Illustration of a bitcoin.
-
CHAMUSSY / SIPA
It is a nice jackpot that justice cannot recover because of a simple password.
A German scammer has successfully mined bitcoins on the computers of individuals, without their knowledge, using malware.
However, he was caught by the police in Kempten (Bavaria) and was sentenced to more than two years in prison, reports a Reuters article relayed by
Phonandroid
.
The man has since served his sentence, but the police have been unable to recover the 1,700 bitcoins he fraudulently collected.
The hacker refuses to give the authorities the code to access the wallet where the bitcoins are located.
"Maybe he doesn't know him," said the prosecutor in charge of the case.
Around 55 million euros
Since the arrest of the perpetrator, the price of bitcoin has evolved considerably and the cryptocurrency has appreciated in value.
As
Numerama
explains
, the 1,700 bitcoins blocked in the wallet are now worth around 55 million euros.
If it can not recover the bitcoins, the German police however assured that the man could not access them either.
High Tech
Bitcoin: They forget their password and risk losing millions of dollars
By the Web
Bitcoin: Elon Musk changes his Twitter bio and raises the price of cryptocurrency
Did you see ?
Piracy
Bitcoin
Justice
Germany
High Tech