Final up to date: December 2025
In July 2017, the Ziber ICO promised to revolutionize worldwide telephone calls utilizing blockchain know-how. Inside hours of launching its fundraiser, roughly $200,000 vanished. The staff blamed hackers. Then they went silent. Nobody was ever charged.
That is what occurred.
Editor’s Be aware: This text replaces a damaged hyperlink from Crypto-Information.web. We’ve compiled this account from blockchain information, archived discussion board discussions, and ICO monitoring databases.
What the Ziber ICO Promised
Ziber marketed itself as “The First Blockchain Cellular Operator.” The pitch: obtain an app, make worldwide calls for nearly nothing.
The thought was that the app would route calls by different customers’ telephones as a substitute of conventional telephone networks. Ziber would pay these customers in cryptocurrency tokens for lending their unused name minutes. In idea, this may undercut providers like Skype and Viber.
Ziber LTD, a UK-registered firm, launched its ICO (preliminary coin providing, primarily a cryptocurrency fundraiser) on July 27, 2017. They aimed to lift between £1 million and £10 million.
They by no means obtained shut.
Ziber ICO Warning Indicators
Earlier than the ICO even launched, cryptocurrency neighborhood members flagged issues:
The staff couldn’t be verified. Reviewers on Steemit and BitcoinTalk reported that the majority staff members’ social media profiles appeared to have been created days earlier than the ICO. Searches for his or her skilled histories got here up empty. Nobody on the staff had any obvious telecommunications expertise.
The code appeared incomplete. Analysts who examined Ziber’s public code repository discovered disorganized recordsdata and minimal improvement exercise, not what you’d count on from a challenge asking for hundreds of thousands.
Critics had been silenced. When YouTubers and bloggers posted unfavourable critiques, Ziber filed copyright claims to have the movies eliminated. They attacked the critics quite than addressing the issues.
The Ziber ICO “Hack”
On July 27, 2017, the identical day the ICO launched, Ziber introduced their fundraising contract had been hacked.
Based on evaluation posted on BitcoinTalk’s Rip-off Accusations discussion board, the vulnerability was easy: anybody may name a operate in Ziber’s code and reassign possession of the funds to themselves. Inside hours, roughly 1,000 ETH (value roughly $200,000 on the time) was drained.
Neighborhood investigators documented the cash path:
The unique fundraising deal with (0xf0a924661b0263e5ce12756d07f45b8668c53380) confirmed solely 37 ETH remaining. A secondary deal with held simply 8.7 ETH. The remainder moved to wallets managed by the “hijacker.”
Technical reviewers had been cut up on whether or not this was gross incompetence or an intentional backdoor. Both approach, the Ziber staff blamed an outsourced developer (smartcontracteam.com) and revealed the developer’s contact data publicly.
Then communication stopped.
What Occurred to the Ziber Workforce?
The Ziber web site listed 5 individuals: Mark Braun (CEO), Michael Kaufman (CTO), Jason White (Operations), Michael Cordy (Co-founder), and Nick Rozhdestvensky (Advertising).
Neighborhood investigators couldn’t confirm most of them. As one reviewer famous: “there may be little or no information that I may discover on-line about anybody on the core staff aside from Mark Braun, not one of the different 3 appear to exist on LinkedIn or different social websites.”
After asserting the hack, the staff posted one message blaming the third-party developer. Then they vanished. The official BitcoinTalk account went silent. No staff member has been publicly traced since.
Why No One Was Prosecuted
Not like bigger ICO frauds similar to Centra Tech ($25 million, founders sentenced to jail) or REcoin (founder charged in 2017), Ziber’s smaller scale seemingly saved it beneath the edge for main investigations. The “hack” narrative, nevertheless suspicious, supplied authorized cowl. Cross-border jurisdiction between the UK and Russia sophisticated any potential enforcement.
In consequence, Ziber is now listed with “SCAM ALERT” warnings on ICOholder. The web site is defunct. The staff by no means constructed a product.
Classes From the Ziber ICO
The Ziber case illustrates patterns that repeated all through the 2017 ICO increase:
Confirm the staff. Should you can’t discover staff members’ skilled histories by fundamental searches, that’s an issue. Reliable initiatives have individuals prepared to stake their reputations.
Test the code. An lively improvement repository with significant commits suggests actual work. Sparse or disorganized code is a pink flag.
Watch how they deal with criticism. Groups that assault critics as a substitute of addressing issues are hiding one thing.
Perceive the know-how. Should you can’t clarify how a challenge would really work, don’t make investments. “Blockchain” isn’t a magic phrase.
For a complete framework on defending your self from related schemes, see our full information on the way to keep away from harmful Web3 initiatives and forestall crypto scams.
Disclaimer
This text is for informational functions solely and doesn’t represent monetary or authorized recommendation. Cryptocurrency investments carry important threat. At all times conduct unbiased analysis earlier than investing.
Info compiled from ICOholder, BitcoinTalk boards, Steemit archives, and Etherscan blockchain information. We now have made affordable efforts to confirm accuracy however can’t assure all historic particulars.
Sources
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