Bitcoin Forum

My research colleagues and I are analysing cryptocurrency related “wrench attacks” (physical attacks or threats targeted at cryptocurrency owners) for an academic project.

One of our objectives is to understand the dynamics of these attacks and therefore we are interested in interviewing cryptocurrency owners that are familiar or have been exposed to these attacks. Would any of you be interested in being interviewed as part of our research or do you know someone who would like to be interviewed?

Privacy is very important for us so we have taken several steps to ensure the confidentiality of our research participants. One of these measures is to apply pseudonyms to the data that participants provide. Additionally, we do not retain or disclose any identifiable information about any participants.

Our research is focused on both Bitcoin and altcoins and we're interested in understanding the following main topics:
  1. Identifying specific details of a $5 wrench attack (how did attackers find you and/or why did they target you in particular?) and the subsequent actions taken to report an attack (if any).
  2. Physical and digital security practices and habits taken by users to avoid becoming a wrench attack victim.

Please dm me if you are interested so I can provide more information about the interview schedule and additional measures we are taking to ensure confidentiality of our research participants.

Thanks in advance!

Not really sure what you wanted in this community,

a. we are all anonymous here so I guess we are already private
b. I haven't been a victim of a $5 wrench attack. But it's obvious that the victims might have tell a stranger, or worst a close family about his crypto holding and that's why they become a target. And as far as I know, it's usually someone close to you or even a family member that might tip criminals or even themselves to do that kind of attacks to you, in my opinion.

If no one responds to you, there's the other approach that I am thinking of and that is to look for those articles that have been reported attacked by these people that did a wrench attack. I saw some of those articles that have resulted in terror for the victim but I think that there are still those victims that are still alive. I don't know how you can contact them but start with those publishers and authors of those articles as there's a possibility that they've got a contact of those victims because it's possible that they're the first one that did the interview.

Thank you for your response. That's very helpful.

Without any research you can understand one important and at the same time simple truth. Do not tell anyone anything about your business and successes in cryptocurrencies. Never and under no circumstances. Because crypto users themselves are the ones who lead intruders to their own identity and expose their own crypto savings to attacks. IRL I pretend to know nothing about cryptocurrencies at all, pretend to understand nothing about it and know nothing. Judging from other people's experience, most often users are victims of attacks because they share their crypto successes with their inner circle.