The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly issued subpoenas to obtain personal information from participants at the 2022 Bitcoin Core developer event.
The move was revealed through Mike Schmidt, co-founder of Bitcoin nonprofit Blink, and the subpoena was issued by Luke Dash Jr., Bitcoin developer and co-founder of Ocean Mining Pool. It said it was related to more Bitcoin theft allegations. The hack earned him over 200 BTC.
Event participants caught in the crossfire
schmidt revealed He said he received an FBI subpoena as part of an investigation into Dashujer's claims. Specifically, he requested information about attendees at the October 2022 CoreDev Atlanta event, which was held immediately before TABConf 2022. Mr. Schmidt said he was advised by his legal advisers to do so.
The subpoena requested first and last names, GitHub usernames, and email addresses of attendees for the purpose of investigating Dashjr's claims. Mr. Schmidt, guided by his lawyers, complied with the request, even though he had included a non-disclosure clause that expired a year later, shortly before the disclosure.
Brink's co-founder criticized Dashjr for failing to protect his Bitcoin holdings. By disclosing the Bitcoin theft, Mr. Dash Jr. inadvertently exposed conference attendees to FBI surveillance, resulting in their personal information being exposed to authorities.
“The guy who tried to teach me how to use Bitcoin couldn't even secure his own Bitcoin, and as a result everyone at the meeting he attended was recorded by the FBI. Good luck Luke! ”
$3.3 million Bitcoin theft by Dashjr
Dashjr disclosed that funds were stolen as a result of a Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key compromise on December 31, 2022. Developed by Phil Zimmermann in 1991, his PGP is a data encryption and decryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication to data communications. It is commonly used for file encryption as well as email and digital signatures.
During this time, the value of the stolen BTC was approximately $3.3 million worth. However, given the market recovery and subsequent price explosion from the Spot Bitcoin ETF, as well as the upcoming halving event, that stash could be worth more than $14 million.
