BTS: Revisiting the ‘buy $1 worth of Bitcoin’ video 10 years later

June 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BTS: Revisiting the ‘buy worth of Bitcoin’ video 10 years later

Davinci Jeremie believes that while many people missed out on the opportunity to buy Bitcoin 10 years ago, it’s not too late to get into crypto.

While crypto advocate Davinci Jeremie expected to become a hero to his community after talking about Bitcoin (BTC) and why they should buy at least $1 worth of it 10 years ago, things did not turn out as he expected.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Jeremie shared the story of how he found Bitcoin (BTC), what his community thought about it back then, and what he thinks would help onboard more people into Bitcoin.

*Crypto influencer Davinci Jeremie in a call with Cointelegraph reporter Ezra Reguerra. Source: Cointelegraph*

According to the crypto influencer, it all started over 10 years ago, when a member of his community told him about BTC and asked him to have a look at it. At first glance, Jeremie, who is also a software developer, believed that it was a scam since the double spending problem was “considered to be not solvable.” He explained:

“I said: ‘Okay, I'm gonna read the source code since I'm a software developer, and tell you how it's a big scam.’ Read the source code, read the white paper and realized: Oh, no. This is not a scam.”

After learning about it and realizing that BTC may be the solution to a huge problem in the monetary system, he made the trending video, asking his community to purchase at least $1 worth of BTC. However, his expectations were a bit different from what happened. While he expected his community to be grateful for the information he shared, they did not respond the way he thought they would.

“Once in a while, something comes along that makes poor people rich because they got it really really cheap. This was one of them. I thought I was gonna be the hero to my community, but no, they thought I was crazy. They actually thought I was losing my mind,” he said.

While people missed out a lot on that opportunity to buy BTC at that price, Jeremie believes that it’s not too late to get into crypto. According to the influencer, only 2% of the population currently hold Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). However, the problem is that people want to have the whole thing. He explained:

“Everybody wants to have a whole Bitcoin. Nobody wants to go into a store and say: ‘Can I get 1/100,000,000th of an apple?’ They want the whole thing. So, although Bitcoin is divisible, the visibility is part of its Achilles heel.”

The developer suggested that it may be optimal to have a Satoshi-based Bitcoin wallet that shows the balances differently. The software developer believes that showing people that “for a whole dollar you could get a few 100,000 Bitcoin Satoshis” could potentially attract more people. “It’s not as appealing to have that decimal spaces than a whole Bitcoin,” he added.

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Google Ads-delivered malware drains NFT influencer’s entire crypto wallet

January 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A sponsored advertising link on Google hid malware that siphoned thousands of dollars worth of crypto and NFTs from an influencer’s wallet.

An NFT influencer claims to have lost “a life-changing amount” of their net worth in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto after accidentally downloading malicious software found via a Google Ad search result.

The pseudo-anonymous influencer known on Twitter as “NFT God” posted a series of tweets on Jan. 14 describing how his “entire digital livelihood” came under attack including a compromise of his crypto wallet and multiple online accounts.

Last night my entire digital livelihood was violated.

Every account connected to me both personally and professionally was hacked and used to hurt others.

Less importantly, I lost a life changing amount of my net worth
— NFT God (@NFT_GOD) January 15, 2023

NFT God, known also as “Alex,” said he used Google's search engine to download OBS, an open-source video streaming software. But instead of clicking on the official website, he clicked the sponsored advertisement for what he thought was the same thing.

It wasn’t until hours later — after a series of phishing tweets posted by attackers on two Twitter accounts that Alex operates — that he realized malware was downloaded from the sponsored advertisement alongside the software he wanted.

Following a message from an acquaintance, Alex noticed his crypto wallet was also compromised. The next day, attackers breached his Substack account and sent phishing emails to his 16,000 subscribers.

Then I get the DM I've been dreading. "Dude you WETH'd your ape?"

I pop open the Opensea bookmark of my ape and there it is. A completely different wallet listed as the owner.

I knew at that moment it was all gone. Everything. All my crypto and NFTs ripped from me
— NFT God (@NFT_GOD) January 15, 2023

Blockchain data shows that at least 19 Ether (ETH) worth nearly $27,000 at the time, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT with a current floor price of 16 ETH ($25,000), and multiple other NFTs were siphoned from Alex’s wallet.

The attacker moved most of the ETH through multiple wallets before sending it to the decentralized exchange (DEX) FixedFloat, where it was swapped for unknown cryptocurrencies.

Alex believes the “critical mistake” that allowed the wallet hack was setting up his hardware wallet as a hot wallet by entering its seed phrase “in a way that no longer kept it cold,” or offline, which allowed the hackers to gain control of his crypto and NFTs.

Unfortunately, NFT God’s experience isn’t the first time the crypto community has dealt with crypto-stealing malware in Google Ads.

A Jan. 12 report from cybersecurity firm Cyble warned of an information-stealing malware called “Rhadamanthys Stealer” spreading through Google Ads on “highly convincing phishing webpage[s].”

In October, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao warned that Google search results were promoting crypto phishing and scamming websites.

Cointelegraph contacted Google for comment but did not receive a response. In its help center, however, Google said it “actively works with trusted advertisers and partners to help prevent malware in ads.”

It also describes its use of “proprietary technology and malware detection tools” to regularly scan Google Ads.

Cointelegraph was unable to replicate the results of Alex’s search nor verify if the malicious website was still active.