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Comment by rhizome | Hacker News Reader

Can they cash it out without getting busted?

Yes, you can use mixers and coinjoins to launder non centralized crypto. The tip was in etherium, so it shouldn't be an issue to swap to monero, mix, and deposit to an exchange.

I think swapping to monero would be the weak link there. If they do it on a "legit" exchange, it at least makes an attempt to get the client's identity. If they do it directly with someone who has monero to sell, that person gets stuck with "tainted" ethereum.

There are defi(lol) swappers you can use. The hacker was using curve.fi, the tipster was actually telling the hacker why his transaction to curve wasn't going through.

I think he sent most of it to some charities that accept eth right away.

For real? Any source on which ones?

https://etherscan.io/txs?a=0xf8b5c45c6388c9ee12546061786026a...

binance charity and donations to archive.org, etherscan, infura.io, rekt... and Vitalik!

To be clear for other skimmers like me, the "helper" who got 45k is donating to various addresses, not the 600m hacker. (Posting this because I misinterpreted, not because parent was wrong)

I was going to say, sending "most" of $600M to organisations like archive.org would be quite a news story.

Yes, anonymous blockchains like Monero allow you to ‘obfuscate’ the movement of your crypto.

They can do the same thing the hackers did and launder it before withdrawing to a new wallet

They just explained what was happening, did they even do something that's illegal?

The message, "DONT USE YOUR USDT TOKEN YOU VE GOT BLACKLISTED", appears to be knowingly offering how to advice to someone actively committing the crime of hiding stolen money.

18 U.S. Code § 3 defines an "Accessory after the fact" as "Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact." and states that it's worth half the jail time as the primary offense.

However, it could also be argued that hanashiro.eth is aiding someone in committing the crime of money laundering, not just helping them avoid being caught, in which case 18 U.S. Code § 2 says that planning, ordering, or knowingly helping commit a crime makes one eligible for the same full full punishment as the primary actor.

It remains to be tested in court whether a smart contract exploit is illegal, since there's an argument one is simply following the 'letter of the law' aka the contract.

edit: this is also something different governments may take a different stance on. If the U.S. finds someone criminally liable, El Salvador may not. Also, it's contentious what the 'location' of the crime even is, as there are no physical servers which have been attacked; could the blockchain as a distributed database be considered to exist 'everywhere' or 'nowhere'?

Interesting, thanks!

45k or 600 m

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