- The SEC has leaked the identities of crypto miners connected to the crypto firm Green, exposing them to hackers.
- Green has reportedly disabled the purchase of nodes, raising concerns.
- The SEC has previously come under fire and might be the recipient of another complaint lawsuit.
The Securities Exchange Commission leaked the names and emails of crypto miners connected to the crypto firm Green earlier this month while investigating the company for reasons undisclosed.
From screenshots seen by the Washington Examiner, the SEC had been digging into Green for years and had reached out to users regarding their purchase of the firm’s products and experience. Although users had responded, an SEC employee had failed “to bcc all 650 users in an email.”
By doing so, the commission appears to have violated the Privacy Act of 1974. Its website states clearly that the personal data of those involved in SEC investigations are protected.
” The Privacy Act of 1974 […] prohibits the disclosure without consent of information about individuals that the federal government maintains in a system of records,” the SEC website says. “If we store information about you in a system of records from which we retrieve that information by personal identifier […], we will safeguard your information by the Privacy Act.”
Crypto miners have complained about the safety of their assets, as they are now easy targets for hackers. The information leaked is enough for an exploiter to identify the individual and hack the nodes of the miners, eliminating the anonymity that comes with blockchain and crypto.
Speaking for SEC, a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner,
“Protecting the privacy of all parties is critically important, and the SEC is looking into this matter.’
Green – Are There Red Flags?
According to the official website, the blockchain firm owns a part of the “largest, public global decentralized power grid in the world.” It is committed to creating a sustainable blockchain by allowing users to operate the Green software through Green nodes. It also invests in renewable projects supporting the platform’s mission and vision.
The process of #setpowerfree is simple, as the user only needs to download and run the Green node “run in the background” on their computer and earn rewards for doing so. However, the website provides little information about the company’s team, operates under the radar, and offers high returns with little risk.
But a further scroll to the bottom shows three paragraphs disclaimer that reads,
“This content may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties… Factors or events that could cause our results to differ may emerge from time to time, and we can’t predict all of them. We do not plan to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements except as required by law.”
Green also clarifies that the digital reward obtained from running Green nodes are not investment products and might “never have any value outside of the Green platform.” They are designed to have utility on the platform for the purchase of Green’s products and services.
At the time of writing, the purchase of Green nodes has been temporarily disabled, and the Discord community is private. The details of the SEC’s investigation are still unknown, as the regulatory body has done nothing regarding the situation except the statement issued, so it cannot be said whether these are signs of a dubious firm or not.
SEC under Fire
While cybercrime activities to obtain information are shared in crypto, unintentional leaks by government officials are rare.
The SEC for one, has taken a rather strict role in what critics call “regulation by enforcement.” The commission had also joined other regulatory bodies to bring fraud charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, reiterating that SBF’s alleged fraud was the “clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to comply with (our) laws.”
Although no action has been taken against the SEC by Green, the commission’s failure has incensed some in the crypto community. Both have maintained a strained relationship, stemming from the commission’s ongoing crackdown and their pessimistic view of cryptocurrency. This is the second instance where the SEC has received a complaint. The first is the reply brief filed by Grayscale last year, where the crypto company said the commission rejected its application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. The schedule for oral agreements will be decided, pending final brief posts from both parties.
