Mysterious Swiss underground warehouse: Where the super-rich store billions of bitcoins

Abstract: Both hackers and terrorists spare no effort to attack this mysterious warehouse throughout the day.

Hidden in the mountains near Lake Lucerne in Switzerland is a warehouse that stores billions of dollars.

However, these billions of dollars are not cash or gold, but Bitcoin. This mysterious warehouse does not store Bitcoin units, but the owner's private encryption key, which is equivalent to the user's password and is used to prove that the user is the owner of Bitcoin.

Quartz recently visited the warehouse and said that although it is still unknown how many bitcoins are stored in the vault, employees of Xapo, a well-known bitcoin wallet service provider, revealed that they sometimes keep millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies for customers.

The warehouse was built during the Cold War, its exact location is confidential, and visits are subject to security restrictions.

The mysterious warehouse is located in the Deltalis data center, which covers an area of ​​approximately 10,000 square feet. The picture below shows the entrance to the data center.

The entrance to the warehouse is unremarkable.

In order to enter the warehouse, in addition to facing strict security measures, you also need to pass through a long "tunnel".

The warehouse also includes "customized" services, which are the "private suites" shown in the picture below, providing extremely safe services. As shown in the picture, the "suite" is the size of a vertical wardrobe, and there is another world inside the room. One door leads to the operator's room, and the other door leads to the "cold room".

The door of the "cold room" is sealed, and it looks like a crime scene. The room is surrounded by steel plates, forming a Faraday cage, which can effectively shield electromagnetic interference from external electric fields and avoid electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks. EMP attacks can erase stored data and thus eliminate the Bitcoin keys stored in the warehouse.

According to AFP, the Swiss military established this facility in 1947 and it served as a secret headquarters for the army during the Cold War. Once inside, detailed maps were found on the walls, as well as old radio equipment.

Carlos Rienzi, head of Xapo's security department, said that the place was attacked 24/7 by terrorists and hackers. "This is not a competition, but a chess game. You have to think about your opponent's next move and you can never relax."