Journalist alleges Mimo Capital co-founder was behind 2016 exploit of The Dao: Report
Laura Shin, a cryptocurrency journalist and host of the Unchained Podcast, claimed to have discovered the identity of the individual behind an exploit which drained more than 3.6 million Ether from Germany-based startup Slock.it’s The DAO in 2016.
According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, Shin claimed that she had “extremely strong evidence” that Mimo Capital co-founder Toby Hoenisch was responsible for removing more than 3.6 million Ether (ETH) from The DAO in June 2016 — roughly $50 million at the time. An unknown hacker used an exploit to drain roughly a third of The DAO’s ETH supply, forcing developers to hard fork the network and leaving the illicit funds in what became the Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain.
EXCLUSIVE: With the publication of my book today, I can finally announce: in the course of writing my book, my sources and I believe we uncovered the identity of the Ethereum's 2016 DAO hacker.
Shin’s research conducted with Ethereum developer Alex Van de Sande and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis alleged that Hoenisch was aware of the exploit weeks before the attack occurred on June 17, 2016. According to Van de Sande, the hacker used crypto exchange Shapeshift to convert the pilfered ETC — following the hard fork — to Bitcoin (BTC). They believe the attacker then use crypto wallet Wasabi to mix the BTC, four “different central exchanges” to further launder the funds, and finally privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin “for added privacy.”
Chainalysis said it was able to de-mix the crypto transactions and trace the funds to exchanges that later received the tokens in accounts allegedly managed by Hoenisch. The firm added that “this is yet another example of evidence preserved on the blockchain forever.”
“I have no
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