NiceHash is a

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

broker and

exchange Exchange or exchanged may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Exchange (film), or ''Deep Trap'', 2015 South Korean psychological thriller * Exchanged (film), 2019 Peruvian fantasy comedy * Exchange (TV program), 2021 Sou ...

with an open marketplace for buyers and sellers of hashing power. The company provides software for

cryptocurrency mining GPU mining is the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to "mine" proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. Miners receive rewards for performing computationally intensive work, such as calculating hashes, that amend and verify transactio ...

. The company was founded in 2014 by two Slovenian university students, Marko Kobal and Matjaž Škorjanc. The company is based in The British Virgin Islands and has offices in

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

, Slovenia.

History

NiceHash was founded in 2014 by Matjaž Škorjanc, a former medical student turned

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

, and Marko Kobal. On December 6, 2017, approximately 4,700

Bitcoins Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Use o ...

(US$64 million at the time of the hack) were stolen from NiceHash allegedly by a

spear phishing Phishing is a form of Social engineering (security), social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing Information sensitivity, sensitive information or installing malware such as Computer virus, viruses, Computer worm, ...

attack. On December 21, Kobal resigned as the CEO. On that day, the company also re-opened its marketplace after the attack. On February 17, 2021, the North Korean hacker group

Lazarus Lazarus may refer to: People *Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name * Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus * Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus * Lazar ...

was indicted for the hack. Škorjanc was one of the creators of a

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

called Mariposa botnet and served four years and ten months in a Slovenian prison. On June 5, 2019, US law enforcement reopened a case in the operations of the Mariposa (Butterfly Bot, BFBOT) malware gang. In 2019, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

moved forward with new charges and arrest warrants against four suspects, including Škorjanc. Matjaž was detained in Germany in 2019 for eight months. Germany and Slovenia rejected the American requests for extradition due to

double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases ...

and he was released in 2020. Škorjanc announced that the CEO in 2024 would be Vladimir Hozjan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NiceHash Cryptocurrencies Slovenian websites Internet properties established in 2014 Companies based in Ljubljana Slovenian brands Financial services companies established in 2014 Cryptocurrency theft 2014 establishments in Slovenia