This couldn't happen in reality, because people usually get honest and ethical around money...  I share your point of view. It is unbelievable my story could happen in reality. That's why I wrote in the foreword that this was a fictional story. |
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and his bodyguard mr Pawczyński Do you know his first name? |
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Will "you" get caught at the end?
No, but one of the distraction / smokescreen that already surfaced would give me the necessary room for manouvering myself out of the situation and more or less help the scapegoat (in case things were turning criminal for him). |
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Given the possible recent leak of the Mt. Gox source code and database, what would the core developers and mining community think of locking the apparent large wallet balances belonging to Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles, and Jeb McCaleb by changing the protocol for now? To my knowledge there was a case of a mining pool operator who was robbed. The victim alarmed the community quickly (this is what a victim normally does when robbed) and the community could react also quickly and some portion of the stolen coins were retrieved. Unfortunately for the goxed and fortunately for the ''thieves'', Mark Karpeles had allowed about a month before announcing that ''theft'' happened. He didn't even tell to which addresses the ''stolen'' coins were sent. MtGox is under civil rehabilitation, meaning Karpeles will probably never reveal to which addresses the ''stolen'' coins were withdrawn. The idea would not be to accept any transactions spending these bitcoin until the Mt. Gox bankruptcy case is sorted out. Only some portion of the ''stolen'' coins are in static addresses now. Majority was simply divided by four, divided by four, divided by four*, then sent to an exchange, sold and or bought back. Most reasonable here is to look for the so called theives' names in exchanges' records - only in case you are absolutely 100% sure (you can't be 100% sure because Karpeles - unlike the robbed ones in the past - did not tell to which addresses the ''stolen'' coins were sent). A committee, possibly appointed by the Bitcoin Foundation, could verify proper ownership before the coins are cleared for spending and a change back is made. If what happened was a real theft TBF might do something. Nothing so far (Karapeles' bahaviour and other stuff) indicates this was a theft. *EDIT: now they are being divided by 8, 18, etc.: https://blockchain.info/address/12WFth5HabiVrcj5waHtDP1b7gXSQPuDPz still not sure if these are the ''disappeared'' / ''unaccounted for'' / ''stolen'' coins. |
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In view of the thefts occurred in gox (if true), poloniex, flexcoin and since bitcoins are traceable. Wouldn't it be good to create a list to trace the movements of stolen coins for, at least, they can not be sold in major exchanges?
It would be better to have the industry standard that all exchanges' wallets are being made public (tagged in blockchain). When your stolen coins appear on an exchange's tagged address, you would simply notify this exchange that the coins that were stolen from you have just arrived in their wallet. The exchange knows who funded the wallet with your stolen bitcoins and can give the name of the thief to the police for further investogation. |
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who is Stephane Portha (known scammer) and why is he connected with Mt.Gox Mark Karpeles?
No names please. The story is fictional. It is for entertainment purposes only. |
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I like this story... but first to understand the story and make it a good story, we need character build up... in order to connect with them and their reasoning's. I never was good at telling story. Besides English is not my mother tongue. Please forgive me. and to do that right we need to understand who would be playing these characters.
Exchange "Dick" - Played by Gox Edited from Dick into MtCock, sir. I think some back history on a few of them is needed to create reasoning as to why certain motives are there. Also, some characters/roles are missing from the story.
If you believe some characters are missing, please supplement the story. |
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I. Foreword
This a fictional story. It has nothing to do with the current events. All similarities to any person are unintended. While reading this story please remember daddy Loozik is ALWAYS wrong. For sure there will be better stories of how to steal $ 0.5 billion than this fictional and made up story.
II. The story (small part of it)
If I were criminally minded and at the same time not stupid and wanted to steal $0.5 billion, I would knew that my preys had to be ordinary people (poor therefore stupid). I wouldn’t have dared to steal from the rich (not stupid) – they would find out quickly.
I would need to steal from the masses. Masses can be easily tricked and then controlled. If I knew a thing or two about cryptocurrencies I would steal funds from the biggest cryptocurrency exchange (let’s call this exchange ‘’MtCocks’’). And let’s call the cryptocurrency ‘’Digitcoin’’.
