To the One Who Emptied Them

[BlackHatCoiner]

We received the news.

Through the nodes, the silence of your action was very noisy.

You reduced a thousand family hopes to ashes.

Now where will you run?

No matter how high your tower of stolen wealth, you will always have a shadow blocking out part of the sun.

You no longer have a tree under which to rest at the base.

The roof of tomorrow does not want you.

Was there nothing in you to ask how many mornings make a coin?

Night turns.

Dinners not eaten.

That woman and mother who never understood but remained.

How could it happen?

How did the human being -- the mother, the father, the laborer;

how did they escape your calculations?

We are the ones who baked the bread you ate.

The ones who laid the bricks that protect you from the wind.

The ones who provided the power to light your screens.

You are no longer judged.

You have been condemned:

To a lifetime in judgment, imprisoned in your own ledger.

If you can sleep tonight, sleep.

If you can see the sun, look upon it.

Face to face, judge yourself by the universe.

You will see that no matter how heavy the wallet, no money can lighten a guilty conscience.

So take the bitcoin.

May every satoshi you hold not remind you of the fortune you made,

but of the thousands of mornings you never labored for.

Not all thieves create poverty.

Some thieves create ghosts.

And from this day forth, you will have company.

[Odohu]

We are indeed living in a cruel world where what most people think about is how to inflict more suffering and pains to others. It did not start today, it did not start with Bitcoin and it will never end with Bitcoin... "the heart of man is desperately wicked"

But is this the future we crave? If we can learn anything from this incidence, what would that be? What are the mistakes of those who used Coldcard that they have to be punished? Maybe these answers will reassure the millions reading and hoping that Bitcoin will give them a better future.

[Oluwa-btc]

I have read this powerful piece for the second time and it leaves me with goose pimples and teary eyes

Most definitely this is not over, they will face the consequences of their actions.

With this disaster have brought a lot of broken hearts, homes and hope. Whoever did this indeed without human conscience and integrity.

May the universe be unfair and unkind to them. I can indeed relate how these mothers and fathers are broken on a billion pieces, a family member was also part of those who participated in the novatech ponzi scheme and got fumbled. We all felt the pain from a loved one who supported the family back home. Thank you for this great piece 👏

[MAHICO]

The thief may have thought he had just found some private keys.
But the thief does not realize how many public sacrifices lie behind a private key.
There is no algorithm yet developed to measure feelings  of a person
who spent many years of hard work and sacrifice his wish , hobby to create a small balance.

[Supreme Donvic]

The book of Ecclesiastes 12:14 says and I quote "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
Those who are doing wrong to other people shall surely suffer the consequences of what they have brought to other people, nobody who is evil will go unpunished.
It is very bad and so sad that one can just lose his or her money in a way like this, I lost some Bitcoin yesterday to Bitmart exchange and I know how heartbroken I have been till date.

[PrivacyG]

But is this the future we crave? If we can learn anything from this incidence, what would that be? What are the mistakes of those who used Coldcard that they have to be punished? Maybe these answers will reassure the millions reading and hoping that Bitcoin will give them a better future.

Asking if this is the future we crave feels like I or you are responsible for what happened here.  Unfortunately greed can rarely ever be fixed in many humans, particularly when extremely large amounts of money can be taken in a couple minutes or hours at most.  I am in fact very sure a lot of people would do it if they had the chance to, particularly considering the thief does not see faces and does not have to interact in any way with the victims.  How many people find dropped wallets on the ground and how many people return them?

If Bitcoin thieves SAW a face, a parent holding the hand of their child, someone begging for mercy, someone poor who worked hard to try and increase their status by holding on to a little chunk of Bitcoin, if they saw these every time they did a sweep it makes things a little bit more difficult psychologically for the thief.  Think of launching an automated killer drone versus killing with your own hand, which would be easier for you?

Here, they only see a screen.  They sweep that Bitcoin and they probably do not even think about how many people will lose wealth they worked on for over 50 years, how many people would kill them selves et cetera.  It is like a game of egoism.

[greysonz]

Some thieves create ghosts.

And from this day forth, you will have company.

Yes, they've become richer, but these thieves have acquired something else that they might not have thought of. It's a worry. Every police siren outside the window, every message they receive from strangers, every stranger who addresses them on the street - all this will make their hearts contract for a second. They will always look around and look around now. And that's enough for them to accumulate so much heart disease over their entire lives. After all, they can return the stolen goods, but they won't do it, even reading posts about ruined lives. So I don't feel sorry for such thieves, they don't deserve pity.

