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Bitcoin Businesses The Almighty Buck

Where Did WikiLeaks' $25 Million Bitcoin Fortune Go? (thedailybeast.com) 85

Everyone from early investors to cybercriminals has benefited from the huge spike in the value of bitcoin in the past few weeks. It's a boon for one other outfit that has likely racked up tens of millions of dollars' worth of the cryptocurrency: WikiLeaks. Joseph Cox, reporting for The Daily Beast: The transparency organization may be sitting on a stockpile of bitcoin valued at around $25 million, and has likely exchanged several other large cryptocurrency caches for fiat cash, according to two sources who independently analyzed WikiLeaks's bitcoin transactions. "Last wallet looks like his piggy bank," John Bambenek, a security expert who has previously tracked Neo-Nazis' use of bitcoin, told The Daily Beast, pointing to a specific bitcoin address believed to be linked to WikiLeaks. Since at least 2011, WikiLeaks has allowed supporters to send bitcoin donations. As noted by James Ball, a journalist and former WikiLeaks staffer, whoever is in control of this address -- presumably WikiLeaks -- moved around 3,000 bitcoin, worth $800 each, into a series of other accounts on one day in December 2013.
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Where Did WikiLeaks' $25 Million Bitcoin Fortune Go?

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    It's probably in the blockchain.

    • It's probably in the blockchain.

      Any day now. Unless someone is willing to pay a higher transaction fee, then a couple more days.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 28, 2017 @09:55AM (#55821739)

    Between this submission and this other submission [slashdot.org] that's currently on the front page, the word "nazi" appears 8 times!

    Do you know how many times "linux" appears on the front page right now? Zero!

    Do you know how many times "programming" appears on the front page right now? Zero!

    "internet" only appears twice.

    Are Slashdot's editors just imitating the mainstream media and leftists, who have been falsely accusing all sorts of people of being "nazis" lately?

    Frankly, this kind of misuse of the term "nazi" only serves to dilute the meaning of that term.

    It's getting to the point where when people hear the term "nazi" and they just figure it's yet another false accusation made to attack a political opponent, the shrug their shoulders, and ignore it.

    • So 8 Nazi can't use Linux because of a division by zero exception?

    • Are Slashdot's editors just imitating the mainstream media and leftists, who have been falsely accusing all sorts of people of being "nazis" lately?

      Yes.

      • by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        Is it the mainstream media and leftists - or the alt-right folks that apply the term to themselves, and then get reported about. I mean there were those Hitler salutes in Charlottesville, weren't there? Of course, a few noisy neo-nazis in your organization may get the whole thing (unfairly?) branded as a nazi enterprise - but you're not denying that neo-nazis exist and are becoming more visible and vocal around the world are you?

    • Stop being such a Linux Programming Nazi.
    • Between this submission and this other submission [slashdot.org] that's currently on the front page, the word "nazi" appears 8 times!

      Do you know how many times "linux" appears on the front page right now? Zero!

      That's because linux users aren't as likely to kill anyone, and they're much less fun to punch.

      Also, Windows Vista is the nazi's OS of choice.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ScentCone ( 795499 )

        That's because linux users aren't as likely to kill anyone, and they're much less fun to punch.

        The good news is that the imaginary armies of killer Nazis roaming your neighborhoods don't actually exist. The bad news is that violent leftist thugs actually do form groups specifically to go out and hurt people and destroy things, and then actually do it, and get applauded by their sponsors for doing it.

        The other good news is that people are waking up to the reality of the situation's phony narratives. The bad news is that you approve of preemptive violent assault as a form of political expression.

        • The good news is that the imaginary armies of killer Nazis roaming your neighborhoods don't actually exist. The bad news is that violent leftist thugs actually do form groups specifically to go out and hurt people

          Americans killed by Nazis in 2017:

          Heather Heyer
          Taliesin Namkai Meche
          Ricky Best
          Richard Collins III
          Timothy Caughman
          Srinivas Kuchibhotla
          Buckley Kuhn-Fricker
          Scott Fricker

          Americans killed by anti-fascists: 0

        • How are we supposed to solve this violently if nobody uses preemptive violence?

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Frankly, this kind of misuse of the term "nazi" only serves to dilute the meaning of that term.

      "More than you like" is not tantamount to mis-use. Someone who is inspired by Nazi ideology or imagery is at least a "neo-nazi" by any reasonable standard. And in the context of this article, it's entirely appropriate: Neo-nazi groups are groups that the researcher in question has tracked. If this were the 1960s the flavor of the decade would have been "Maoist", but we live in an era where Naziism is making a comeback, and people are tracking it.

      As for your keyword count, it's almost laughably naive. Mos

      • Somebody who is inspired by Nazi imagery is an idiot-fanboy. Or somebody into cosplay.

        Anybody who is inspired by Nazi ideology is just a plain idiot. It's fun in your adolescence to latch onto crap that explains why all the older people are dumb, why history is over and that there's a simple 'plan' that can just be adopted by force to fix everything. That's how 'neo-liberals' and 'neo-cons' are born. The Democratic and Republican party are full of those fools. We have a lot of them here on Slashdot, to

        • by hey! ( 33014 )

          I wouldn't underestimate the power of idiot-fanboyism. This is basically a somewhat less sterile term for authoritarianism.

        • Anybody who is inspired by Nazi ideology is just a plain idiot.

