Huge bitcoin heist: Black market drug shop Sheep Marketplace poofs with $40 million

[Maestro]

Huge bitcoin heist: Black market drug shop Sheep Marketplace poofs with $40 million

By Darlene Storm

December 02, 2013 2:29 PM EST

Did a hacker or hackers pull off a huge heist from one of the biggest black market drug-selling sites, or did the operators of the anonymous digital narcotics bazaar, Sheep Marketplace, just get away with stealing at least $5.4 million and perhaps as much as $40 million from their clients?

After the shutdown of Silk Road in October, Sheep Marketplace became the most popular illicit virtual drug shop. Like Silk Road, Sheep Marketplace was a Deep Web site accessible via the Tor network; customers paid in the digital currency Bitcoins. But by Saturday, Tapscape reported , "It appears as though the entire site was a scam, resulting in all of the buyers and sellers losing their money. Concerns regarding the legitimacy of the site came into play once the administrators at the marketplace decided to prevent vendors from withdrawing any of their bitcoins from the site."

Read more: http://blogs.computerworld.com/cybercrime-and-hacking/23217/huge-bitcoin-heist-black-market-drug-shop-sheep-marketplace-poofs-40-million

-- Computerworld 2013-12-02

[Exsexyman]

Sheep Marketplace Poofs! Sounds like a gay club in Swansea!

[Chicog]

Presumably there will be no police involvement here, since the people that would have to report the theft were either buying or selling drugs.

A nice bit of "organised crime", that.

[Steely Dan]

I doubt it will be investigated too zealously, bitcoin is not taxed and not subject to dilution by dishonest governments printing money. All things being equal bitcoin should rise in value over time compared to every fiat currency due to it not being linked to government debt, this is an unfolding nightmare for world governments, who I suspect as a result would love to stop it, the fraud in the op could happen with any currency, but I have little doubt it will undermine trust in bitcoins for a good while.

[Chicog]

I don't see why it would undermine trust in Bitcoins, but I can see that it might undermine the trust among the criminal community in Deep Web drug dealing websites.

[Scott]

Well, isn't bitcoin in the same category as a fiat currency? I mean, it's based on trust. It's not backed up by gold or anything, is it?

[Chicog]

Yes, but in this instance it wasn't counterfeited or anything, just stolen.

Bitcoin is worth about $1000 a go now and rising I believe.

Feel so sorry for that bloke that threw away thousands of them on a hard disk because they were worthless only four years ago!

[DiamondKing]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this.

Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

[Naam]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this.

Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

why only $100,000?

[DiamondKing]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this.

Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

why only $100,000?

Well if I said a Million you would think I was Crazy

[FritsSikkink]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this.

Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

Keep on dreaming

[Steely Dan]

Well, isn't bitcoin in the same category as a fiat currency? I mean, it's based on trust. It's not backed up by gold or anything, is it?

There was of course a time when the greenback was backed up by gold, the day that link was broken was the day trust started to be abused. If there were a Country called say Bitlandia, which produced bitcoins not backed by anything in order to buy voters and indulge in grandiose schemes then the bitcoin would go the same way as any other fiat currency - try plotting them against Gold to see what I mean. Should the exodus from fiat currencies become large enough any economy that operates a Ponzi scheme economic model will come unstuck.

P.S I realize this is heading off topic, but the concept is very interesting.

[Scott]

Well, isn't bitcoin in the same category as a fiat currency? I mean, it's based on trust. It's not backed up by gold or anything, is it?

There was of course a time when the greenback was backed up by gold, the day that link was broken was the day trust started to be abused. If there were a Country called say Bitlandia, which produced bitcoins not backed by anything in order to buy voters and indulge in grandiose schemes then the bitcoin would go the same way as any other fiat currency - try plotting them against Gold to see what I mean. Should the exodus from fiat currencies become large enough any economy that operates a Ponzi scheme economic model will come unstuck.

P.S I realize this is heading off topic, but the concept is very interesting.