[JiiBs]

We are indeed living in a cruel world where what most people think about is how to inflict more suffering and pains to others. It did not start today, it did not start with Bitcoin and it will never end with Bitcoin... "the heart of man is desperately wicked"

The world as we have it today has being defined by a lot of rules and policies. Where our neighbors are those within our immediate surroundings and not those that are affected by our actions. Even then, they are still not safe from the consequences of our actions. People don’t care about the pain and suffering we inflict on a people and how that can go along to shape their life and the life of those that are to come after them.

It’s very disheartening that a human being can see the flaws of others as an opportunity rather than seek to correct and put in place what is left open.
The usual ethics has being, what you don’t want done to you, don’t do it to some other person. Unfortunately, that’s what these forks wants to be doing, it’s crazy.

[KiaKia]

I want you to know that this attack is massive and painful, it's well recognised because it happened on the Blockchain, but I am here to say that this type of attack on people's money and life is happening every month somewhere in the world.

People are losing insane amount of funds to scammers online, not just through Bitcoin and the Blockchain, I have heard heart wrenching stories about how hackers and scammers have ruined lives of many people around the world.

Funny enough is these people did it with pride, they have no single conscience because they will probably blame it on their own suffering too, all I can say to this person is every breath of freedom will never blow to their home ever again, they shall know no peace, spiritually and physically.

[Slow death]

Unfortunately, we live in a world where few people have kindness in their hearts. Last year, in this same month, someone broke into my house, stole my computer, and disappeared. When I read the news about Coldcard, I was very sad because I know there are many people who hodle cryptocurrencies and are people who don't spend, they just buy constantly and hold them. Then many questions came to my mind:

How are these people feeling after spending years accumulating Bitcoin, not spending it for themselves and then news like this appears and they lose everything?

In their minds, won't they think about suicide? They never spent their Bitcoins, but some scoundrel who didn't help at the time of purchase will spend them thanks to having stolen them. This is something very cruel, If it were in the real world, at least there could be hope of catching the scoundrels, but here on the internet it seems to be lawless territory.

[Catenaccio]

When I read the news about Coldcard, I was very sad because I know there are many people who hodle cryptocurrencies and are people who don't spend, they just buy constantly and hold them.

It's even more terrible because if they are holders, they less regularly read news about Bitcoin, and they might know about this technical exploitation very late, days or weeks later. It means it will be too late for them, after attackers already drained, swept many wallets.

I don't know but after this Bitcoin wallet accident, I think people even has holders will need to spend more time to read about security, find and save some security sites for regularly visit them and read.

Definitely this Bitcoin forum is a good place to be notified about such unwanted and scary events.

How are these people feeling after spending years accumulating Bitcoin, not spending it for themselves and then news like this appears and they lose everything?

One of ColdCard victims posted here and it was not easy for him.

[Crypto Library]

I remember a proverb about those who do this kind of thing and it is "A leopard cannot change its spots".
So these people knowingly continued their activities without any sense of remorse, working within them until they got themselves into that position.

After this incident, all I can think about is, what if those who lost everything after the Luna crashing didn't do what some people did? I mean, back then, many people lost everything, from depression to suicide.

But I truly hope that those who caused so many people and families to cry will find themselves in that position one day. 

[X-ray]

This is so devastating because a lot of coldcard wallet owners are people who have accumulated for years, doing their homework for self custody by using hardware wallet, did absolutely no mistake, and yet still got drained anyway because the wallet's bug.

A lot of people are talking and doubting about the security of hardware wallet right as of now and also talking about migrating to Bitcoin ETF, it'd be a big loss for the world of self custody because apparently many don't care even if the bug is isolated only to coldcard.

I can't imagine stacking sats for years and it vanished. Really hope the hacker make mistake and able to be identified.

[tread93]

We received the news.

Through the nodes, the silence of your action was very noisy.

You reduced a thousand family hopes to ashes.

Now where will you run?

No matter how high your tower of stolen wealth, you will always have a shadow blocking out part of the sun.

You no longer have a tree under which to rest at the base.

The roof of tomorrow does not want you.

Was there nothing in you to ask how many mornings make a coin?

Night turns.

Dinners not eaten.

That woman and mother who never understood but remained.

How could it happen?

How did the human being -- the mother, the father, the laborer;

how did they escape your calculations?

We are the ones who baked the bread you ate.

The ones who laid the bricks that protect you from the wind.

The ones who provided the power to light your screens.

You are no longer judged.

You have been condemned:

To a lifetime in judgment, imprisoned in your own ledger.

If you can sleep tonight, sleep.

If you can see the sun, look upon it.

Face to face, judge yourself by the universe.

You will see that no matter how heavy the wallet, no money can lighten a guilty conscience.

So take the bitcoin.

May every satoshi you hold not remind you of the fortune you made,

but of the thousands of mornings you never labored for.

Not all thieves create poverty.

Some thieves create ghosts.

And from this day forth, you will have company.

