Woopsie! US Marshals Accidentally Leak List Of Silk Road Bitcoin Bidders
We all make mistakes, but as it turns out, some of them are more significant than others. As the Silk Road and Bitcoin saga continues, it appears that a list of bidders who were hoping to place bids for the ~$18 million in seized assets from Silk Road's closure have been made public. For a bit of background, around 30,000 Bitcoins were confiscated from Silk Road after it was seized and shut down for illegal practices. The U.S. Marshals Service was helping to handle a nine block bidding process, whereby the $18 million in assets could be re-entered into the market via legal means.
Unfortunately, an email with those bidders was sent around, and Blind Copy wasn't used. Thus, identities were leaked, though the Marshals Service swears it wasn't intentional. Lynzey Donahue, a U.S. Marshals spokeswoman, was quoted as saying the following: "The message was not intended for any particular group of people, but for anyone who had emailed a question to the general mailbox to ask about the auction. Only recipient email addresses were disclosed."
The email was supposed to inform the interested bidders of a FAQ related to the upcoming auction. Now, we know that folks from Yelp, Bitcoin Shop, Rangeley Capital, Coinbase, Rowan University, SecondMarket, WilmerHale, and others are in the running.
It's tough to say if any of those parties will decline interest now that their privacy has been violated, but it sure adds yet another strange twist to what was already an odd tale.
Unfortunately, an email with those bidders was sent around, and Blind Copy wasn't used. Thus, identities were leaked, though the Marshals Service swears it wasn't intentional. Lynzey Donahue, a U.S. Marshals spokeswoman, was quoted as saying the following: "The message was not intended for any particular group of people, but for anyone who had emailed a question to the general mailbox to ask about the auction. Only recipient email addresses were disclosed."
The email was supposed to inform the interested bidders of a FAQ related to the upcoming auction. Now, we know that folks from Yelp, Bitcoin Shop, Rangeley Capital, Coinbase, Rowan University, SecondMarket, WilmerHale, and others are in the running.
It's tough to say if any of those parties will decline interest now that their privacy has been violated, but it sure adds yet another strange twist to what was already an odd tale.
