On the last day of January, Ljubliana-based Crypto Mining firm NiceHash announced its plans to reimburse every user that was affected by the security breach that resulted in the theft of $63 million worth of Bitcoin on December 6, 2017.
The repayment program will begin tomorrow, February 2, 2018, by restoring 10% of what affected users’ account balances were before the hack took place. In the post announcing the repayment plan, NiceHash announced that it is ‘committed to periodically repay the remaining amount to all users in the coming months,’ and said that all users will be repaid in full.
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The Repayment program will start on Friday, February 2, 2018, and will initially reimburse 10% of the old balance amount to all users that were impacted by the security breach. — NiceHash (@NiceHashMining) January 31, 2018
While the exact timeline of the repayment plan is not yet known, NiceHash said that each part of the plan for reimbursement will be "announced in advance."
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Established in 2014, NiceHash is a crypto mining marketplace that acts as a platform for miners, traders, and investors to instantly buy and sell hashing power.
A 'Compromised Payment System'
According to NiceHash, the hack that took place in early December was the result of a security breach into the NiceHash payment system. Shortly following the incident, NiceHash announced on Reddit: “Our payment system was compromised, and the contents of the Nicehash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.” The platform was offline for two weeks in the wake of the attack.
Following the hack, NiceHash co-founder Marko Kobal stepped down from his position as the company’s CEO, saying in a LinkedIn post that he would now "stand aside and allow new management to lead the organization through its next, exciting period of growth."
NiceHash originally announced the reimbursement plan two weeks after the hack in a message to members of its platform, although balances have clearly not been restored by the date initially promised: “We are happy to announce we have been able to reserve the funds required to restore balances from a group of international investors. Old balances will therefore be restored by January 31, 2018.”
In a space where some victims of hacks on the world’s former large exchanges still have not been repaid years after their funds were stolen from them, NiceHash’s initiative to do right by its users is certainly a welcome and refreshing event--even if it is coming later than originally expected.
