TechCrunch founder: Coinbase data leak may pose a threat to user safety

Odaily Planet Daily News TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington said that Coinbase's recent data breach may pose a serious threat to users' personal safety. He pointed out that the leaked information included users' home addresses and account balances, which could make high-net-worth cryptocurrency holders targets for crimes such as kidnapping. Arrington stressed that regulators should re-evaluate mandatory KYC (know your customer) data collection policies and called for criminal liability for executives who failed to properly protect customer information. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan also pointed out that state-enforced KYC data collection may be the root cause of such risks. Coinbase previously disclosed that hackers attempted to extort $20 million in Bitcoin after overseas customer service staff were bribed to leak user data. The company refused to pay and offered a reward of the same amount to hunt down criminals, while promising to compensate affected users. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into this. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan pointed out that the fundamental problem lies in the government-enforced KYC data collection system. (Decrypt)