The ethereum Foundation will soon come under legal scrutiny for its alleged involvement in the 2016 Gatecoin hack. The revelations, brought to you by on-chain forensics analyst TruthLabs (@BoringSleuth on X, formerly Twitter), have sparked intense discussions and are now giving lead to an independent legal investigation.
ethereum Foundation's involvement will be legally investigated
TruthLabs broadcast the beginning of this investigation in a mailstating: “Tonight I received FANTASTIC news that a law firm is launching an independent investigation into the Gatecoin hack and the involvement of the ethereum Foundation due to this post from last week.”
This development follows a series of previous posts where TruthLabs accused the foundation and its key figures, including Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin, of being “directly involved in the GateCoin exploit, which resulted in the theft of over $450 million of eth.”
He added: “It has been exactly a week since I shared undeniable evidence that the ethereum Foundation, Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin were directly involved in the GateCoin exploit (…) To date, NO CRYPTOGRAPHY DEVELOPER OR ANALYSIS FIRM has denied my accusations or even offered another theory of what could have happened.”
Surprisingly, neither the Foundation nor ethereum leaders have responded to the allegations. According to the network detective, the reason for this is clear. “They can only ignore the facts, not discuss them. The information has nearly 1 million impressions on the Internet and because it is in the public domain, the CFTC, DOJ, SEC and Homeland Security will have to act.”
Steven Nerayoff, a former ethereum advisor known as an “eth whistleblower,” has also intervened on the matter, supporting TruthLabs' accusations. In response to @BoringSleuth, Nerayoff said: “They relentlessly discredited me before, so why are they silent now that I and @BoringSleuth have made specific accusations with receipts or on-chain data? Because the legal advice for criminals guilty of mass crimes is to remain silent.”
The alleged evidence
As Bitcoinist reported, the allegations revolve around an extensive analysis of eth wallet addresses and transaction logs, which TruthLabs says show a direct connection between the ethereum Foundation and the substantial losses suffered during the Gatecoin hack. This event, which occurred between May 9 and 12, 2016, preceded the infamous DAO hack.
Official Gatecoin reports at the time revealed a loss of 185,000 eth, an amount now valued at over $450 million. On the possible motive behind the ethereum Foundation's alleged involvement, TruthLabs cites the ethereum Foundation's financial concerns at the time of the Gatecoin and DAO attacks.
TruthLabs claims that the Foundation's internal financial forecasts in September 2015 pointed to an imminent monetary deficit, coinciding with the period of these attacks. “One of the reasons why the ethereum Foundation may have started a hacking wave at that time is because they were on the verge of collapse.”
At the time of this publication, eth was trading at $2,207.
Featured image of DALL·E, chart from TradingView.com
