the answer to. Has Bitcoin been hacked? Perhaps, there is no way to prove a negative and arguably difficult to prove a positive in practice. Of course, the theoretical aspect of this puts this at a ridiculously miniscule chances if you use Bitcoin correctly. If you did put your keys on a server that can be accessible by a third party, then it is perfectly possible to get compromised.

The reason these rumors are spreading is because the FBI was able to identify the encrypted key in which the hackers demanded money. First of all you need to understand is that they are investigating these hackers for the past one year and following their pattern on how they are moving the coins and i am sure the hackers were using any exchange address initially and the FBI might have got access through that way.

It must be admitted that one of the attractions of Bitcoin is being able to make money from Bitcoin,  this makes Bitcoin increasingly popular
and studied by many people. Because Bitcoin is decentralized and cannot be controlled by anyone, that's what makes people misunderstand Bitcoin,
some people do think negatively about Bitcoin. Even Bitcoin is used by some people to make illegal transactions, even though transactions using
Bitcoin can be tracked and many people who use Bitcoin for illegal activities have also been arrested. This means use Bitcoin wisely, and use Bitcoin
for positive things.

Hey I got an idea Gandolph, you give me your public-key (n*G), and your address of your cold-wallet ( h160 format), and let's see how long it takes me to 'hack' your btc. Ok? Deal?

If your so damn confident that your BTC are 'safe', then you should have no fear of sharing these 'public datapoints' with me.

Every 'terrorist' group we know about on earth, had FBI moles, informants on the inside, usually instigating the operation, and they wait for a low-news day to release the 'grab'; They operate very slow, build cases for years; Grab the money before they even announce the bust.

Even the online-drug-guy was busted because he was befriended by an FBI agent that got his email (gmail led to real-id), these 'hacker groups' are even worse as they usually all hang out in the same forums, or chat groups, or usenets, or even darkwebs;

...


This OP is bullshit, because essentially unless your in criminal behavior, its not likely the FBI will target U, however the way exchanges work, they can 'taint' your coin on suspicion based on the fact that your coin might have been mixed at sometime in the past, sort of like cocaine on currency, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Once the exchanges locks your btc by association, your screwed, time to hire an expensive lawyer, and watch real money evaporate.

BTC IMHO hacking means to crack the private-key, and/or randomly exploit the hash160 public address to obtain the private-key, then sweep the funds, that kind of hacking takes place all over the world since the birth of bitcoin. Then there is scams, where people have trojan horse websites that say "Give me your priv-key, and I'll return 2x", and tons of morons fall for that, its not hacking its scamming.

No, they didn't hacked bitcoin, I think there was some user who posted that the scammers were tracked and they got stupid and sloppy in keeping the coin in their server or something technical and the FBI was able to piece it together. Yes, your bitcoin and everyone's bitcoin is still safe, I don't think that we will have to worry about it.