30s Summary

An Internal Revenue Service agent’s MacBook Pro, used to track down 120,000 stolen Bitcoin, has been added to the collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The laptop played a key role in a case which clarified how cryptocurrency works. The laptop was used to locate the stolen Bitcoin from the Bitfinex crypto exchange and find the digital “keys” to them. The recovery of the stolen Bitcoin was the largest financial seizure in the Department of Justice’s history. The laptop will feature in the museum’s “Value of Money” exhibit, set to reopen in 2024.

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A MacBook Pro that helped track down 120,000 stolen Bitcoin is now part of the Washington, DC Smithsonian’s collection. The laptop, previously owned by an Internal Revenue Service agent, Chris Janczewski, played a key role in solving a case that clarified how cryptocurrency works.

Janczewski used this laptop to figure out where the stolen Bitcoin from the Bitfinex crypto exchange was hidden. A guy named Ilya Lichtenstein had stolen it in 2016, and this same computer was used to find the digital “keys” to the stolen Bitcoin. Lichtenstein was later convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.

Janczewski used the blockchain, the technology powering Bitcoin, like a digital crime scene, finding out who did it, and dragging their digital fingerprints into his laptop.

Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, who raps under the name “Razzlekhan,” helped him clean the stolen Bitcoin and got an 18-month jail sentence herself this month.

The Department of Justice mentioned earlier this year that this recovery of stolen Bitcoin, which was then valued at $3.6 billion, was the biggest financial seizure in its history.

Now, Janczewski’s laptop is set to feature in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The idea was proposed by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, to highlight the importance of this groundbreaking case.

The museum, which keeps track of how money has evolved ever since the days of ancient Mesopotamia, has struggled with the inherently digital nature of cryptocurrencies. So far, it has collected a Bitcoin magazine, two Bitcoin tokens with private keys, and two pieces of 3D-printed Bitcoin jewelry.

Cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, became a powerful alternative for many individuals who lost faith in traditional banking and government systems after the 2008 financial crisis.

Therefore, items like Janczewski’s laptop will be exhibited in the National Museum of American History’s “The Value of Money” gallery, scheduled to reopen in late 2024.