What I read is they hacked wallets that had the 'Milk Sad' vulnerability (predictable private key), but I'm skeptical as that's an old CVE, IMHO it's more likely an infrastructure or communications hack or a wrench attack - the suspect is now 'missing'.
Of course it is, OTOH the nature of this 'enterprise' has been visible for quite a while now, and I'm sure, investigated quite intensively (by more than DoJ), and 'missing' only means that the general public doesn't know where he is.
15 billion USD worth of bitcoin, not 15 billion bitcoins.
The title should really be corrected. I interpreted it the same way.
Previous discussion from a few days ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45580981
Trainwreck of a headline. Suggestion: DOJ seeks $15B Bitcoin forfeiture from Cambodian forced labor scam.
How did they seize it?
What I read is they hacked wallets that had the 'Milk Sad' vulnerability (predictable private key), but I'm skeptical as that's an old CVE, IMHO it's more likely an infrastructure or communications hack or a wrench attack - the suspect is now 'missing'.
A bit conspiratorial to think the DoJ "wrenched" the keys out of the suspect, especially since the suspect is now missing
Of course it is, OTOH the nature of this 'enterprise' has been visible for quite a while now, and I'm sure, investigated quite intensively (by more than DoJ), and 'missing' only means that the general public doesn't know where he is.
“15B in BTC” — please fix the title
There can only even be 21M BTC ever. Title is derp'd
Until they change the alogrithm anyway
There is no “they” able to change the algorithm.
A consensus of miners is still a "they".
Even a unanimous agreement of all miners would be unable to change consensus rules. These rules are not set by miners.
In the media: https://thediplomat.com/2025/10/us-uk-announce-sweeping-sanc...