You may feel like you’re entering the Twilight Zone after reading this report from Russell Brandom:
One day after $53 million abruptly disappeared from an experimental cryptocurrency project, a note claiming to be from the attacker has surfaced on PasteBin, claiming that the money drained from the system is now legally his. The attacker withdrew the money by exploiting a contract bug in the code of the DAO (or Decentralized Autonomous Organization), a collective investment fund that uses the Ethereum cryptocurrency. The DAO had raised well over $100 million from Ethereum users at the time of the attack.
“I have carefully examined the code of The DAO and decided to participate after finding the feature where splitting is rewarded with additional ether,” the note reads. “I… have rightfully claimed 3,641,694 ether, and would like to thank the DAO for this reward,” the note reads. “I am disappointed by those who are characterizing the use of this intentional feature as ‘theft.’” The note also threatens legal action against any who attempt to reclaim the money through technical means.
Read more on The Verge.
The note from the “attacker” is very well written, suggesting a certain level of education. But the gist of the note is that the individual thinks s/he’s found a loophole or clause in the contract that can be legally exploited and seems to be bragging about it.
This will be interesting to follow.
You can use MS word to perfect just about any phrase, making a 8th grade education look like they have a PHD. It may have a strong command of the english language, and some inside knowledge of the way things work, so I’d look at someone between 30 and 50 years old, outgoing and who has verbally abused the system before, even if it was in a limited fashion, such as a forum or tech support.
Theft is theft. The crook can try to sue the government, because that will be who will be coming. It involves a lot of money, and in the beginning, it was NOT the crooks, so therefore, it still is not the crook’s.
IF the crook was educated, one thing they will go DUH on is, this is a relatively short pool of people using this service. Whittle down the holders, which a government agency probably already know about.