Thanks for the reply. It was not you that started going off-topic, it was me.

[Naam]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this.

Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

why only $100,000?

Well if I said a Million you would think I was Crazy

you could have said $950,000

[ggold]

Presumably there will be no police involvement here, since the people that would have to report the theft were either buying or selling drugs.

A nice bit of "organised crime", that.

CIA?

[Credo]

Bitcoins would not fall into the mandate of the CIA.

[Chicog]

I dunno, you can buy drugs with them.

[impulse]

Given that all Bitcoins are supposed to be traceable through the blockchain, news that someone can "steal" them can't be good for their perceived value.

And, if someone did "steal" them, or counterfeit them, or hack the blockchain and manipulate them, who is going to prosecute the offenders? Do that with any government's real money and they will hunt you down (unless you're the Fed, pre-empting, I hope, all the snide remarks). Diligent protection of currency and the threat of negative consequences for counterfeiting is one of the reasons paper money and coin are worth anything.

Not really a confidence builder.

[Gulfsailor]

Bitcoins are not backed by anything but trust. The USDollar on the other hand is backed by this.

I certainly see a future for a virtual currency, but only when it has the full blessing and protection of a strong country. Unfortunately that would likely also remove the attractiveness of said virtual currency like anonymity.

[boomerangutang]

Bitcoin is the future and I know several Millionaires that were poor just a few months ago LOL I am heavily invested but not quite a millioniare from it just yet I got in around the $200 mark its $1156.00 per coin as I type this. Expect it to go to $100,000 a coin when it hits mainstream

Bitcoin is a commodity. You'll notice, whenever a person mentions the value of their stash of Bitcoins, it's always in the form of a real currency, usually US dollars.

I have some friends who are nuts about Bitcoin, and think it's infallible. I was going to buy in to it when it was $14/coin, and that's probably part of the reason I'm somewhat morose about it now. I didn't buy in to it then, because the only dealers were several hours' drive away, and the Bitcoin site said, "Don't buy from anyone unless you do it in person, because it's too easy for people to cheat when it's done online." The OP somewhat backs that up, doesn't it?

I put Bitcoin in a category alongside MLM. Not a pyramid scheme, but not infallible either. Bitcoin ravers don't see any potential problems on the horizon, but whenever there's a bubble, there's a chance it can get popped.

[swervie2000]

This incident is petty compared to this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVjz1OyBJCc (Preview)

I don't know...I guess people are on some societal drug or something.


They try to downplay or criticize BitCoin. BitCoin and decentralized crypto currencies solve real world problems.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLpx6gQtUU (Preview)

And, they're going to save the global economy because all remedies have been exhausted for fiat based currencies.


http://youtu.be/77sVbbfD5Vs


And lastly, you may as well read about what the people are doing to prevent their BitCoins from the Sheep Market incident to be spent. Impossible to do this with fiat currency.


http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2013/12/theres-%C2%A360m-bitcoin-heist-going-down-right-now-and-you-can-watch-real-time

Moral of the story: Do your research before you judge anything.

[Maestro]

...

And lastly, you may as well read about what the people are doing to prevent their BitCoins from the Sheep Market incident to be spent. Impossible to do this with fiat currency.

http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2013/12/theres-%C2%A360m-bitcoin-heist-going-down-right-now-and-you-can-watch-real-time

...

The article linked above was published on 2 December 2013 and ended with "Let's watch and see what happens next." What has happened since then? Has the thief been traced yet?

[swervie2000]

https://blockchain.info/address/1CbR8da9YPZqXJJKm9ze1GYf67eKAUfXwP

[Maestro]

I don't see any news about the identification of the thief, just some people congratulating him, others asking him for some Bitcoin. What do you see?

[Somtamnication]

Well, some fella bought a new Tesla car with bitcoin. So the rush begins.....

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/06/autos/tesla-bitcoin/index.html?hpt=hp_t3