1. Planning and securing the necessary resources:
I would for sure secure the availability of major actors.
There must always be a scapegoat in undertakings like this one (the robbed masses always need someone to blame), so the scapegoat would be the exchange’s CEO. I would offer him a soft landing after the theft. It would not be a problem for the masses to accept that MtCocks' CEO is the one to blame. Lots of fuckups happened (unexplained crashes, hacks, an accountant mistakenly executing huge orders, etc.) in the history of MtCocks. Masses had already been led to believe that they were ‘’coxed'’ many times in the past. There would be no problem in convincing the masses they were coxed again.
I would need the looted money to be liquidated somewhere unnoticed (in stealth mode). How could this be done? This could be handled in two ways:
- option 1: through existing exchanges using their dark pools – however there would be a risk of too many people knowing too much,
- option 2: through a new exchange that would need to be created for the purpose of routing the looted coins; the exchange would need to have a certain unique feature so that selling of the looted coins is unnoticed, e.g. the exchange shouldn’t report volume in its feed (you do not show volume = the public does not know how much coins are traded).
Which way should I go? Let’s say I would want to stay in the business of screwing people for a longer period, therefore my preference would be option 2.
I would of course secure MtCocks' market maker(s) for the undertaking. Let’s refer to this person or a group of persons as Miss Whale. Miss Whale will later be needed to transfer assets out of MtCocks.
For the final stage of the planned theft I would need to blind masses with excess of shitty and misleading information to focus their attention on the unimportant stuff. I needed them to be distracted from seeing what is being done. Like a magician who makes movement with his right hand to catch your attention on this hand, while pulling out a card from the left hand unnoticed.
The distraction should be muliti-track. Hey – it is a grand theft after all. The more tricks are played on the masses the better.
I would find a person with some M&A experience (therefore financial background) with a fancy name, like two-digit-wiseguy, so that a potential acquisition smokescreen could be played (to substantiate a takeover story).
I would find a concerned MtCocks' customer with a fancy name, like Burger King, so that a smokescreen of how MtCocks' CEO is a ruthless capitalist could be played (to substantiate a story that MtCocks' collapse is caused by CEO’s greed and that he stole all the funds for himself). MtCocks' CEO already agreed he would be a scapegoat.
I would find some guys who would be releasing IRC chat conversations with MtCocks' CEO to ‘’prove’’ how stupid and clueless he was so that a smokescreen of how MtCocks' CEO badly manages his company could be played (to substantiate a story that he is not a bad guy after all, just a dreamer who fucked up by wanting to create his business only on PHP code).
I might also need someone who is friends with all exchanges so that this person can influence other exchanges actions in case a joint statement is needed. Let’s call him Mr. X.
And for sure I would need someone who is liked by the masses. You know, just like Jesus was liked by the masses. This needed to be someone with a child’s face – people forget sins made in childhood.
2. Implementing the plan
Miss Whale would withdraw gradually funds from MtCocks over time and pour it into other exchanges. Mr X would reassure CEOs of other exchanges how beautifully their business are run and that their growth is organic due to their technical superiority over MtCocks. The CEOs would start to like Mr. X even more. Is there anything they wouldn’t do for Mr. X?
Next I would inspire the setting up of the new exchange. I have a sense of humour – I’d call it coinkaida. I would find respected investors. Coinkaida with its notable investors and under harsh jurisdiction can’t be doing anything inappropriate, right?
While volume on MtCocks would be declining and problems with withdrawals would start, Miss Whale’s interest would be threatened, I would then send the Jesus to tell the masses that the exchange I am going to rob is just fine. Although I wouldn’t fucking allow Jesus to read from a prompter! Someone might have later guessed it had been staged.
Jesus would do his job, masses would flood MtCocks with fiat. The price on MtCocks would be higher due to the rising demand. In result Digitcoins would start to pour into MtCocks to sell them there. I would be happy. Miss Whale would be happy. And guess what, the masses would be happy too.
