"Sheep Marketplace was founded and run by Tomáš Jiřikovský" | Hacker News Reader

"Sheep Marketplace was founded and run by Tomáš Jiřikovský"

pastebin.com

55 pointsmoyix14 comments

Look. With all the speculation surrounding what has happened, i don't believe it is wise posting someone name. This is not confirmed and for all we know, this person is an innocent bystander who's name is now being linked to this.

Where a theft might have repercussions with law enforcement, lets not kid ourselves here, this was drug dealing and we are not talking pissed twelve year olds who lost money on Pokemon cards. We are talking what? Thousands? Millions nearly? And you don't have to be Eisenstein to work out that a bunch of pissed of dealers will be wanting blood and their money back cause they probably owe money too. So are desperate.

So is this person behind it? I have no idea but just imagine, you wake up one morning, read HN and you share the same name as a alleged thief...

Mistaken identity happens. This isn't a game. Someone could get killed.

Yes, please. The last thing HN needs is a Reddit-style Boston Marathon fake manhunt.

Yes! Even if he is a thief, he is still a human being. No one deserves to be killed for some stupid drug money.

Tomas, better call Saul!

Agreed, although it's worth pointing out than when you steal $15mm+ from drug dealers, some of them may also be killed when they fail to pay off their debts. And I trust Gwern more than anyone else to have done his research and accuse the right person.

Looking through the information posted, however, I feel pretty appalled seeing that there's also details on his girlfriend (photos, facebook link, full name). She may not even know what her boyfriend is up to, and with $15mm on the line, she should probably be afraid for her safety at this point.

I assume most people on HN don't know whats going on so I'll chip in what I know:

The admin, allegedly this Thomas guy, ran off with 17k BTC which is worth around $15M right now. Nobody is able to transfer their bitcoin out of sheep either. Everybody is pissed off so people are attacking his server and trying to "dox" the person. Here is the address where the money has gone:

https://blockchain.info/address/1Cwb33nqn4S2uDsXwhNrUNy7FPdi...

If anybody is interested, check out the sheep subreddit, lot's more information on the issue there.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace

So this is basically the opening act of a giant manhunt? What does the poster hope to achieve, besides getting this guy killed?

Or just getting him arrested for fraud. Not everything has to end in violence.

Fair point. It's just that I assume among the people looking for him are people you don't want to piss off, and they don't only include law enforcement.

To the future online druglords: If you want to hide your identity, it might be a good idea to use a web technology which is used internationally and the usage of which does not immediately reveal your nationality.

See http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/01/silk-ro... for background information.

Can the GPG signature at the bottom be used to identify this poster?

The poster is gwern http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1ptd6b/precommitme...

Yep:

  gpg: Signature made Sat 30 Nov 2013 21:47:11 GMT using DSA key ID F7E5D682
  gpg: requesting key F7E5D682 from hkp server sks.keyservers.net
  gpg: key F7E5D682: public key "Gwern Branwen <gwern@gwern.net>" imported
  gpg: Total number processed: 1
  gpg:               imported: 1
  gpg: Good signature from "Gwern Branwen <gwern@gwern.net>"
  gpg:                 aka "Gwern Branwen <gwern0@gmail.com>"
  gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
  gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
  Primary key fingerprint: 85F9 9FDE 8F20 898F 59BC  DF32 BE90 E8E4 F7E5 D682

Although anyone can create a key with the uid "Gwern Branwen <gwern@gwern.net>" and upload it to the keyservers. There's no email verification involved.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com