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Tracking a Bitcoin Thief, Part II: Illustrating the Issue of Trust In Altcoins
An anonymous reader writes The team over at the BITCOMSEC (Bitcoin Community Security) project released a second part to their 'Tracking a Bitcoin Thief' series in which they disclose what happened to a once-rising alternate crypto currency project that promised to place guaranteed value of its MidasCoins by backing it with actual Gold. Dealing with the reality of user compromise, the projects founder ups and runs away with all of the communities coins; cashing them out at an exchange for Bitcoins. A sobering tale of trust issues within the alternate crypto currency community. (The first part is interesting, too.)
that crashes is last who profits
Ha ha /nelson
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
It's not theft. They just copied some bits.
Bitcoin was invented so that goldbugs would look better by comparison. As silly as some of the goldbug arguments are, at least gold does have some intrinsic value. Take it to a desert island where the natives have never seen it, and they'll appreciate it at some level. It'll work even better if it's in jewelry form and their chicks dig it. Bitcoin? It simulates the finite supply and potential for loss of gold. You have to build this entire infrastructure for it to have any meaning. It simulates all the problems of gold with none of the intrinsic value. Take away ready access to technology, and it's absolutely worthless.
Exactly. This was just free-market capitalism at its finest. They should have been more informed before they entered this market. They deserved to have their monopoly money taken from them by not being so.
I can't think of a better way of scamming right wing morons than with tales of riches from gold.
Like Glenn Beck, I know that the best way of using gold to enrich myself is to say a bunch of nonsensical borderline racist stuff about President Obama while selling gold at way over market value.
"By the end Hussein Obola's second term America's only currency will be gold, toilet paper and ammunition. So give me your life savings and I'll assure you that you are very cleverly outfoxing that black guy in the White House."
They certainly misplaced their trust. I don't have a great deal of sympathy for these individuals either. But I would never say they deserve it unless they entered the market with malicious intent. Maybe they were selfish to try and capitalize on the currency, or perhaps they just believe in it from a philosophical standpoint and wanted to support it.
The logic of they-deserved-it-so-its-justified-because-they-let-it-happen is a worn fallacy I'm tired of hearing. If we all believed in such logic, we'd all wear a helmet at all times, otherwise anyone who caves your skull in from behind with a rock would be perfectly justified and socially acceptable. There would be no crime because everything would be legal. Anything you propose as being illegal would be dismissed on that same logic. Oh someone robbed you at gunpoint? Too bad, shouldn't have been outside carrying valuables unarmed. You will probably reply that "anyone who is too weak or goes out unarmed deserves to whatever happens to them, let the weak be weeded out", but even the most well armed and prepared could, and eventually would, find themselves in a situation where they didn't see their assailant in time. Children are pretty uninformed of many of the dangers of the world. Sometimes the best lessons learned are those that are learned the hard way, but there are certainly some terrible things that happen to the uninformed which they didn't by any means deserve. It would be chaos.
Does that address make sense? Are there enough guesses in the article?
I'm confused. All 9x zips in Italy are in Sicily.
Perhaps my understanding of Italian mailing addresses is lacking.
This same story has played out at least a dozen times now. Someone starts up a brand new "altcoin" exchange / mining pool / tumbling service / market. Idiots flock in with their coins. A few months later, after building up a little trust, the service shuts down and its owner absconds with all of the funds.
I used to laugh but it's not even funny anymore. It's pathetic that people keep falling for this. I thought the bitcoin crowd were supposed to be smart folks?
The logic of they-deserved-it-so-its-justified-because-they-let-it-happen is a worn fallacy I'm tired of hearing.
I'd agree but for the fact that the people most repeating this fallacy are the same libertarian idiots who back these alternate currencies. I see it as just deserts.
the high risks associated with the various exchanges and alternate currencies have become both plentiful and clear. If you are entering these markets then you are the equivalent on a punter walking into a casino, you may or may not win regardless of how well you play. These people gambled and lost, deserved it may be a strong word but it is pretty close to being accurate.
This sounds like a player who trained in EVE online has taken it into meat space.
And what do you call the bank bail out where YOU got bent over?
Business as usual?
Wouldn't crypto currencies be standard currency when we make contact? Other species would use the same thing. They could even insure it, or send money across the universe. And I'm pretty sure Bitcoin will win out here on Earth by just swallowing its competitors. Which would make it earth's currency.
Cryptocurrency exchanges seem to have a much higher risk of catastrophic implosion than a random 19th century bank. People who romanticize unregulated Wild West capitalism now have their opportunity to experience it first hand, on steroids. I am not going to say they deserve to be ripped off, but post-MtGox, they need to factor in some "special" risks of exchanges.
If a thief who stole bitcoins can be tracked down wouldn't that mean bitcoins aren't anon at all? What's the point of bitcoins then you may as well use paper money.
I'd agree but for the fact that the people most repeating this fallacy are the same libertarian idiots who back these alternate currencies. I see it as just deserts.
... that's a rather dry assessment ...
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Ok, some jerk actually managed to steal enough Dogecoins a few months ago to be worth actual money, which is so not the point of Dogecoin. I mine them partly because they're worth basically zero while still being cryptographically interesting; six months of one CPU on my old lab PC might have added up to 25 cents, but it's still in the "Reddit tip jar" range, not the "So wow! Many money!" range even though I have much coins.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No, they're not useful investments except for a few lucky tulip bulb dealers, but they're useful if you actually need a transactional currency for buying things relatively anonymously over the Internet from people who have a non-zero chance of being either scammers or cops. And by "things", of course, I mean politically incorrect drugs, sold by somebody who you just *hope* had enough sense not to use his real name or address when setting up the store.
Disclaimer: I have not bought actual politically incorrect pharmaceuticals over the web, since I live near a big city where [they say] you can buy them the old-fashioned way, in the park for cash, or wait until the Grateful Dead or one of the other jam bands comes to town, or get medicinal-quality pot from a dispensary.
Well yeah copying isn't stealing ...
But I've heard rumors of really big time players in the bitcoin "market" who sell large volumes of bitcoin to THEMSELVES, a very real possibility given the anonymous nature of bitcoin addresses. This causes the value of bitcoin to rise, which then attracts the attention of the smaller players, who buy into the hype thinking, "OMG, bitcoin's going to rise to $$$$ again!". Which of course isn't likely since only a few people are buying and selling bitcoins, each through multiple addresses that artificially inflate the number of people apparently buying and selling bitcoins. When these big time players decide to bail out, the price of bitcoins sinks back to its normal market level (whatever that is).
> the projects founder ups and runs away
The project's* founder ups and runs away
projects = more than one projects. It's plural, not possessive.
What's amazing is the tolerance for errors like this. In English education, the difference between plural and possessive is taught to 9 year olds in the third grade.
Adults should know better.