Oh shit that was convicting af. These scamming assholes think they hit the lottery but instead the booked a one way ticket to a meeting with their maker when they die to take account of all the lives they took, the money and legacy they stole from each and every family. The haunting of their days is justice and justification in their perception, having to live with what they did so they just dig the hole deeper. They will rot. Its too bad, having to resort to theft. Its one of the worst of all sins.

[Darker45]

I can only hope and pray that there's indeed such a thing as conscience and, if there's one, it can't simply be put to slumber.

However, after decades of existence I'm not anymore as optimistic. I've grown cynical. In the world of humans, one can't simply appeal to mercy. Thomas Hobbes may be right in describing human behavior, that homo homini lupus, man is a wolf to man.

Such is precisely the reason why there's cryptography, Bitcoin, seed phrase, and, of course, Coldcard. It's just unfortunate that the predatory nature of men drives them to constantly look for weakness to take advantage.

[BitBakerr1]

The book of Ecclesiastes 12:14 says and I quote "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
Those who are doing wrong to other people shall surely suffer the consequences of what they have brought to other people, nobody who is evil will go unpunished.
It is very bad and so sad that one can just lose his or her money in a way like this, I lost some Bitcoin yesterday to Bitmart exchange and I know how heartbroken I have been till date.

How I wish God punish evil people immediately, the world has gotten to a point where people don’t even care about the pain they are causing others, as long as they are succeeding or making money and fame from the pain they are causing others they are happy and comfortable.
I’m so angry because I have been scammed before some years back and I know how it is to be scammed of your hard earned money.
One thing I believe is that those who hurt others will never go unpunished, God will always reward them with the evil they gave to others.
Supreme Donvic Sorry for your loss too, I saw your thread about the loss on our local board, I know you didn’t see the information about them stopping all service and BitMart should have sent a mail to all their customers but they didn’t and it’s very bad.

[BluebloodCXVI]

This is one of those situations where it's easy for people to only focus on the technical details of the incident and forget that real people too have also lost the money that they have worked hard to save because of the same incident.

Behind every wallet that got affected is someone who has spent months or even years consistently stacking those sats and trusting that they were doing everything right only to now get their shit stolen; that’s a really hard pill to swallow you know.

Anyway, the damage has already been done, so the priority now should be for the companies involved, security researchers, and the wider bitcoin community to help the affected users secure whatever funds they still have left.

At the same time, the industry(Coldcard or so) need to be transparent about what went wrong and make sure the same mistakes don’t happen again.
That would probably be a far more useful thing to do than to be having endless arguments and finger-pointing.

If the people behind this Cold card theft issue happen to feel guilty(which i know they probably won’t), that’s on them.
But i don’t see how that’s gonna help the situation on ground.
Them feeling guilty for what they have done is not gonna put a single satoshi back into the wallets of the people who earned those coins through years of hard work and patience.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

There is no honour in the world any more. I don’t know how these type of people do it. It destroys lives, tears families apart, I don’t know how they sleep at night, fully aware of the destruction they’ve caused.

Some people believe in karma, in this instance I hope it takes its natural cause.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

There is no honour in the world any more. I don’t know how these type of people do it. It destroys lives, tears families apart, I don’t know how they sleep at night, fully aware of the destruction they’ve caused.

Some people believe in karma, in this instance I hope it takes its natural cause.

You are right about morality and karma but people like Kim Jong Un in North Korea will not care about that. He is a dictator in his nation, lives a luxurious life while people there mostly are in poverty and malnutrition. He is also behind big and famous hacker group like Lazarus group.

People like Kim or behind the Coldcard hack will not care about karma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Group

Similar with hackers behind many exchange hacks
List of Major Bitcoin Heists, Thefts, Hacks, Scams, and Losses
List of cryptocurrency exchange hacks.
Hacked exchanges since 2011.

[Numan467]

There is no honour in the world any more. I don’t know how these type of people do it. It destroys lives, tears families apart, I don’t know how they sleep at night, fully aware of the destruction they’ve caused.

Some people believe in karma, in this instance I hope it takes its natural cause.

The thing is, randomness bug was there since March 2021. Five years of users creating wallets, believing that they were safe, and seed phrases were being secretly guessed. Attacker did not have to hack anyone, simply to copy the numbers the device was generating all along and that were easy to guess.
It is about Karma here, but in real life, these coins are already onchain marked. All exchanges are aware of the addresses. Only thing that matters is whether the jamming player can be smart enough not to make a mistake at the exit point and most of them eventually make mistakes.

If anyone own a Coldcard Mk3, Mk4, Mk5 or Q and have not yet done 50 dice rolls to create your seed, transfer your funds to new wallet (cold or hot) now. Do not wait for the check by Coinkite to be finished.