- Popular Bitcoin paper wallet provider Bitcoinpaperwallet.com has been compromised with “millions” of dollars’ worth of bitcoin stolen
- A Reddit post claims that creators of new wallets are seeing their funds drained immediately
- Paper wallets used to be very popular but they are now an outdated method of bitcoin storage
Popular Bitcoin paper wallet provider Bitcoinpaperwallet.com has allegedly been compromised with “millions” of dollars’ worth of bitcoin stolen as a result. The warning was posted on Reddit by an operator of a Bitcoin wallet recovery service who is trying to solicit help in getting the site shut down. The user, going by the name u/HeroicLife, reported that customers are coming to him having lost heavily due to creating fraudulent wallets through Bitcoinpaperwallet.com, with the original owner having sold the site in 2018 and the new owner seemingly determined to use the name for criminal endeavors.
help me shut down the bitcoinpaperwallet.com scam from r/Bitcoin
Paper Wallets Out of Fashion
Paper wallets were almost the only form of a cold wallet in the years following Bitcoin’s creation in 2008, and some still use them today due to a lack of trust over hardware wallets. However, they carry their own risks, one of which is trusting your paper wallet provider not to record your private keys.
It seems that when Bitcoinpaperwallet.com was sold in 2018 the new operator took a less scrupulous attitude than his predecessor and began doing just that, recording the wallet details of all new users and using them to empty the wallets once they had bitcoin transferred into them.
Users Try to Get Bitcoinpaperwallet.com Shut Down
HeroicLife calls the decision to use paper Bitcoin wallets in 2021 “dumb” but adds that not everyone knows this and as such he wants to try and shut down Bitcoinpaperwallet.com, noting that this is very difficult to do as a private citizen. He suggests various ways in which the current owner could be stopped and asks for further advice, adding that, “…they’ve stolen millions of dollars in Bitcoins, so maybe a little pressure will convince them to retire.
If there weren’t already several good reasons not to have a paper Bitcoin wallet in 2021, this hack of Bitcoinpaperwallet.com is another.
