OG Bitcoin Wallet Addresses Suddenly Active - Are they being hacked?

[Taskford]

Recently I was visiting one of my friends who writes code, he brought up this topic to me recently saying that it seems like old wallets are being hacked into, that hackers have targeted older BTC addresses because of their vulnerabilities and lack of security.

I thought that was very interesting and since he is a tech savvy coder his use of relevant jargon and explanation was so good, I just wish I remembered exactly how he put it. I did a quick search though and found this relevant article: https://cryptoslate.com/old-wallets-activate-sparking-fears-of-mass-hack-targeting-bitcoin-veterans/

Could it be that folks have figured out how to crack the codes on these old private keys? IF so, they are seeing some massive pay days, EH?

If there's no news release about those OG wallets for being compromised well maybe there's nothing to worry about it. But if there's fud spreading about those incident where threatining about dumping some large balances then maybe we need to take action since we can ride up the news and earn with. Rather than get bothered and get stress for possible scenario that might happen. For now just think that the wallet owner of that wallet is maybe checking if his bitcoins still intact on his wallet.

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[DaveF]

It's 100% clickbait headline.

No old wallets are not being hacked. If they were you would be hearing about it. Taking everything else away I would say a lot of them are not moving because of security reasons or financial ones but rather hardware ones. That old PC sitting in the closet that has a few hundred if not thousand BTC (could even be just a few dozen) do you trust it to still boot with no issues? Can that old version of the software even communicate with the network anymore? Has the drive gotten corrupted? Can you fit the entire blockchain on a drive you bought in 2012? And so on.

So you take the time and move the coins.  And possibly sell a couple.

The other reason I see a lot of is people aging out so to speak, if you got into BTC in 2010 and were 40 you are now approaching your mid 50s.
If you have enough time to sell and retire.

-Dave

[dragonvslinux]

It's 100% clickbait headline.

No old wallets are not being hacked. If they were you would be hearing about it.

Also, if someone had found a vulnerability in old paper wallet generators from 10+ years ago - which is totally possible if the generator wasn't "truly" random generated by mouse point movements or likewise - then you'd find a lot of old coins moving than just a handful. You'd likely see hundreds if not thousands of old accounts waking up right now than a small number basically. Likely with many users claiming this has happened as well as potentially a hacker bragging about it. Whereas if you look at whale shadows (old coins on the move) then there really isn't much activity going on right now.

As Dave said, it's 100% clickbait with no evidence.

[Mahanton]

Recently I was visiting one of my friends who writes code, he brought up this topic to me recently saying that it seems like old wallets are being hacked into, that hackers have targeted older BTC addresses because of their vulnerabilities and lack of security.

I thought that was very interesting and since he is a tech savvy coder his use of relevant jargon and explanation was so good, I just wish I remembered exactly how he put it. I did a quick search though and found this relevant article: https://cryptoslate.com/old-wallets-activate-sparking-fears-of-mass-hack-targeting-bitcoin-veterans/

Could it be that folks have figured out how to crack the codes on these old private keys? IF so, they are seeing some massive pay days, EH?

If bruteforcing Bitcoins privatekeys is indeed possible then for sure people would really be flocking away into other altcoins in the market considering that security is really at risks or something have the issue.
Just like on what others been saying on here that it cant really be that possible that those old wallets could really be hacked. If ever those coins become active once again and made out some
transactions then there's only two things in my mind;

1. Owners had recently found out their keys after a long time of searching
2. Owners had decided for them to snip out some funds or profits on their wallets for a very long time.

I dont really believe that being hacked would really be the case on here on which it is really that something impossible on bruteforcing it out or breaking its security.
Finding a single privatekey on a certain address is impossible.

[vv181]

If bruteforcing Bitcoins privatekeys is indeed possible then for sure people would really be flocking away into other altcoins in the market considering that security is really at risks or something have the issue.

That may be possible on a bad implementation of the private key generation, theoretically, if it is possible there is a more significant thing to worry about than moving away to altcoins. What made you think if bitcoin private key cryptographic mechanism is compromised or cracked, the other cryptocurrencies are not also technically vulnerable?

Besides, what is the mere importance of the cryptocurrency market compared to say, the banking system, do you think they are utilizing a more stronger and secure technological technique? I don't think so.

[franky1]

its not a hack. its the US authorities moving around seized mtgox coins. .. gotta pay the lawyers afterall

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Could it be that folks have figured out how to crack the codes on these old private keys?

Except one leaves his wallet security details open on the internet or to a third party they will not have access to those coins, that's why we must keep our private keys safe, seed phrase as well is not what should be tempered with, someone can't track you down and steal your funds with just the help of public keys, but your seed phrase can make them discover and acquire your coins if left vulnerable.

IF so, they are seeing some massive pay days, EH?

It's not that easy, no one can steal your coins with just the use of public keys, though they can view your account on the blockchain since it's an open distributed ledger but can't alter it, that's why the bitcoin network is secured and trusted.

[DeathAngel]

Probably just OG’s moving from one cold storage device to another due to security concerns or sweeping an old paper wallet to move coins.

Just because coins move it doesn’t mean they are being sold. In fact, most commonly it’s just the owner moving coins from one place to another. These stories always cause FUD but there is no reason for it.

[sokani]

The media is always trying to make headlines for themselves. There may be many assumptions for the recent activities in OG's addresses but mass hacking should be the least of them. The OGs are not some newbies that are new to crypto, that lack security awareness and can easily get their wallet comprised by clicking on phishing links or installing compromised apps or software on their devices.

I think the possible reasons for the  recent activity in OG addresses could be some holders moving their funds around, the US government trying to sell some ceased bitcoin or crypto exchanges moving the bitcoin in their cold storage to another address as security measures.

[justdimin]

It's 100% clickbait headline.

No old wallets are not being hacked. If they were you would be hearing about it. Taking everything else away I would say a lot of them are not moving because of security reasons or financial ones but rather hardware ones. That old PC sitting in the closet that has a few hundred if not thousand BTC (could even be just a few dozen) do you trust it to still boot with no issues? Can that old version of the software even communicate with the network anymore? Has the drive gotten corrupted? Can you fit the entire blockchain on a drive you bought in 2012? And so on.

So you take the time and move the coins.  And possibly sell a couple.

The other reason I see a lot of is people aging out so to speak, if you got into BTC in 2010 and were 40 you are now approaching your mid 50s.
If you have enough time to sell and retire.

Of course it is, otherwise how are you going to get clicks, only by baiting. All in all when there is a huge OG wallet being active and doing something then we are going to get something, I believe that the best thing to do would be having a situation where it will change things if they move and if nothing changes then there is no move, you can understand it from that.

If you saw a huge OG wallet moving things, there will be movements everywhere and you would end up with something that will change it a lot. It will not be simple but at the end of the day we need to wait and see. Since there is no movement with this, that means it was nothing and that is why we should have been focusing a bit more towards real news and not the fake ones.

[tread93]

the address of funds of the 6071btc. lead back to a MTGox stash that was seized by authorities. i guess the us gov now wanted to move the coins in preparation to sell them for the liquidation courtcase to pay off the creditors

yep the reason for no movement for 10 years is due to mtgox being in bankruptcy court case for 10 years

This response is on point, thanks for the clarification Frank. I wonder who is going to scoop them up from the US govt