The revived Salomon Brothers announced on Thursday that the process of inserting op_return notices in Bitcoin wallets (BTC) that were supposed to be abandoned.
According to a press release shared with COINDESK, the Investment Bank based in New York is sending the notices to prevent “dishonest states and criminal organizations with significant resources” can potentially access these wallets in the future.
The process itself has created a lot of debate, with speculation that suggests that Salomon brothers have ties with people like Craig Wright.
“[They] They are using Bitcoin’s own infrastructure as an advertisement, “said David Carvalho, CEO of the Naoris protocol, to Coindesk.” It is very intelligent. And they are going big, pointing to some infamous wallets such as the “1feex” address, which contains around 80,000 BTC “.
According to the Salomon Brothers website, the assets that remain intact for 14 years can be legally abandoned under an “abandonment doctrine”, thus leaving the main door open in terms of recovery.
The method of obtaining access to these wallets is still clear, Carvalho told Coindesk that the Bitcoin community “is not doing what should be done” to avoid methods such as quantum piracy.
“BIP proposals are completely inappropriate, and achieving a consensus in a hard bifurcation will take so long that it is too late. Considering that 6.51 million bitcoin of $ 700 billion is at stake, it is amazing how slow the Bitcoin community is moving,” he added.
The Salomon brothers said that their client, that it is still anonymous, plans to assign a part of the Bitcoin recovered to a fund for the wallet owners who lost their keys, whose details will be published in the coming months.
The notices sent to the wallet holders give a deadline of 90 days, within which they can “claim the property” of the wallets by sending a transaction or completing a form on the Salomon Brothers website.
The press release indicates that “some owners responded to the notices moving their digital assets to new wallets.”
