[2017-08-05] WannaCry Bitcoin Proceeds Converted to Monero Through ShapeShift

[sheld0n]

Everyone remembers the global WannaCry ransomware attack. During that incident, thousands of computers and servers around the world were impacted. The developers of this malware also collected a fair amount of bitcoins from their actions. It now appears all of the money collected has been converted to Monero. After all, Bitcoin lacks privacy and anonymity traits. Monero, on the other hand, provides exactly that.
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[richardsNY]

Ok, now it's time for the world police (USA) to properly dig into ShapeShift.... I just wonder why ShapeShift didn't had the well known WannaCry address in its system to prevent abuse and potential criminal activity to happen through their platform? I find this a rather weak and amateurish practice, that may even have serious consequences for them in the end. XMR has been praised for its near-anonymous transactions, from there it will be an extremely difficult job to chase down the dirty funds now. Good job ShapeShift!

[eckmar]

They say that is not a good sign for a company. My ass it's not. With bitmixer.io down, just look at all people start buying monero with ShapeShift. In their eyes it will be only $$

[MaskMars1]

They say that is not a good sign for a company. My ass it's not. With bitmixer.io down, just look at all people start buying monero with ShapeShift. In their eyes it will be only $$

I do not see Monroe's prospects. It seems to me that soon the excitement will end and this coin will again become cheap.
But in one thing I agree - bitcoin is not as anonymous as some people think.

[buwaytress]

And then came this: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40826056

According to BBC, Shapeshift had been alerted to this and frozen the accounts. I'm not sure if this only because of the alert and ends up being a good PR move. They could have conducted a sting operation instead if they really wanted to catch these blackmailers beforehand.

[Iranus]

They say that is not a good sign for a company. My ass it's not. With bitmixer.io down, just look at all people start buying monero with ShapeShift. In their eyes it will be only $$

I do not see Monroe's prospects. It seems to me that soon the excitement will end and this coin will again become cheap.

You don't see its name either.

After all, Bitcoin lacks privacy and anonymity traits.

It's not quite like that.  I think they're just trying to use Monero like a mixer by sending it around a bit and then exchanging it to fiat later.

Monero is far better for anonymity, but they could have equally hid themselves by severing the ties between them and the original addresses on the blockchain.  They could even have sent to Shapeshift from a new address (both a new Bitcoin address and a new physical address).

[iamTom123]

All Bitcoin transactions can be traced but they could not trace for now who are these people doing the transactions. Now, in this case, there should be something to be done since it is clear that WannaCry criminals transferred the currency to certain accounts. I am telling you if nothing can be done here then I am sure the government will do something bad on regulating the industry. Self-regulation is the answer here so that we are not inviting the government to come in. The excuse of many that this is decentralized will not fly in the face of the government lurking in.

[Netnox]

I heard that Monero is much more anonymous than Bitcoin, and that is one of the reasons why the criminals (especially those behind ransomware softwares) use it. That said, I don't know whether it is 100% anonymous or not.