The virtual currency Dogecoin has suffered its first ever setback as a hacker has made away with approximately 21 million in Dogecoins valued at $13,000 ($0.00062 per Doge) from online wallet service Dogewallet.com.
The virtual currency isn’t as popular and valuable as Bitcoin and it was created more or less for fun; however, it was gaining traction lately as it is easier to mine as compared to other virtual currencies. The virtual currency is being used for tipping friends, family and online acquaintances for their good deeds.
Initial symptoms of a breach started surfacing today when users started posting on Doges.org forums that their online wallet at dogewallet.com was empty – some reporting that over a million Dogecoins were missing from their wallets. The number of users who noticed similar instances with their wallet started increasing by the minute and all those who took to the forums to report it stated that their Doges were being sent to a particular address “DQT9WcqmUyyccrxQvSrjcFCqRxt8eVBLx8.”
Hours after the first forum post, Dogwallet took to reddit confirming that hack and revealed that the site is temporarily closed because of the security breach. The same message has also been posted on Dogewallet’s website.
“We’re incredibly sorry to all users who lost funds from the attack. Please use offline wallets as online wallets are meant for new users who aren’t using them as a storage of coins. Offline wallets are more safe and secure than any online wallet due to possible attacks that can originate from anyone, anywhere”, a message on the site reads.
The online wallet service has revealed that all its users will be compensated and that it is in a position to compensate as many as 30 million Dogecoins.
