Luke Dashjr, one of the founding members of the Bitcoin core development team, claimed that a hack that took place right before the new year cost him “basically” all of his Bitcoins.
The developer said that the alleged hackers had acquired access to his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key, a popular security technique that combines two keys to access encrypted data, in a tweet on January 1.
He did not say how much of his BTC was taken overall; instead, he revealed a wallet address where some of the stolen BTC had been transmitted. The wallet address in question currently displays four transactions between 2:08 and 2:16 UTC on December 31 totaling 216.93 BTC ($3.6 million).
Dashjr claimed he had “no idea” how the alleged hackers got hold of his key. On November 17, Dashjr tweeted that his server had been infected by “new malware/backdoors on the system,” which some members of the community have suggested may be related.
In his most recent Twitter thread, Dashjr stated that he was just made aware of the current hack after receiving emails from Coinbase and Kraken regarding failed login attempts. Others, though, seem to imply that it wasn’t a hack at all and that the seed phrase may have been accidentally discovered or that it may have been related to a “boating mishap” that occurred just in time for tax season.
In this context, the term “boating accident” refers to a recurring joke and meme about people trying to avoid paying taxes by claiming they lost all their bitcoin in a “tragic boating accident,” which was first popularised by gun enthusiasts.
Many prominent members of the crypto community, including Udi Wertheimer, questioned whether self-custody was a practical and secure alternative and advised against managing one’s own keys.