ALL INFURMEIDN HEREIN 5 UNCLASSIFIED BATE 16-33-2016 BY 63 21033331 ESICG Rev 05-01-2008 UNCLASSIFIED FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Precedence ROUTINE Date 08 17 2011 To Cyber Attn gc CCU-1 From New York CY-OZ Contact I I Approved By I Case ID Pending 4 I Title COMPUTER Synopsis I I b7E Details On August 1 201 i Itelephone numbe ate of gc a complaint with the FBI New York ILiffice Subsequently on Au ust11 2011 writer and telephonically intervieweEin regard to his initial complai Fu August 16 2011 to explain his complaint in detail to writer 5 nd SA I Iis self-employed and maintains and operated I nd his partner came to 26 Federal Plaza on has held an account with MYBITCOIN MYBITCOIN is an online depository of BTC MYBITCOIN has been in business since middle of 2009 and it is one of the first to offer such service MYBITCOIN had thousands of users and their wallets that may contain up to millions of dollars in BTCs On July 29 2011 MYBITCOIN's website went offline Every account at MYBITCOIN was inaccessible virtually leaving all of its users without any of their stored BTCs I Ileer IJsing the exchange rate around the time of the incident as a result of this event MYBITCOIN did eventually come back online after approximately 7 days During this time there was an inquiry investigation driven by the online BTC community against owner s of MYBITCOIN When MYBITCOIN came back online it announced that their servers were compromised by hackers and a certain percentage of BTCs were stolen However MYBITCOIN stated that some of the BTCs were recovered and offered a claim process that allowed for its users to settle their losses by MYBITCOIN reimbursing 49% of their last known stored value UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED To New York From New York Re EW 08 1 7 2011 Writer requests that caption cased be opened and assigned to Sill ladd 54 land I b6 as co-case a ents Th captioned case is being handled by the United States Attorney's Office in the Southern District ofNew York b7c AUSA is assigned to the case Background on Bitcoins BTC is an open source project published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 BTC is a decentralized peer-to-peer virtual Currency The vaiue of BTC is represented by a public private keypair Public keys serve as a address or a wallet of BTC users and it is shared benveen parties involved in a BTC transaction Private keys are secured by the owner of a BTC and it is used as proof of ownership and authorization to transfer a certain BTC to another party This keypair structure along with decentralized organization provides a level ofanonyrnity since there are no registered accounts in existence All transactions that occur in the ETC system are broadcasted to as many computers within the BTC sytem as possible This block chain is collectively maintained and extended as valid transactions are added on to the block The block chain contains all transaction history and can not be altered In order to corrupt the block chain one will need to overpower the aggregate computing power of the BTC system The first 50 BTC were generated in lanuary of 2909 BTC are generated by calculating a target matching hashes also known as a block This mathematical problem is controlled by a Set of rules that are agreed upon by computers participating in the BTC system The difficulty of calculating the target hashes are precisely known and adjusted to be solved at an average of every 10 minutes Users correctly calculating the target hash are rewarded with a set amount of BTCs Currently each mined block pays out 50 BTC The pay out amount will be halved every 4years from beginning of BTC system's existence The amount of BTC that can be in circulation is predetermined The maximum number of BTC in circulation will approach limit on1 million while never reaching 21 million The smallest denomination of BTC is 0 00000001 In 2140 all of the available BTC will be in circulation with 6 929 999 hash blocks being solved having mined a total of 20 999399999999999 BTC Currently there are over 7 million BTC in circulation which is 1 3 of BTC that can be in circulation Other than mining for BTCs Users can obtain BTC by purchasing it from anyone that is willing to barter There are money exchangers rangingfrom a organized business entities to a private individuals that convert hard currency to BTC and vice versa BTC is valued by scarcity of BTC in circulation driven by