As Miss Whale would increase her withdrawals from MtCocks, problems for masses would start again. It is when the final coxing should be done. It’s time for the first distraction (smokescreen): our brave Burger King. The video should be nice. People should get the message: poor guy with some coins deposited at MtCocks was troubled, he truly represented the masses. Let him be called the Hero of Digitcoin from now on in the media. Although I wouldn’t fucking send a guy whom MtCocks owned only 330 – it is not credible – Burger King couldn’t have afforded a trip to Tokyo and a 7 day stay in a hotel for himself and his buddy equipped with high quality video recorder - at least Burger King should have shaken and should have cried over all his assets being gone. And for sure MtCocks' CEO could have played better (he was not even scared), I should have invested a few pennies in acting lessons for the both before shooting this movie.
Last chapter: the inevitable dip in price would happen, Miss Whale would buy cheap digitcoins with all her fiat that was left on MtCocks. Miss Whale would quickly withdraw her coins (maybe some of her fiat and digitcoins would be left in MtCocks in case a proof was later needed to show that she lost too).
Since majority of assets deposited by masses in MtCocks would be magically made ‘’disappeared’’ or ‘’unaccounted for’’ with Miss Whale’s helping hand, withdrawals would be stopped.
Some notable people would utter statements that they did not believe MtCocks was in financial trouble (it was just a technical issue, as always), so the masses would be buying as price started to fall, and fall and fall and they would be still buying even more hoping the digitcoin price to finally bottom. But frankly the bottom was never to be seen. Stupid masses.
In some point in time as the bottom wouldn’t be hit I would order MtCocks' CEO to halt trading, put a blank page with the info MtCock would be acquired, to give some credibility to the story told by two-digit-wiseguy.
Simultaneously, Mr X would arrange for a joint statement of exchanges. I would need to make sure coinkaida’s CEO name is on top – this will be a ‘’proof’’ coinkaida’s CEO didn’t like that scammer, MtCocks' CEO. But I wouldn’t be fucking releasing the joint statement with word ‘’insolvency’’ in it! Someone might have later guessed it had been staged: how possibly could competing exchanges’ CEOs know MtCocks was insolvent without looking at MtCock’s financial statements first and without insider knowledge!
MtCocks would be empty now, Miss Whale would start to make market on coinkaida. Noone would see this happening as coinkaida wouldn’t report volume. I was really smart to devise this whole volume non-reporting thing. A new trading venue should typically offer more and better over the existing venues, but I somehow made a miracle by offering less and not going out of business (well, I knew lots of coxed money will later pour into this exchange anyway).
I knew people would start investigating were their money went. Hey – I am the smart guy – let’s create a CSI thread in which people will try to do the impossible (trace the coins starting from 2011 when MtCocks' CEO supposedly proved he had owned coins at that time).
It would be bad if they started to look for coins that were routed through the network around the last dip in price on MtCock with increased volume during which Ms Whale bought her last coins on MtCocks (and later transferred). I would be in risk if someone did this.
Now, I would be very happy. MtCocks' CEO filed for bankruptcy (civil rehabilitation) – no one will touch him. The official story would be MtCocks was hacked. My magicians would reveal MtCocks' source code and client database, which would prove beyond any doubt that MtCocks was simply hacked and that the official story is OK.
III. Question:
If you were criminally minded and wanted to steal $0.5 billion would you do something more than I in this fictional story? If yes, what would you do more, e.g. invite more actors?
If you were criminally minded and wanted to steal $0.5 billion, what wouldn’t have you done?
If you were the coxed one, how would you look for your looted coins and your looted fiat, if this completely fictional story were true?
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I hope they found the disappeared coins.
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So all is lost ? may I trash my coin?
It is very simple: there are 3 types of stories you can choose from: 1. the distraction story that was told by magicians (Kolin Burges + twobit idiot + irc chats + others): then depending on your preference you believe that Mark is either a ruthless swindler-criminal or an incompetent manager-dreamer 2. the MtGox story that portrays the exchange as a prey to a hacker who stole 6% of all bitcoins in maximum of 6 days without leaving any spikes in Bitcoin network activity 3. daddy Loozik's story that at least 50% of Gox's assets were gone before the alledged theft happened and that Gox's bankruptcy had been planned ahead (with distraction stories being its element) How can I know if all is lost  |
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I'm still gonna have to go with the incompetence argument.
