Chinese authorities arrested developers behind EOS-based gambling dApp

China’s police department in the Jiangsu province’s city of Yancheng recently arrested a group of blockchain developers. The developers in question worked on EOS’ blockchain, where they created a decentralized gambling application.

The developers were arrested by the same division that made headlines in 2020, after taking down the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. Yesterday, April 15th, the police announced that it arrested 15 people connected to the gambling dApp, and that it confiscated approximately 1.3 million BTC and EOS coins. The total amount is worth 26 million yuan, or around $3.8 million.

Details regarding the case

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The police also said that this was the first case that they encountered which relied on smart contracts to run an illegal gambling operation within China. The dApp itself is known as Biggame, and it allowed users to place bets on different games through the EOS blockchain, by using its smart contracts.

Players could access a variety of different games, such as Texas Hold’em, Dice, and more. The developers allegedly profited from the operation with 50 million yuan ($10m) worth of crypto assets between June 2018 and December 2020. The case also shows that the Jiangsu police became rather skilled with tracking down blockchain payments and using the decentralized ledger in investigations.

As for the case itself, it was established some six months ago, in November 2020. Since then, the police analyzed over 27 million transactions, it interacted with 26 different smart contract addresses tied to Biggame, and it identified four EOS accounts, believed to be the main suspects.

The operation itself is the latest move that China’s law enforcement made in their so-called ‘Internet Cleansing Movement.’ The country plans to eradicate all illegal activities online, and catch anyone who engages in anything from Ponzi schemes, gambling, telecommunication fraud, money laundering, and any other activities that defy the local laws.