Reply All: #115 The Bitcoin Hunter

January 29, 2018 10:33 AM

Writer Jia Tolentino has a new case for Super Tech Support: where are all those bitcoin she bought six years ago?
posted by radioamy (6 comments total)

I enjoyed this episode, but I also listened to the Planet Money episode that was very similar to this, so it felt like PM sorta got to the story first? (I was glad they acknowledged them in the credits.)
posted by radioamy at 11:13 AM on January 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Related tweet by MeFite GregNog
posted by radioamy at 11:18 AM on January 29, 2018

Adored this episode and also enjoyed the related Planet Money!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:40 AM on January 29, 2018

I wish they talked more about how the Bitcoin tracer could personally identify people from their wallets. I understand the blockchain tech pretty well and have been talking for years about how Bitcoin transactions are traceable. But only from wallet address to wallet address. Leaping to a person's name or the specific thing they purchased seems like it should be a lot harder.

And has been, in practice. If you have his sort of skills couldn't you trace all the stolen Bitcoin in various heists over the years? Maybe a tumbler stops his magic powers.
posted by Nelson at 5:04 PM on January 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nelson - I agree! I imagine he was reluctant to share his secrets, but I did want to know more.
posted by radioamy at 9:13 AM on January 30, 2018

Nelson I agree, that should have been fleshed out more, especially when he claimed he could have gotten Jia's name and info if Alex hadn't provided it, which..how? I mean she only used it for one(?) transaction, so you couldn't exactly do some deep analysis of her transaction history...

Maybe there have just been a lot of breaches of places that kept both contact info and wallets and his company has acquired a lot of that? (like what the have I been pwned guys have going on)
posted by selenized at 7:43 PM on January 31, 2018