- Bitcoin OG and core developer, Dashjr, claimed virtually all his bitcoins were stolen.
- The hackers accessed the developer’s PGP key.
- On November 17, 2022, Dashjr, noted his server had been compromised.
A Bitcoin OG and one of the original Bitcoin’s core developers, Luke Dashjr, has claimed that he virtually lost all his bitcoins after his Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) keys were compromised on December 31, 2022, just before the new year.
PGP key is a common security method that uses two keys to gain access to encrypted information.
In a post on Twitter on January 1, 2023, Dashjr was asking for help from the PSA:
“PSA: My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen. I have no idea how. Help please.”
In a follow-up tweet, Dashjr appeared distressed asking why he could not reach anyone from the FBI or IC3 before following it up with a tweet containing a wallet address, which is believed to be one of the Bitcoin wallets where some of the stolen BTC was sent to.
“What the heck @FBI @ic3 Â why can’t I reach anyone???
Although Dashjr did not disclose how many bitcoins were stolen from his wallet, the wallet address that he shared showed four bitcoin transactions on December 31 that totalled to 216.93 BTC.
Dashjr server compromised in November 2022
Although the developer said that he had no idea as to how hackers gained access to his PGP key, some community members have drawn a possible connection to an earlier claim that Dashjr had made on November 17, 2022, that his server had been compromised by “”new malware/backdoors on the system.”
Unfortunately, Dashjr, says that he learnt of the hack after getting emails from Kraken and Coinbase about login attempts.
The hack also caught the attention of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) who consoled the developer on Twitter saying:
“Sorry to see you lose so much. Informed our security team to monitor. If it comes our way, we will freeze it. If there is anything else we can help with, please let us know. We deal with these often, and have Law Enforcement (LE) relationships worldwide.”