What NOT To Do With Confiscated Bitcoin

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and it's time to do those web3 push-ups.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🚓Troubles Of Confiscating Bitcoin
• 💾Euler Hack Saga
• 😎Cool Fact Tuesday
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

LOSING BILLIONS IN "HASTY" SALES OF CONFISCATED BITCOIN 

Everything in life you can do either the right way, or the wrong way. Selling confiscated Bitcoin without much preparation... Might be synonymous to 'the wrong way.'

Since 2014, the US State Department has confiscated and sold over 185,000 BTC for over $151 million.

That's quite a lot, but nothing compared to the profit the authorities would have made if they had held the assets until the right time.

The data above comes from official USMS (U.S. Marshals Service) statistics. It was referred to in a tweet by Jameson Lopp, co-founder of the Casa project.

According to him, the US State Department should have chosen to "hold" the seized cryptocurrency.

In this case, the income from its sale would have exceeded $5.2 billion (at a price of $28,000 for 1 BTC).

But what if the U.S. authorities had dumped the cryptocurrency when it was at its peak ($64,400)? In that case, the profits exceeded the $11.9 billion mark.

Instead, they ended up with only $151 million.

As for the origin of the confiscated cryptocurrency, for the most part, these are funds from the Silk Road case.

As a reminder, the USMS (U.S. Marshals Service) seized 144,000 Bitcoin from the founder of the project.

So, here you go. There's always someone else who manages to sell low as well.

TL;DR: Since 2014, the US State Department has confiscated and sold 185,230,7501 BTC (185k) in exchange for over $151 million. If they had waited for the right time, this sum could have been almost $12 billion.

DCG WORRYING SIGNALS

A few days ago, we wrote about the Euler Finance protocol hack. During the unfortunate event, hacker managed to get away with almost $200 million worth of stolen crypto.

The hacker refused to return the funds, even though they were asked to return 90% of the stolen money, and keep the rest as a some kind of a ransom. 

It looks like things are changing. The latest update has that the hacker began feeling some sort of remorse, and were ready to talk about returning the stolen goods.

The hacker (or hackers) reached out to Euler via on-chain message yesterday, on March 20th. It looks like they're ready to make a deal with Euler.

Here's the transcript of the message:

"We want to make this easy on all those affected. No intention of keeping what is not ours… Setting up secure communication. Let us come to an agreement."

According to the message, the hacker feels like solving the newly-caused problems for individuals was the right thing to do. 

You could also tell that this attack was carried by more that one hacker, since they refer to themselves as "we." Yet... This might be a simple trick.

Nevertheless, the message echoes the time when the very same Euler hacker randomly sent 100 ETH to one of the victims who asked them to return them their 78 ETH.

Even though the negotiations haven't progressed, and the money hasn't been returned yet, you can feel that this is not a dead end, and some sort of closure is about to take place. 

TL;DR:  The Euler Finance protocol hack saga continues. The hacker (or hackers) has reached out to Euler. It looks like they're ready to begin negotiations.

COOL FACT TUESDAY (WHY IS ETH CALLED "ULTRASOUND MONEY")

Let's start with a little backstory:

"Sound money" is a term used to describe reliable money, such as gold or silver. The word "Sound" in this context does not mean air vibrations of any sorts, but "health/reliability", as in "safe & sound."

Proponents of Bitcoin believe that Bitcoin is also a form of sound money because new coins come into circulation predictably and their maximum supply is limited.

Unlike fiat money, whose issuance is controlled by governments.

So... why is ETH is called Ultrasound money? Have you guessed yet?

Ultrasound money is a meme created by the Ethereum community.

Justin Drake, an Ethereum researcher, popularized it.

He used the emojis🦇🔊to describe ultrasound money, referencing bats that emit ultrasound waves (ultrasound) as they fly.

Since then, some users have been adding bat and sound emoji to their nickname to show their faith in ETH.

Why, then, is ETH called ultra-reliable and not just simply a trustworthy form of money?

The fact is that new ETH issuance has dropped 90% in the last 2 years.

And the ETH burning mechanism in the EIP-1559 update makes ETH deflationary - that is, the amount of ETH being burned exceeds the amount of coins being issued.

In other words, ETH has negative inflation (when the network is actively used).

That's why Ethereum supporters call it ultrasound money, not just sound money.

By comparison, BTC inflation is currently about 1.7% per year, while ETH is minus 0.1%.

So that's that! Have a safe & ultrasound day!

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Auros Rises from FTX-Related Crisis with $17M Investment Infusion. Crypto trading firm Auros steps out of its liquidity issues as it secures $17 million in funding.
• Crypto Exchange Binance Swaps BUSD with TrueUSD (TUSD) and Tether (USDT). Some changes with Binance's $1 billion SAFU.
• Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission Plans to Start Regulating Crypto. NFTs are not in the plan.