Earlier this week, bitcoin community shocked when it emptied a digital wallet containing about $ 1 billion in bitcoin. That particular wallet believed to have come from the Silk Road drug market, and was emptied by an unknown person. But eventually those responsible for transferring the funds were revealed: it was the US government.
The Ministry of Justice he said on Thursday that it acquired the contents of the wallet (approximately 70.000 bitcoin) with the help of an anonymous hacker, whose identity is known to the government, but is simply referred to as "Individual X" in court documents.
"Individual X" allegedly broke the Silk Road payment system sometime in 2012 or 2013. The government says Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a double life sentence + 40 years for the role on the site, "threatened Individual X for the return of the coins", but the unknown hacker refused. On November 3, Individual X agreed to hand over the bitcoins to the US government and help transfer the money. It is not clear whether this person was arrested or how the co-operation was achieved.
In a press release, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson cited the operation as a major success for the government.
"The successful prosecution of the founder of Silk Road in 2015 left a question of billions of dollars. Where did the money go? ”
Το Silk Road ήταν “η πιο εξελιγμένη εγκληματική αγορά” στο Διαδίκτυο, δήλωσε το Υπουργείο Δικαιοσύνης, και λειτουργούσε από το 2011 έως το 2013, πριν βγει offline από το FBI. Η κυβέρνηση των ΗΠΑ εκτιμά ότι ο website generated about 600.000 bitcoins during duration of this period. About 175.000 of them were confiscated when Ulbricht was arrested and the site was shut down in October 2013.
The Justice Department has not said what it plans to do with 1 billion dollars, but in the past he auctioned them off.