An article published by journalist Laura Shin, and research stemming from the blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis, claims to identify the alleged identity of The DAO hacker who drained millions of dollars worth of ethereum from the decentralized autonomous organization on June 17, 2016. 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.
Discover the Genesis DAO 2016 hack
In the summer of 2016, two major hacks shocked the cryptocurrency community – the DAO hack and the Bitfinex breach. Following the recent arrest of the couple who allegedly owned the stolen Bitfinex BTC, journalist Laura Shin published new findings on The DAO hacker and she claims to have identified the person behind the notorious hack. The DAO, also called Genesis DAO, was a decentralized autonomous organization that successfully raised $150 million in Ethereum (ETH).
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.
The Genesis DAO hack not only wreaked havoc on the price of Ethereum (ETH), but it also caused a split within the Ethereum community and eventually caused the chain to split. Now, more than five years later, Shin’s book titled “The Cryptopians” claims to have uncovered the hacker’s identity.
“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 states that Shin used a “powerful and previously secret forensic tool from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis” in order to help uncover the mystery. The findings discuss a blockchain transaction that allegedly derived 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.
The 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 Wasabi Wallet, Shin Claims Transactions Were ‘Unmixed’ by Intelligence Firm Blockchain
Shin’s article also surprised the community as it reports that Chainalysis discovered that the attacker had sent 50 BTC to a Wasabi wallet. Wasabi is a privacy wallet and Shin claims Coinjoin wallet transactions have been “unmixed” by Chainalysis, “using a capability that is 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. The journalist added:
The IP address of this node also hosted Bitcoin Lightning nodes: ln.toby.ai, lnd.ln.toby.ai, etc., and was consistent for over a year; it was not a VPN. It was hosted on Amazon Singapore. Lightning Explorer 1ML showed a node at this IP called Tenx.
As mentioned above, Toby Hoenisch denied the accusations, after Shin sent him a document that described her evidence. She wrote that he said he would give more details but never responded after the initial email. “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.
The privacy-centric bitcoin wallet Samourai critical Wasabi on portfolio mix pattern after publication of Shin’s article. “It should be *impossible* for a user to combine a pre-mixed piece with a post-mixed piece,” Samourai tweeted on Tuesday. “This scenario is impossible due to the architecture of JoinMarket and Whirlpool. Why is this possible at Wasabi? In addition to the statement, Samourai has attached a Tweeter of July 2019, which describes the alleged problem.