The incompetence argument (nice, naive fatty guy, probably incompetent) was created with fabricated ''leaks'', released on the right moments directed to the right people (the clueless ones): - IRC chat discussions - recovery plan - business plan - etc The incompetence argument was so frequently used that it got imprinted in our brains. The incompetence served only as distraction for us so that we would never see that the grand theft of $ 0.5 billion was happening. |
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of course - as nobody could hide the traces without complicity of Karpeles.......and they are still free to hide everything as it pleases....take the guy in custody before every proof will be erased
The bancruptcy with rehabilitation to which the Japanese court agreed is the best solution for Karpeles and his buddies, but the worst solution for clients and for finding out the truth. |
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isn't peter vessenes the dummy who didn't register coinlab as a money transmitter and lost $5 million of gox's money? lol!
Peter Vessenes didn't lose the $5.3M belonging to MtGox customers. He stole them. Given today's Gox's revelation of Gox's being capable of losing not only crypto but also fiat, it should be duly noted that $5.3 currently hold by Coinlab are safer with Peter Vessenes than with Mark Karpeles. |
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In case anyone else is wondering, I believe I have found the post Loozik is referring to:
That was just an innocent joke. I only wanted to sell (cheaply) some know-how to the market maker because I sensed the market potential could be utilized even more. But if my hypothesis is correct (controlled collapse, not theft or lost privkeys), then the person(s) who was doing that stuff that day drained Gox of coins with the knowledge of Karpeles. |
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Sorry OP, the Bitcoin Foundation has no moneyz left. Vessenes spent it all already.
No problem here as I am 99% sure (having spent the night looking at the blockchain on selected days) the ''disappearance'' of Gox coins were neither a result of hack / theft nor loss of privkeys but was rather an element of long planned and controlled collapse of Gox. No need for TBF guys to spend a satoshi to investigate hack / theft as there was none. Not to be blunt, but are you suggesting that a certain $75M lawsuit has something to do with Gox's demise? I am absolutely not suggesting $75 million were paid with the disappeared coins and that Karpeles prioritized this (real or made up) liability towards Coinlab (arising from real or fake dispute) over liabilities towards cutomers, although such a thought flashed across my mind once (but was long time ago forgotten and never explored). Coinlab is NOT the nice organization I discussed previously. |
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At the start of February 2014, illegal access through the abuse of a bug in the bitcoin system resulted in an increase in incomplete bitcoin transfer transactions and we discovered that there was a possibility that bitcoins had been illicitly moved through the abuse of this bug.
As a result of our internal investigation, we found that a large amount of bitcoins had disappeared. Although the complete extent is not yet known, we found that approximately 750,000 bitcoins deposited by users and approximately 100,000 bitcoins belonging to us had disappeared.
We believe that there is a high probability that these bitcoins were stolen as a result of an abuse of this bug and we have asked an expert to look at the possibility of a criminal complaint and undertake proper procedures.
So the hack took place between 1 Feb 2014 and 6 Feb 2014 (6 Feb is I believe when btc withdrawals were halted at Gox). During less than a week 850,000 were stolen.
Show me this in the blockchain  EDIT: Can someone who uses blockchain API hooked to a statistical analysis software please calculate value / amount of coins sent on the Bitcoin network in period 1 - 6 Feb 2014. I want to know what % of all bitcoins sent in this period were the ''stolen'' coins. |
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Sorry OP, the Bitcoin Foundation has no moneyz left. Vessenes spent it all already.
No problem here as I am 99% sure (having spent the night looking at the blockchain on selected days) the ''disappearance'' of Gox coins were neither a result of hack / theft nor loss of privkeys but was rather an element of long planned and controlled collapse of Gox. No need for TBF guys to spend a satoshi to investigate hack / theft as there was none. |
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