FORMER criminal hacker who’s known as Gummo online claims to have amassed billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin – making him one of richest people on planet earth.
But what is the story behind the hacker and what is his net worth?
Who is Gummo Hacker?
Gummo Hacker was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up “dirt poor”.
He had a tough upbringing, with his alcoholic mother dying when he was just 12 years old.
Gummo’s father was in prison so he went to live with his aunt which is when he developed his coding and hacking skills.
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Gummo likes to keep a low-key profile but he said in an interview on the Soft White Underbelly YouTube channel – which has more than 4 million subscribers – he’d been hacking for 30 years.
He started hacking illegally but was arrested for selling satellite software worth $20 million.
The authorities gave him two options: imprisonment or utilizing his hacking skills to help the government.
He chose the latter.
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He said: “Knowing that I‘m preventing someone’s grandmother from being a victim of some sort of cyber extortion scheme, that’s the thing I get up for each day and those are the things that motivate me currently.”
Before adding: “The landscape is growing darker and more sinister as more people wish to seek their wealth.
“Whether it be cryptocurrency theft or traditional theft of banking systems.’
What is Gummo Hacker’s net worth?
Gummo claims he built four supercomputers to mine Bitcoin when BTC cost around $250 in 2013 and mined over 80,000 BTC within a year and a half.
He claims to have amassed around 179,000 Bitcoin, making him worth around $3 billion.