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Topic: Coinbase Helps FBI Shut Down KickAssTorrents (Read 1079 times)

hero member
Activity: 1148
Merit: 527
Yeah if you are running a legitimate business, you probably want to comply when the FBI hits you with a subpoena!
It will be interesting to see if more details come out about this.
What did KAT have to do with Bitcoin? Were they taking some payments or making some payments in BTC?
The alleged owner of KAT was using bitcoins and coinbase wallet. In some article, it was said that he did 42 transactions with it and if I remember correctly, he was buying songs on iTunes or some place.
It's ironic, isn't it? He owns a piracy site, yet choose to pay for songs, and when he did that, he wasn't even hiding his IP. It felt like he was trying to get himself arrested at all.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
EtherSphere - Social Games
To be fair, Facebook and Apple also contributed to this investigation as well.

https://www.google.com/amp/thenextweb.com/insider/2016/07/21/kickasstorrents-apple-id-facebook-lulz/%3famp=1?client=ms-android-att-us#


His email was discovered when authorities sent Facebook a warrant for information having to do with the site’s page. From there, the US Government turned to Apple.

Vaulin used the same @me.com email to make an iTunes purchase, which records your IP address for every transaction. His IP addresses were then tied to his bitcoin account.


Which means coinbase records IP per session, and shares this data when requested.

Of course they track your ip. Everytime you try and log in from another location, if your behind a vpn even, they ask you to verify it is you via your choice of verification when you signed up for an account. they recognize that your not logging in from regular location by ip address.
full member
Activity: 123
Merit: 474
It blows my mind how people like this guy and Ulbricht have the intelligence and vision to set up such sites, yet screw up so royally in the process. Why the hell would this guy register the domain and use a Coinbase account in his own name? These guys should be so paranoid to even go take a shit never mind do all their operations from their own home without making sure they've got every base secured with numerous layers of security nevermind not even using a proxy to log into sites connected to you and using your real name in the process. Bafflles me.

I feel pretty bad for this guy, but it's shocking how careless he was...
legendary
Activity: 2604
Merit: 1036
I think Coinbase has always catered to what the government has required from them since the inception of their company. Corporate Bitcoin doesn't uphold any tenets of the Bitcoin community and will share data of its customers upon request by the government so this isn't a big surprise that Coinbase 'ratted' him out to the feds. How could it be otherwise when the government could shut down Coinbase within the snap of a finger?
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
I guess this shines more of a good light upon the Bitcoin world but whether this was a good choice or not for Coinbase~
newbie
Activity: 16
Merit: 0
Why Kickasstorrent admin was using coinbase wallet.Coinbase wallet isnt popular anymore because they are now new sites like exchangers where you can save coins and trade with many other cryptocurrencies.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1001
kickass definitely shouldn't be using a online wallet.... running a business like that in a company with his identification isnt a smart thing to do.

It wasn't an smart decision to store its bitcoins on an a web wallet like coinbase that could block its money. If they used any other wallet where they had the private key no one could block its bitcoins.
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
Coinbase is basically a nosy parker in every matter.
I think one of their users got involved in such activities and so they tried to clean their hands off that way.

Well, now you can basically forget about torrent and start a new way of watching movies: http://www.strem.io
I basically visit torrent for movies only. So this is my suggestion as an alternative.
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
kickass definitely shouldn't be using a online wallet.... running a business like that in a company with his identification isnt a smart thing to do.
staff
Activity: 3500
Merit: 6152
All their efforts are kinda useless , I mean who fight something that use Peer to peer ? It's just a matter of time till someone gets another website like that .


And already there are like a million mirrors available. Just like when it happened to the pirate bay.
I will be closing my coinbase account though, kat was my favourite site to download

I'm not sure how they helped to close it but using Coinbase as a wallet wasn't a good move in the first place.
Coinbase don't even give you the control over your private keys in the first , without mentioning that it's an online wallet and it can get hacked
legendary
Activity: 3178
Merit: 1140
#SWGT CERTIK Audited
Its a good thing though that this is not the end of torrents as we all need them in our lifes, well most of us do for sure.

And it will not be but losing a top torrent site that easily should make the other owners be careful with whom to deal with and when they have to hide their identities...
Seriously he made a huge mistake  Undecided
legendary
Activity: 910
Merit: 1000
In the deep web was a nice saying regarding persons with vision and intelligence like this guy but  screw up in the process and they thought they had every thing under control. When Ross Ulbricht of the Silk Road was captured I remember this sentence which I will never forget in the deep web : "Words cannot describe how stupid he was" as he too as far as I remember had the server in North Carolina in USA.
Now I am impressed more and this other guy owner of kickass torrents which uses a coinbase account deserves even more the above sentence. Its a good thing though that this is not the end of torrents as we all need them in our lifes, well most of us do for sure.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
All their efforts are kinda useless , I mean who fight something that use Peer to peer ? It's just a matter of time till someone gets another website like that .


And already there are like a million mirrors available. Just like when it happened to the pirate bay.
I will be closing my coinbase account though, kat was my favourite site to download
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 1068
WOLF.BET - Provably Fair Crypto Casino
The Coinbase part.Don't understand why would they do that ?

Coinbase have to comply with the law, so they share the ID of their customers with the authorities whenever Coinbase get a request to do so. When you signing up at Coinbase and providng ID verification it is clear you approve this, what other reason would the ID verification be for ? So no surprice at all.

Exactly. Of they want to run legitimate business they have to cooperate with governemt. They are also obliged to follow some AML rules. Whether users like it or not for them this is the only way to stay at the market. Although with such policies Bitcoin usersw do.losew their anonimity.
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1074
This does not come to us as a surprise... They have been under KYC/AML regulations for a while now, and they cannot operate legally without it. This just makes me believe stronger in the fact that we

should not trust any exchange or Bitcoin service that needs to adhere to these regulations. Not because you want to do something illegal, but because IP and personal information are being farmed and

passed onto government organizations. It's a huge centralized database of all your personal Bitcoin transactions.  Roll Eyes
staff
Activity: 3500
Merit: 6152
All their efforts are kinda useless , I mean who fight something that use Peer to peer ? It's just a matter of time till someone gets another website like that .
legendary
Activity: 2030
Merit: 1030
Privacy is always important
I tried those sites but almost all torrents are down.. We know almost all virus is in torrents so beware if you have torrent in your computer your coins are not safe.. there is a progrma automated download in torrent and autoinstall that can disable selfdefence of antivirus and remove anti virus in your pc..
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 1000
Whether you're of the opinion he should have been more careful or what he did was bad it doesn't matter. It's not the end of torrents is it? 
legendary
Activity: 2786
Merit: 1031
There is a new version of the kick ass torrent around, don't know if it is trustable, don't know if it is up to date.

It is like when piratebay was down, didn't took longer until they are back, by the hands of the funders or of someone else.

Address is: https://kickasstorrentsan.com/

Latest torrents from 7 days ago.

VirusTotal comes clean.
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1005
There is a new version of the kick ass torrent around, don't know if it is trustable, don't know if it is up to date.

It is like when piratebay was down, didn't took longer until they are back, by the hands of the funders or of someone else.

Address is: https://kickasstorrentsan.com/
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