supply and demand A fair exchange rate for BTC can be obtained by observing major exchangers i e Mt 30x Mt Gox is a website that facilitates BTC to money exchanges between its registered users Mt 60 does not appear to provide money exchange service itself but rather play as a match maker between its users BTC is stored on the computer running a client within the public key representing the wallet Since BTC is virtual and stored as if it was a computer file BTE is susceptible to corruption damage and compromise on its host computer There are online businesses that provide escrow service like an online piggy bank that serve as a protected repository of BTC BTC user may open an account with an online wallet service who then can provide better security of BTC wallets to include data backups accidental delerion prevention and remote accessibility BTC uSers are left to blindly trust the integrity and security ofsuch service provider UNCLEESIFIED UNCLASSIFIED To New York From New York Re 08 1 7 2011 Set Lead 1 Action 2% AT WASHINGTON DC Read and clear 00 ALL INFORMATION HEREIN IS BATE 06-09-2016 13325433391 NSECC Rev 05-01-2003 UNCLASSIFIED FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Precedence ROUTINE Date 08 18 2011 To New York Attn FMU From NewYork Contact I b6 b7C Approved By Pending Title - COMPUTER Synopsis Funds requested for the registration fee to a conference Details FBI New York is currently working a matter involving a new form of electronic currency Bitcoin BTC The captioned case has many Bitcoin users who lost majority of their BTCs in savings due to a compromised server BTC is a decentralized virtual peer to-peer currency that has been around since 2009 Due to it's online nature the systems participating in BTC network is susceptible to and a target of online hacking viruses and other Internet vulnerabilities In addition BTC's relatively infant state leaves many potential problems to include misuse and abuse yet to be discovered From August 19 2011 to August 21 2011 Bitcoin Conference and World Expo 201 1 NYC is being held in New York New York This a first global conference for the BTC community Many major service product providers for BTC media outlets and investors are expected among the guest and participants The conference agenda includes talks and sessions to educate and discuss current issues relating to BTC Writer requests $52 00 to pay for admission fee to attend the conference for two agents The money will be eatchanged to BTC to pay for the conference Current authorization b7E Registration fee $26 2 52 00 Tax 5 0 00 Total amount 52 00 Balance after payment I I UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED To From New York Re 08 18 2011 00 UNCU-ESIFIED ALL CONTAINED HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED DATE 06-05-2016 832W3331 NSICG FD-9 I 9 Rev 06-05-2003 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Precedence ROUTINE Date 09 16 2011 To New York From New York Contact gc Approved By I I Case ID Pending Title VICTIM NOTIFICATION FORM Synopsis Computer Intrusion Reference Serial 1 Details VnsCase# T86 CAgtName b6 PContact erson b7c BusName BusAcct VicFirN VicMidN VicLastN I I SSAN VicDate 20110729 VicMinor DOB Race Sex Addr Addr2 City State Country Zip Email HPhone FD-9 9 Rev 06-05-2003 Fax VerAddr VeraddZ VerCity VerSt VerZip WEmail WPhone WFax VicPager NOKState NOKPager GrdFirN GrdMidN GrdLastN GrdRel GrdAddr GrdAder GrdCity GrdZip GrdHEmal GrdWEmal GrdPager PropRet TotLoss Lang Disable FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION b6 b7C b6 b7C To Re 09 New York From New York 09 16 2011 ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED sz HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED DATE 06-89-2016 BY 13321133331 NSICG Document Details CII ulflcatlon SN Cale ID SorlIlNumbor 000005 FBI POLICE COMPLAINT INFORMATION OMca NY Responses 0 DocumentDato 08 01 2011 OTHER To NEW YORK From NEW YORK DocumentText I ofl 6 1 201510 08 AM ALL IHFUFIQTIUN CONTAINED HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED DATE os-cs-zuis a c32w33331 usrcc 170-302 ch Ins-95 transcription your agency -1 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date of lnvestigalion on at File ii Date dictated This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agencyidare nF hirth I I I Itelephone number was interviewed telephonically After being advised of the identity of the interviewing agent and the nature