Fact or Fiction? Popular ex-hacker claims to own $7 billion in Bitcoin

A former black hat hacker named Gummo has claimed online that he has amassed around $7 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC).

Despite the deluge of positive comments and posts related to his interview on the Soft White Underbelly YouTube channel -- which has 3.18 million subscribers -- little information about Gummo is available elsewhere, and that may be by design.

He said he has been working in the field for more than 30 years, and while he started hacking for illegal reasons and was caught by authorities, he has since turned to doing good deeds -- thanks to his wife's support and advice -- such as threat hunting. security, web security, and developer consulting.

This latest comment was made as part of a follow-up interview published on March 12, after the original discussion took place in late 2020. In the first video, Gummo said that back in 2013 when the price of Bitcoin was around $200-300, he used four supercomputers to mine Bitcoin and dug over 80,000 BTC in a year and a half .

According to him, he has now amassed around 179,000 BTC. According to Forbes' 2021 World's Billionaires List, if his holdings were at current prices, he would rank around 369th on the list of the world's richest people.

"I'm rich. Yeah, I don't need to work if I don't want to. I own over $7 billion worth of bitcoin."

Nothing prevents a future of simplicity and decentralization #Bitcoin

.

:)

— Gummo (@GummoXXX) March 8, 2022

Gummo said his current motivation for hacking is not to have a job or money, but to help ordinary people, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right things to protect people from the evils of the web.

"Knowing that I'm preventing someone's grandmother from becoming a victim of some kind of cyber-extortion scheme is what I get up every day and what motivates me right now," he said.

Talking about the dark side of technological progress, Gummo warned that hacking has quickly progressed from "endless javascript pop-ups" humorously spamming PCs to weaponizing data and software against people.

“The situation is getting darker and more sinister as more and more people seek their wealth. Whether it’s cryptocurrency theft or traditional theft from the banking system.” He added: “Governments are now keen to deploy software, That fact is pretty scary, and unfortunately, it's going to be society's new reality."

Judging by the reactions to these two interviews, it appears that Gummo is quickly becoming a beloved figure, as his backstory includes a difficult upbringing, loss of a loved one and a major transition from the dark side of hacking to helping people get online.

The latest video has 14,000 likes so far, with lots of positive feedback on the character, while the first video has 144,000 likes, with the same sentiment expressed in the comments.

"This man inspired me to pursue cybersecurity with good intentions. I was a poor teacher who loved teaching and never cared about the salary because it helped the students. Too old to teach now. Consider making cybersecurity A new career that pays the bills, but Gummo has given more meaning to this career and will now pursue it to make the world a better place. Thank you Gummo," wrote YouTube user "Zim Petrichor".

User 'quicklern818' said: 'I don't think we'll ever see this guy again and in a way I think it fits - he's like a guardian angel working behind the scenes and watching. Shout out to him and His family sends love and thanks for all his hard work."