QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
$1 082 000 USD
JULY 2011
UNKNOWN
MYBITCOIN
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
“MyBitcoin was a user-friendly wallet platform catering mostly to crypto newbies interested in buying bitcoin for the first time. Dozens of users flocked to the platform in its early days.” "MyBitcoin built its reputation by providing a free, user-friendly service targeted at newbie Bitcoin buyers. It collected scores of users, including Bitcoin evangelist and host of The Bitcoin Show Bruce Wagner…”
It seems like they never reached any agreement on who was behind the service. The official stories about what happened do not appear to hold together. There was nobody held to account in the end. Simple public registration of exchanges would prevent this. Some sources report that the exchange went into receivership and half of the funds were ultimately recovered, though I was not able to confirm this.
HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
This is a case where simply knowing who's holding the funds and storing them properly offline with multiple signatures would have avoided the issues.
Infographic: An Overview of Compromised Bitcoin Exchange Events (Jan 30)
List of Major Bitcoin Heists, Thefts, Hacks, Scams, and Losses [Old] (Jan 28)
MyBitcoin Spokesman Finally Comes Forward: “What Did You Think We Did After the Hack? We Got Shitfaced” | Observer (Feb 4)
The biggest scams in Bitcoin history (Feb 15)
MyBitcoin - Bitcoin Wiki (Apr 13)
100 Crypto Thefts: A Timeline of Hacks, Glitches, Exit Scams, and other Lost Cryptocurrency Incidents (Jan 25)
List of Major Bitcoin Heists, Thefts, Hacks, Scams, and Losses (Feb 15)
Bitcoin Scams and Cryptocurrency Hacks List - BitcoinExchangeGuide.com (Mar 5)
MyBitcoin Using OpenCart Software - BitcoinTalk (Feb 2)
History of bitcoin - Wikipedia (Jan 31)
Bitcoin Police Pastebin Article (Feb 2)
Tom Williams is Paul Calder de Roux speculation - BitcoinTalk (Feb 2)
Jine's Response - BitcoinTalk Forum (Jan 31)
theymos on BitcoinTalk Mentioning The Same Vulnerability (Feb 2)
[TROLL] Important Announcement Regarding the Mybitcoin.com Downtime - BitcoinTalk (Feb 2)
MyBitcoin.com Is Back: A Week After Vanishing With at Least $250 K. Worth of BTC, Site Claims It Was Hacked - Observer (Jan 30)
MyBitcoin Initial Announcement - BitcoinTalk (Feb 6)
Bitcoin CrimeUnit Report - MyBitcoin (Feb 6)
Search for Owners of MyBitcoin Loses Steam | Betabeat (Jan 31)
Full text of "MyBitCoin" - Archived FBI Report From August 17th, 2011 (Jan 30)
e wallet - When was MyBitcoin created? - Bitcoin Stack Exchange (Jan 30)
mybitcoin down or just me? - BitcoinTalk Forum (Jan 30)
MyBitcoin - A simple web-based Bitcoin wallet (Original Site) - Internet Archive (Jan 30)
MyBitcoin - A simple web-based Bitcoin wallet (CaCert Notice) - Internet Archive (Jan 30)