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The FBI used a subpoena to obtain details of developers at the Bitcoin CoreDev meeting of 2022, to investigate $3.6 million in stolen BTC.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has subpoenaed information on a gathering of Bitcoin Core developers as part of an investigation into a developer’s loss of assets. The investigation is likely to determine any attendee’s involvement in the Bitcoin theft worth $3.6 million, stolen from developer Luke Dashjr.
FBI Requested One Year Silence on Subpoena
Mike Schmidt, an exec at Brink, an organization that provides financial support for open-source developers, revealed the FBI’s subpoena. In an email to participants as posted on X, Schmidt said he was bound to respond to the FBI’s request:
“As part of the investigation into Luke Dashjr’s announced theft of his Bitcoins, I received a subpoena from the FBI wanting information about attendees of the October 2022 CoreDev Atlanta event…I was legally advised to cooperate.”
Schmidt noted that there was a legal obligation to keep the subpoena private for at least one year. However, that order has expired, prompting him to notify the attendees.
According to the Brink Director, the FBI had asked for a lot of information. However, after some pushback, both parties agreed to minimal information. Schmidt provided the agency with the participants’ GitHub usernames, first and last names, and email addresses.
Schmidt noted he was simply informing participants of the subpoena, and has no details of the investigation. He ended the email with an apology.
“I apologize for this breach of your private information. Please email me if you have any questions,” wrote he.
The FBI is investigating the theft following Dashjr’s public outcry on January 1, 2023. In an X post, Dashjr announced that “at least many” of his Bitcoins were stolen before adding in a follow-up post that “it’s basically all gone.” At the time, Binance co-founder and ex-CEO Changpeng (CZ) Zhao pledged support and promised to freeze the tokens if the tokens make their way to Binance.
The Bitcoin Theft From Dashjr’s Wallets
Dashjr’s original post explains that the theft was possible by compromising a PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key. He explained that he uses the PGP key to ensure his Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots downloads were unaffected by malware. Bitcoin Core is an app that runs most Bitcoin nodes, currently responsible for more than 17,800 according to data from Coin Dance. Bitcoin Knots is an alternative implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. Knots has the second largest number of nodes, but much fewer than Core, at 135.
Dashjr’s theft is all the more concerning because the assets allegedly disappeared from hot and cold wallets. While hot wallets are accessible online, cold wallets require physical storage devices and should be immune to online breaches. This suggests that hackers may have had physical access to his devices, likely at the 2022 DevCore gathering.
Unfortunately, some of these questions are pending since the investigation is ongoing. However, the events suggest that hardware wallets may require more attention than required if hackers can still find a way to breach them.
