Bitcoins and you

[Lamplighter]

In the past few days, a real life situation has developed
that will have to be made into a non-fiction movie.
Where is George Clooney and the producers of Oceans 15...

Scene 1: The US Navy develops an "dark" internet communication system
that hides the identity of the sender and the recipient and their locations

Scene 2: Legitimate people develop a system of "double blind" transactions called "bitcoins"
which use the Navy's internet system for financial transactions

Scene 3: People involved with internet gambling, pornography, and sale of drugs, stolen goods, etc
jump onto this system which is ideal for their purposes of anonymity

Scene 4: The US government via the FBI gets involved and
shuts down one of the biggest drug-sales exchange centers

Scene 5: A new drug-sale exchange center develops and
the value of bitcoins increases 10-fold in 4 months

Scene 6: Suddenly the assets (bitcoins) of the new exchange is hacked,
and millions of dollars worth of bitcoins are "stolen"

Scene 7: Our hero of the film, known only by his/her internet user name,
notices the theft and begins an on-line "car chase" to track the hacker
through thousands of internet transactions based on a tag of 0.000666 bitcoin.

Scene 8: The "dark" internet community goes wild, threats of "hit men"
and blood and hero-worship and...

Scene 9: Questions arise about the legitimacy of the new exchange...
Was it set up intentionally for the heist ?
Were the founders of the exchange in on the "theft" ?
Was there any "theft" at all and the thief is only a diversion ?

Denoument: Ummm, No, that would giving away the ending



Motherboard.vice.com
DJ Pangburn
12/2/13

Did One of the Silk Road's Successors Just Commit the Perfect Bitcoin Scam?

Yesterday, Sheep Marketplace, an anonymous digital narcotics bazaar
that grew popular after the shutdown of the Silk Road, announced
that it had been robbed of 5,400 bitcoins—the equivalent of $6 million
at current exchange rates—and then promptly shut itself down.

This came just days after Black Market Reloaded announced it would be shutting down
due to an inability to absorb a massive influx of new users leaving Sheep Marketplace.
<snip>