of the intervie provided the following information l_ is secured by a i BITCOIN is an online currency that I uses MYBITCOIN COM to store his BITCOINs MYBITCOIN COM is one of the oldest websites for providing an online storage of BITCOINs Via electronic wallet or electronic bank function has about BITCOINS howevery deposit were allowed On July'29 2011 MYBITCOIN COM servers when offline The website was unavailable for approximately 7 days There ar count holders that do not have access to their BITCOINS T ffEf fiwanted to schedule a meeting in person to explain tion in the situa etail in person lsegan with initial investment to purchase BITCOINS a a ow price Other than converting physical currency to BITCOINS BITCOINs can also be mined by participating on the BITCOIN network of computer servers Currently it is not profitable to mine BITCOINS with an average computer specifications 0 8 1 1 New York New York telephonically Kp N COM has over hundreds of thousands of a ho account alone is worth b7C ALL CONTAINED HEREIN IS UNCUISSHIED DATE 06-09-2016 CEMSESH NSICC l0-6-95 - 1 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date of transcription Investigation on at File Date dictated This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency 02 10 2012 I Idate of birth 1 f7 telephone number i was interviewed at 26 Federal Plaza New York NY After being advised ofthe identities ofthe interviewing agents and the nature of the intemiewEProvided the following information I lfirst heard of BITCOIN at the end of October 7010 MYBITCOIN COM provides online store for BITCOINs It started around early to middle of 2009 i 2 MYBITCOIN COMI i may be linked to a Canadian hacker group HACK CANADA HACK CANADA was previously involved in credit card fraud Many people used MYBITCOIN COM service to store their BITCOIN online rather than on their own computer On July 29 2011 MYBITCOIN COM disappeared and was offline for about seven days hosting service and registration information and remained silentl_ During that time MYBITCOIN COM changed its web i I As a result of isappearance an online chatroom BITCOIN POLICE started BITCOIN POLICE is a vigilante group created by to help 08 16 11 New York NewYork b7C Page of NYBITCOIN COM to regain access to their digital Continuaupa if of I 8 11 11 2 received a SMS text message to his Google Voice number The message came from someone who claimed to be a close associate of I Iis affliated with MYBITCOIN COM The text message came fronlBritish Columbia Canada The textlnessage explained that the disappearance of MYBITCOIN COM was not a scam and when the website is fixed a forum will be established to help return money to the rightful account holders MYBITCOIN COM did return online and a claintpage was set up MYBITCOIN COM announced that they had technical issues because they were compromised by hackers The hackers stole 51% of MYBITCOIN COM's BITCOIN holdings in small increments I Ifiled a claim following the instruction on the restoredwebsite Other account holders were able to get their 49% back until approximately three days ago on or around August 13 2011 All reimbursements stopped as of that day Other than MYBITCOIN COM MT GOX based in Japan also offers online storage of BITCOINs MT GOX is owned LNU Last Name Unknown a French national MT GOX converts USD to BITC DWALLA and ILNU the main technical lead for BITCOIN I Itook over for SATOSHI creator of BITCOIN writing sounds similar to writings done by member of the British Academia SATOSHI maintained the BITCOIN network until April 2010 when he disappeared b6 b6 b7C b6 b7E ALL ION HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED DATE 16-09-1015 C32H33391 NSICG tHcv UNCLASSIFIED FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Precedence ROUTINE Date 02 1 0 201 2 To New York From New York Contact I Approved By I I Pending Title Synopsis To close case Details Writer request closing of captioned case I 0 UNCLASSIFIED b6 b7C b7E as Law Enforcement Impact Law enforcement is concerned about the use of Bitcoins to facilitate illegal activities online The Silk Road is an online black market exchange for contraband goods like illicit drugs stolen credit cards etc and it operates using Bitcoin Recently on October 1 2013 the FBI was able to shut down the website because they captured alleged founder unsuccessful because the site was hosted as a hidden service on the Tor network U lJ n Previously authorities were b6 b'7C b7E