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Millions of Dogecoin Stolen Over Christmas

Posted by timothy on from the it's-just-been-hidden-by-the-catecoin dept.

Kenseilon writes "The Verge reports that millions of Dogecoins — an alternative cryptocurrency — was stolen after the service DogeWallet was hacked. DogeWallet worked like a bank account for the currency, and the attackers modified it to make sure all transactions ended up in a wallet of their choice. This latest incident is just one in the long (and growing) list of problems that cryptocurrencies are currently facing. It brings to mind the incident where bitcoin exchange service GBL vanished and took a modest amount of Bitcoins with them. While not a similar case, it highlights the difficulties with trusting service provides in this market."

10 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who cares?
    Dogecoin was originally a satire "cryptocurrency" anyway, the fact that it got "hacked" just prove the point even more.

    1. Re:What? by HairyNevus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Pretty much this. After Bitcoin, it was inevitable that copycats would come about. But a cryptocurrency with only redditors who actually believe in its worth, and 4channers scamming each other as the user base? Come on. This is not news for nerds. This does not matter.

      As an aside, Ripple may actually be promising. If cryptocurrency is going to keep being a "thing", there ought to be more than one further down the line.

      --
      You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
    2. Re:What? by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Funny

      This isn't about redditors, 4channers or any other human-like creature.

      Think of the poor dogs effected by this! They can't exchange currency over the internet any more.

    3. Re:What? by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not really, the problem is that it drastically devalues the currency to have thousands of competing currencies. It made it a major PITA in the early colonial days as each colony had it's own currency and even banks had their own. So you would be paid in Bank of Fred Dollars but need to change them to Town of Funnyville dollars to spend them, oh and surprise there is an exchange rate where some of the value disappeared. It makes it trivial to start scamming people left and right as each currency competes.

      I honestly don't see any of the current attempts (BitCoin Included) being a stable or viable long term digital underground currency. It's good now, but nobody has any expectations of it being around even 12 months later. It's starting to catch the attention of countries that do not like the competition and will start looking at it as a way to evade taxes and that will suddenly cause acceptance at legitimate traders to be limited.

      I wish there was something that could come around, but if it competes with someone else that has a lot of power, it will lose in the end.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Wow by ljb2of3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Such theft. Much mad. Very suprise. Wow.

    --
    // TODO: Witty Signature
    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Such theft. Much mad. Very suprise. Wow.

      DogeCoin for much funny in case you feel left out of the joke. The whole thing is just another bitcoin clone, with slightly different settings ("very scrypt" like litecoin), which are somewhat intentionally badly chosen to produce "many coin, wow!".

      Millions of DogeCoin is still basically worthless. Its just a bunch of crypto currency folks screwing around. Its not a serious alternative to bitcoin. Blocks started with million DogeCoin rewards per block and very low difficulty.

  3. Reductio Ad Absurdum is not a defense by Rinisari · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

    At least this time it's of a currency worth very, very little, so losses aren't that great and there are even more great minds thinking about how to solve cryptocurrency security problems. The end-user human will always be the weakest link, and the trust that the end user places on others always the most vulnerable part.

    --
    Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
  4. Haven't people learned by now . . . by Linsaran · · Score: 3, Informative

    And as usual, people who trust their Crypto Currency to a web based service (especially one with such a short history to it, and no clearly defined security practices) end up getting their shit stolen. Really now, if you want your crypto coins (be they BTC LTC or whatever) safe keep them in a private wallet and encrypt it, don't load your fortunes onto some website, then complain when they get hacked.

    This is kind of like carrying around a giant wad of cash in your pocket and then being mad when someone mugs you, keep a small amount of 'working cash' readily available, and keep the rest of it in a safe place. The same logic that you'd use with real money should apply to virtual money.

    --
    In a bit of shameless internet panhandling, I accept Litecoin Donations at Lbd2oH9QsthD1GfuUXPyka12YxvWJYnBVf
    1. Re:Haven't people learned by now . . . by msobkow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd say it's more like carrying around a wad of cash and getting pissed off because it fell out of your wallet. You have no idea what the qualifications are of the people who design and build these crypto-coin websites. It's not like they have any regulatory and testing requirements you can point to as any assurance that they're at all secure.

      The same goes for any black or grey market website. So what if the site uses SSL and is "Verisign Approved" -- that tells you nothing about their back-end security (or lack thereof.)

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  5. Internet in a nutshell by ericloewe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I still can't tell how much of this is a joke and how much is real...

    What's next? Dolancoin, featuring a crudely drawn homicidal duck? Frycoin, urging people to quietly and quickly accept the "money"?

    Regardless, any of these is basically the same as Monopoly money. Next, we'll have reports of how a truckload of monopoly money got stolen. It'll be just as relevant, if not more, since something happened to someone (said truck was stolen).