Members of the controversial online forum 4chan claim to have joined forces to invest and donate $75m in bitcoin to companies protecting personal data, develop anonymity tools, blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
The new fund, named the Unknown Fund, claims to be set up by a group of anonymous investors who say they are normal people who met through the online forum, according to a press release posted online.
“We are you, we are your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues,” the statement read. “Our ranks consist of representatives of many countries and nationalities, united by a virtual comradely spirit and the belief that we are fighting for the good of many and not for the benefit of some. Anonymous is the voice of those who believe in truth, freedom and the right to self-expression.”
Citing the use of private data being used to target political ads during the Brexit campaign and in the 2016 US presidential election as well as “the level of addiction that the general public has to social network”, the organisers said these efforts were needed to protect the “rights and freedoms of people”.
So is it a real thing? It would not be the first time. In 2017, an anonymous organization donated $86m worth of bitcoin to different charities through the so-called Pineapple Fund.
Still, not everyone is convinced. One place where people have been discussing the Unknown Fund is on the startup accelerator Y Combinator’s forum. One user said it is suspicious and that it could be “an elaborate long-con watering hole attack.”
Others expressed the wide-spread concern about cryptocurrencies that their inherent anonymity is only be useful to criminals.
Neil Walsh, chief of the Cybercrime and Anti-Money-Laundering section of the United Nations’s Office on Drugs and Crime, expressed this view in August. He said the anonymity provided by many cryptocurrencies made it even more difficult to prosecute criminals guilty of things like cyber crime, terror financing and money laundering.
On the Y Combinator forum, the view that cryptocurrencies and tech providing anonymity solutions was countered with the argument that there can sometimes be a need to protect people’s privacy in regards to expression of political views and sexuality.
Some have also been fast to ridicule the people behind the press release. For instance, the people behind the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Swap wrote a Medium post announcing the launch of its Android wallet, adding, “Oh did I mention that the team is not anonymous? That’s right, we wear big boy pants and put our money where our mouths are and have freely given up our privacy so that you can have yours. Talk about taking one for the team huh?”
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