Alleged $30 Million Bittensor Thieves Must Face Wiretap Claims

A rejected applicant to and two ex-employees of decentralized AI collaboration hub Bittensor failed to convince a federal court to dismiss wiretap claims stemming from the alleged theft of about $30.3 million in cryptocurrency.

Malware can count as a device under the Wiretap Act, and it’s at least plausible that the alleged conspirators committed an intentional act by deploying software designed to trick users of a Bittensor subnetwork into downloading malicious code under the guise of an update, then exfiltrating the cruptocurrency, Judge Dale A. Drozd said for the US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The defendants ...