Authorized notices apparently from self-proclaimed funding agency “Salomon Brothers” had been despatched to over 39,000 bitcoin (BTC) addresses earlier this yr in an try to repossess 2.3 million in dormant cash price over $279 billion.
That’s in response to a report from Galaxy Analysis, which analyzed the marketing campaign that concerned an unknown Salomon shopper “dusting” notices en masse between July and August.
The tactic includes sending tiny quantities of BTC to 1000’s of addresses with the discover in an “OP_RETURN output.” It threatened the handle house owners with “constructive possession” of its BTC by way of authorized cures in the event that they didn’t reply to its discover or show the handle wasn’t deserted.
Oddly, one of many OP_RETURN messages linked to a take a look at transaction learn, “Thank you for giving birth to me. Now you get real money back.”
Salomon claims it’s defending BTC
Salomon is reportedly representing its shopper “altruistically,” and doesn’t wish to “adversely impact the crypto market,” or declare possession over wallets that aren’t truly deserted.
It claims to wish to safeguard the Bitcoin community, and instructed that dormant BTC is weak to “rogue states” who might search to illegally entry it by exploiting “older encryption protocols.”
Nonetheless, Galaxy Analysis notes this declare is weak as its dusting spree solely focused “P2PKH” addresses, which aren’t as weak to a quantum computing assault as P2PK addresses are.
Galaxy concluded that Salomon could also be making an attempt a novel authorized principle to say the BTC, and that it may be making an attempt “to establish notice onchain and prepare a record to support potential litigation.”
“While the legal viability and possible reach of the Salomon client’s potential claims on abandoned property are questionable, the dusting campaign shouldn’t be dismissed outright as a pure behavioural experiment,” it mentioned.
Protos beforehand reported that Salomon Brothers and its strategies had been corresponding to a phishing marketing campaign, and that its website raised a lot of pink flags from undesirable downloads to grammatical errors.
Salomon was initially a distinguished funding agency within the 1910s. Since then, the trademarked identify has modified palms a number of occasions, and Galaxy studies that it’s now beneath the possession of a gaggle of “self-described Salomon Brothers alumni” who had been possible behind the marketing campaign.
