Laura Shin’s article, and Chainalysis research, claim to have identified the hacker that stole millions in ethereum money from The DAO on June 17. Shin’s and Chainalysis’s findings accuse the former Tenx CEO, Toby Hoenisch, of being behind the $60 million hack that saw the loss of 3.6 million ether, which is now worth close to $10 billion using today’s exchange rates.
Discovering the Genesis DAO Hack 2016
In the summer of 2016, there were two significant hacks that shocked the cryptocurrency community — The DAO hack and the Bitfinex breach. Laura Shin, a journalist and author has released new information on the DAO hacker. claims to have identifiedThis hacker is the culprit. A decentralized autonomous organisation known as Genesis DAO that was also known by the DAO, managed to raise $150 Million in ethereum.
EXCLUSIVE:
With today’s publication of my first book, I am finally able to say that I and my sources believe that we have revealed the identity the Ethereum 2016 DAO hacker.— Laura Shin (@laurashin) February 22, 2022
However, on June 17, 2016, an individual discovered a bug in the code that allowed the person to drain funds from the organization’s stash. In a matter of hours, the hacker drained 3,600,000 ether worth roughly $60 million, and using today’s exchange rates the 3.6 million ether is worth $9.3 billion.
Genesis DAO Hack not only caused havoc with the Ethereum currency (ETH), but also caused divisions in the Ethereum community that eventually led to the block chain’s dissolution. Now more than five years later, Shin’s book called “The Cryptopians” claims to have discovered the identity of the hacker.
“We identify the apparent hacker — he denies it — by following a complicated trail of crypto transactions and using a previously undisclosed privacy-cracking forensics tool,” Shin’s Forbes report about the person’s alleged identity.
The Forbes article indicates that Shin leveraged a “powerful and previously secret forensics tool from crypto tracing firm Chainalysis” in order to help uncover the mystery. These findings are about a blockchain transaction that was allegedly originated from former Tenx CEO Toby Hoenisch.
When Shin and her friends approached Hoenisch, he denied the claims entirely and stressed: “Your statement and conclusion is factually inaccurate.” Despite Hoenisch’s denial, Shin included the story in her book and did an expose on the investigation as well. “Since Hoenisch won’t talk to me, I can only speculate about his possible motives,” Shin said.
Forbes reporter continued:
Back in 2016 he identified technical vulnerabilities in The DAO early and may have decided to strike after concluding his warnings weren’t being taken seriously enough by the creators of The DAO.
Chainalysis Discovers DAO Attacker Sent 50 BTC to a Wasabi Wallet, Shin Claims Transactions Were “De-Mixed” by the Blockchain Intelligence Firm
Shin’s article has also surprised the communityShe reports that Chainalysis found the attacker sending 50 BTC to Wasabi’s wallet. Wasabi is a privacy wallet and Shin claims that the Coinjoin wallet’s transactions were “de-mixed” by Chainalysis, “using a capability that is being disclosed here for the first time,” she added.
“In a final, crucial step, an employee at one of the exchanges confirmed to one of my sources that the funds were swapped for privacy coin Grin and withdrawn to a Grin node called grin.toby.ai. (Due to exchange privacy policies, normally this sort of customer information would not be disclosed),” Shin wrote. She added:
That IP address also hosted Bitcoin Lightning Nodes: ln.toby.ai. It was stable for more than a year and it wasn’t a VPN. It was hosted at Amazon Singapore. Lightning Explorer 1ML detected a Tenx node on that IP.
Shin had sent Toby Hoenisch a document describing her evidence, which he denied. He replied to her initial email by saying he’d provide more information, but she never received it. “In addition, after receiving the first document detailing the facts I’d gathered, he deleted almost all his Twitter history (though I’ve saved the relevant tweets),” Shin adds. In the meantime, many crypto supporters are discussing the underlying parts of Shin’s story which detail the blockchain surveillance methods.
Samourai, a private bitcoin wallet criticized Wasabi over the wallet’s mixing scheme after Shin’s article published. “It should be *impossible* for a user to combine a pre-mix coin with a post-mix coin,” Samourai tweeted on Tuesday. “This scenario is impossible due to the architecture of both JoinMarket and Whirlpool. Why is it possible in Wasabi?” In addition to the statement, Samourai attached a tweetThe alleged problem was first described in July 2019.
What do you think about the journalist Laura Shin’s discovery about the 2016 Genesis DAO hack? Comment below and let us know how you feel about the subject.
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