          Not a plain idiot, a Nazi idiot. There's plenty of idiots who aren't Nazis, so we need to distinguish.

    • by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @01:32PM (#55823279) Homepage Journal

      The term of choice used to be "racist", but that's been so overused in the past year and a half that they have to switch to using another word.

      I've been following the zeitgeist of this. Until around December of last year, people would flee from the word, conceding the argument to whoever first uses the word to describe the other side. Then in December people started ignoring the word a little, then Jan/Feb people were like "meh" about it, and around March people started (note: started, not widely) embracing the word.

      Then "OK, I'm racist" started popping up, but it wasn't really attached to the *person*, it was attached to the position. One could say "OK, I'm racist" for posting an opinion about strong immigration control. Or "OK, I'm racist" for posting an opinion about limiting visas or voter ID.

      Through the summer, "racist" started to be applied to just about everything. Tigers [foxsports.com] are racist. Perfectionism [rolereboot.org] is a form of racism. Two white parents having a white child [foxnews.com] is racist. I'm not making that last one up, it's "[...] one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy" - don't you know?

      Now racist has completely lost its meaning. No one online seems to pay any attention to it at all.

      Sexual assault is pretty big right now, but it's fading fast. It was a flash in the pan with people like Harvey Weinstein, but quickly got more ridiculous. You can tell it's on it's way out because Fart rape [squawker.org] is a thing.

      (Side note: "Trump is literally Hitler" is pretty-much dead, the last nail in that coffin was recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.)

      So now they need a new word, and it's probably going to be nazis for awhile. Expect this to go on for a couple of months and get progressively more ridiculous, probably though the primaries of next year.

      Then Ramadan comes up (May 15 to June15), many terrorist actions will make the news cycle(*), and it's likely that "Islamaphobe" will be the word of the day.

      It's basically the fashion industry for words.

      (*) Just extrapolating from past years, such as last year viz. London. OK, I'm racist.

  • I'd bet the nightly rate at the Ecuador Embassy isn't cheap.
  • Fiat cash? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @10:48AM (#55822103) Journal
    exchanged several other large cryptocurrency caches for fiat cash

    The term is real money. Using the term "fiat cash" makes the author sound like a pretentious ass who's trying to be oh so leet.

    No one in normal, every day usage uses the term, "fiat cash". If we're going down that route, we should use a term such as electronic markers to describe bitcoin and the like.
    • by Chrisq ( 894406 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @11:01AM (#55822203)

      Fiat cash?

      That is money used to buy an Italian car.

    • Re:Fiat cash? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Thursday December 28, 2017 @11:15AM (#55822317) Homepage Journal

      In the US, real money is defined as gold or silver, as is similar in the Constitutions of several states and the Bretton Woods Agreement.

      Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time, but this may be the first time any of them were accused of being 'leet' rather than 'nerds'.

      Why do you have a burr up your ass about a particular economic term?

      • Fiat cash? (Score:3, Insightful)

        In the US, real money is defined as gold or silver, as is similar in the Constitutions of several states and the Bretton Woods Agreement.

        Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time, but this may be the first time any of them were accused of being 'leet' rather than 'nerds'.

        Why do you have a burr up your ass about a particular economic term?

        In addition, he's attacking the author (he sounds pretentious!) and not the substance of the article, or even the reliability of the information given.

      • In the US, real money is defined as gold or silver, as is similar in the Constitutions of several states and the Bretton Woods Agreement.

        [[Citation Needed]] - and no weasel words or using gold bugs, bitcoin zealots, or other nut jobs as references either.

        Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time, but this may be the first time any of them were accused of being 'leet' rather than 'nerds'.

        That's because you're confusing academic and professional usage (the 'nerds') with coll

      • Historians, economists, and traders use the term 'fiat' all the time

        Bet they don't in everyday life. e.g. 'hey Jimmy, do you have your lunch fiat-currency?' 'honey - do we have any fiat currency to pay the cleaner?' 'Sorry mate, I'm low on fiat currency, could you get this round in?'

    • Re:Fiat cash? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @12:19PM (#55822807)

      No one in normal, every day usage uses the term, "fiat cash"

      Because in normal every day usage, that's implied.

      But in a discussion where you talk about non-fiat money, it becomes useful to make the distinction explicit.

      • It's a pointless distinction... Because everyone but Bitcoin zealots know that Bitcoin isn't actually money. There's no inherent store of value, such as being backed by gold, nor is it backed by the economy of a nation. It's sole value lies in the Faith of the Believers - other than that, it's not conceptually really any different from an arcade or casino token.

        The submitter uses that term for one reason only; to inflate Bitcoin into something it's patently not. It's an appeal to emotion, not academic o

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      No one in normal, every day usage uses the term, "fiat cash".

      s/in normal,/normal in/

  • Based on most of the comments here, I would imagine that the Bitcoins were used to fund the technology that keeps Julian Assange's head alive in a jar in a South American embassy.
  • "Bitcoin is for nazis"
    This same story is being pushed in every mainstream news outlet.
    What a coincidence. I guess they all detected at the same exact time that this is what all their readers really want to read and that they have to run this story to make money. "Conspiracy theories" are clearly of no use here.

    Bonus points: casually imply that Wikileaks are neo nazis.

    Literally everything - media, education, politics - is being taken over by psychotic brainless drones trained on leftism. It's far, far past t

If all the world's economists were laid end to end, we wouldn't reach a conclusion. -- William Baumol

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